So i went to the bathroom earlier, and when i sat down my toilet seat broke in half. I was like, shit, okay, need a new toilet seat.

So I run off to the only place open at the time (Walmart) and as I'm getting out of the car I see an acquaintance sitting there with the hood open on their car, he's disabled and quite old so he isn't able to get it going. I work on cars as a hobby and I took the chance to catch up with him and try to help him out.

There were 2 other guys there as well, some skinny guy, and another one who was a retired mechanic but didn't work on this style of car. So we crack at it for about 30 minutes, can't figure it out, it has a new starter, a new alternator, and a brand new battery, all 3 replaced last month by his nephew, so I tell him that if we can't get his car running I'll drive him and his wife home to get them out of the cold. The 2 guys have to leave to pick up their kids, the mechanic gives me his number and says he'll be back with a dually and a trailer, and I quickly go inside the stor to get the toilet seat.

When I finished buying the seat I go and try some other stuff to see if we can get it to start. The issue is that the starter wasn't even trying to engage, it would crank if we jumped it but that would trip the anti-theft and prevent it from sparking. I'm no stranger to weird electrical problems so, while chatting with him, I pluck around the wiring loom, and notice a wire is a bit pulled out, I push it into the connector, reach around the steering wheel, and the car starts no problem (Wire was most likely the key_crank signal imo but I didn't want to mess with it much further atm).

He gives me his thanks and I tell him to take it to a shop tomorrow so they can fix the harness correctly, it was raining at this point so I wanted him to get home first thing.

Anyway I call the retired mechanic up and tell him he doesn't have to come back down as I got the car running. He lights up, tells me he's impressed that someone young was willing to stay and help, and actually get the thing going, and that I used reassuring language to help calm them down when they were (obviously) having a pretty bad time.

Turns out he owns a fairly large construction company in the area, told me to call him back if I need anything, and he invited me to a gathering he's hosting out at the nearby lake with a bunch of other business owners... So I just accidentally made an influential friend? Started because my fat ass broke my toilet seat????

IDK, was a very unique day

Good on you for sticking to it and figuring it out!

Aaaw man, that is so cool. This is why a sense of community is important, good on you for helping someone else, hopefuly the chain of favors does not end there

Come join us: @dull_mens_club@lemmy.world

already subbed lol

Oh that’s awesome. You never know what will happen in life. Enjoy your new friends! Hopefully it leads to the ability to buy more expensive toilet seats!

Hmmm… the voyager app is telling me this sub doesn’t exist?

try this one: !dull_mens_club@lemmy.world

It's true. I remember hearing some athlete say: whenever good things happened to me, it was usually because I was helping someone else.

That worked! Turns out I’m already subscribed! Imagine that!

if you put an "at" before a name it turns it into a reference to an account, like this: @guydudeman@lemmy.world

if you put an exclamation mark before a name it turns it into a reference to a community, like this: !general@lemmy.world

Hey I'm into cars as well! Youre cooll. Good job helping out!

Also very funny about the toilet lol

Cool series of events. Those connections would definitely come in handy eventually. If you don’t mind sharing, do you live in a smaller town/city? I feel like I’ll never experience a random group of strangers helping each other out and keeping touch afterwards like that in a big city.

I live in a pretty rural area, it's common out here to run into the same people pretty often

Way to tell a shit tale to awesome.... doing right by people for no other reason than to help, that's the kind of person that creates good karma

Life.

Coincidentally also TTRPG campaigns

One time a friend and I helped a guy on the side of the road with a broken down car. He was a chef at a very nice restaurant and offered my friend and I a free meal whenever we wanted.

It was a really good meal.

If you're good at stuff and ever at all bored, help random people. Life will be a LOT more interesting.

Di danyone else expect this story was going to end with the lyrics from the Fresh Prince theme song?

Or maybe how The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer's table

Okay that sounds awesome

Plot twist, he runs mlm you're being recruited for