Hi neighbors. I hope you kept the coffee hot last week. Maybe it was just the power of suggestion, or maybe it was the coldest week of the season. I turned off my heater, you see, and that's why it turned so cold. I thought I would freeze to death when the temps dropped below 50.

Maybe it was just knowing I had no heat that made me colder.

We always anticipate the worse-case scenario when we know our resources are limited.

You know how it is. If you have one car you worry it will break down. If you don't have a spare, you worry you'll have a flat. Maybe one of the worse-case scenarios single women face is a flat tire at night, in a thunderstorm, on a busy highway, with no spare.

The only thing worse (and yes, I can always think of at least one thing to make any situation worse) would be having a baby in the car.

Last week Jennifer faced the worse-case scenario (thank goodness without the baby on board.) She has a cell phone and usually calls me each evening between 9 and 10 p.m. That's the time she gets free minutes, but it is also the time she is driving home from evening dance lessons. Some times she teaches in Des Moines and other times she teaches at the college in Ames. Des Moines is almost an hour from her home and Ames is almost two hours away.

She was talking to me on the phone, about 10 minutes out of Ames, in the well known middle of nowhere. "Wait, Mom, there's a strange sound. It could be a flat tire. Hang on." I wait, imagining myself sitting where the phone was, watching her leave the car and walk around it. I heard the car door open and shut then, "Yep, it's flat all right."

We debated what to do for a few minutes and she checked to see if she had a spare. She had a "donut" and more than 100 miles to drive. She said she would call a few people for help and then call me back.

Twenty minutes later I call her. "What's going on?"

"I think it's a tornado. I was taking the donut out of the trunk when the wind started blowing dirt sideways across the road."

Jenny sounded pretty winded, and that's unusual for a dedicated aerobics nut like her. "I thought it was going to blow me off my feet!"

"Hang on Mom, there's a car pulled up behind me. I'll call you back."

Silence.

My daughter has a daughter and I have no doubt someday the enormity of what she did will dawn on her.

I waited a few minutes and called her back. No answer. I waited another five minutes and called again. No answer. I called the third time and she picked up. She was shaking, I could tell from her voice.

"What happened? Are you OK?" I asked.

"Oh, yes, a highway patrol man picked me up. He's the one who pulled up behind the car. But he wouldn't get out, so I had to get out and go to his car. The wind blew the rain and I am soaked to the skin."

She paused to take a shaky breath. "He's kind of cute, has a wife and 5 month old baby. He's just back from serving in Iraq. I tell you, Mom, in this weather he looks like a knight in shining armor to me. I'm at a convenience store waiting on a tow truck."

Instantly I thought of all the horror shows I'd seen of young women getting picked up at filling stations, mugged and murdered.

"Don't go outside!" I warned. "Stay inside and stay on the phone. Make friends with the counter person so they'll watch out for you. Stay in plain sight. Drink coffee."

Jenny laughed. "What's drinking coffee got to do with it?"

"Well, you're cold and wet, sleepy and exhausted aren't you?"

She sighed. "Maybe just a small cup of French Vanilla Expresso. The tow truck guy said he wouldn't come out in the rain. So I may be here awhile."

We talked till the tow truck guy arrived to take her to her car and get her a new tire. She called the next day. "Two a.m. Mom. I got home soaking wet, cold and hyper from coffee at 2 a.m.!"

"At least you're safe!" I said. "And you stayed awake and didn't get mugged."

Until the next time friends, remember, coffee may not cure all your ills or solve all your problems, but it brings a little warmth (and alertness) to any disaster.