I work mostly from home, but two days a week I am obligated to have a physical presence at my employer's office. I commute literally 100 miles to the office. I then spend the night at the home of relatives who live nearby, work another day, then drive 100 miles back home, getting groceries on the way.
I always have an overnight bag of clean clothes in the car when I commute. I also keep a big, heavy blanket in there which is great for insulating groceries in the summer, and in the winter it will keep me warm if I need to take a nap. Sitting in a moving car for nearly two hours is a special kind of exhaustion, so there are days when I've got to spend some of my lunch break napping in my car, so I also keep a pillow in there. In cold weather I'll also have a small lap blanket in the car. (It's amazing how much difference a blanket across your lap in the car can make on a really cold day.)
One day a year and a half ago I had had too many things that needed doing at home the night before my commute, so I had gotten only three hours of sleep before rising to get my kids on the school bus. Normally under such circumstances I would have gone back to bed for a few hours before heading off to work, but I needed to drop a couple of cats off at the vet on the way by a certain time. So, as soon as the kids were on the bus, I loaded up my car and left.
I had two cats, Sally and Namari, in a rabbit cage, set on towels in my backseat. Most cats don't like car rides, and Sally really didn't because she threw up and pooped in the cage only five minutes after I left home. It was a chilly October morning, but I spent the next hour to the vet with my windows rowed down to keep the smell down. I did stop at the first gas station I came to, where I grabbed some paper towels and tried to get the mess out of the cage, but some of it had fallen through the bars into the catch basin. (I was in a hurry and was too tired to realize that I could have detatched the basin and dumped it out on the side of the parking lot.)
I dropped the cats off at the vet, and my wife would later drive down to pick them up in the afternoon.
The cat mess had been fully contained in the cage, but the smell still lingered, so as I continued down the freeway I kept the windows down.
About 20 minutes later I reached a freeway rest stop. The smell of cat poop had fully vanished with the wind, and I decided that I'd best take a nap, so I parked the car, curled up in the back seat, and pullled the lap blanket over myself. I was also wearing a light coat with the hood pulled up over my face.
I avoided putting things I'd like to keep clean in the trunk of that car because mice kept getting in there, so I had the heavy blanket and my overnight bag piled on the front passenger seat, along with a bag of apples I'd planned on snacking on at work. I was also planning on visiting a temple that day, so I had another clothes bag containing my temple clothes on the pile.
I set an alarm for 20 minutes.
When I woke up from my nap I groggilly climbed out of the back set. As soon as I closed the door, a woman who'd parked in the next spot walked past me and handed me a folded slip of paper. My eyes were still adjusting, so I thought she'd handed me a flyer, but then I realized it was a $100 bill!
“What's this?” I asked.
“You look like you need it,” she said.
My mind was still trying to catch up, but I managed to say, “I just stopped for a nap on the way to work; I make a really good wage.”
“Well then put it towards gas,” she said.
“Thank you,” I said. “God bless you.”
I climbed into my car and drove away, still reeling from the shock of somebody's generosity, and also realizing that the lady probably thought I was living in my car.