Portland Super Nice

When I moved to Portland, I said to a friend that everyone here was so nice, he said "you'll get used to it." And I have. But sometimes the niceness still overwhelms me.

Yesterday I was out running errands. Stopped at a store, did my shopping and got back in the car, off to the next destination. It was pretty hot yesterday and as I was driving down the street, I saw a 7-11 and decided today was a good day for a Slurpee®. Stopped, got my drink, got back in the car, and nothing. Not a groan, not a rattle, nothing. Completely dead battery. Called roadside assist and after about 1/2 an hour the guy had the car running, but said it was completely dead and to go NOW to get another battery.

Off I go. I'm driving down a very busy main thoroughfare and get to a red light. Car dies. In the very busy street. During rush hour. And, without thinking about it, I put the car in park (of course, I tried to start it again and nothing...). This now meant that I can't get the non-running car back out of park. At this point, I'm hot, aggroed, blocking traffic (thanks also to all those very nice Portlandians that didn't honk or yell or anything at the stupid lady blocking traffic) and roadside has just informed me that it will be an HOUR AND A HALF!! before anyone can come tow me. When I explained that I was not in a safe spot and couldn't sit there blocking traffic for that long, they offered to send a police officer to direct traffic around me - like Portland's finest doesn't have anything better to do with their time than direct traffic around a stall...

Here's where the nice Portlandians come in. While I was on the phone with roadside assistance, several people stopped to offer to push me off the road. I had to explain that the car was in park and that wasn't going to happen. That's when Mr. Miata man came along, pulled around and offered to jump the car. YES! (Right then I was just looking to get the car out of traffic.) Thing is his little Miata wasn't powerful enough to jump my car. What's he do? MMM starts waving down traffic to get someone else to stop. Within a second Mr. Giant SUV man stops and jiffy quick my car was started. I managed to rev the engine enough to keep it alive all the way to the Les Schwab. They slapped in a new battery in a few minutes and I was on my way.
I didn't get the names of any of the super nice people who offered to and did help me, but it sure made my day much better and keeps my faith in humanity from completely wilting.
Thank you thank you thank you!