So today. Today was special. To date, I've never heard the words "Monday morning was fun" leave anyone's lips. But my Monday morning was even less fun than most.
I left for work at 7am today. I'm only 3 miles away, and after the first mile, I stopped at a light at a pretty big intersection. That was when my car decided to stall. It also refused to start again.
Based on the angry comments I've had yelled at me when riding my bike to work, I quickly put on my flashers, knowing this could escalate quickly.
I called AAA, who assured me that mine was considered a "priority case" and they would have a tow truck out immediately. I also requested a substitute. I had plenty of time before the bell rang, but better safe than sorry.
My usual response in a situation like this is to collapse into an utter mental breakdown, but thank god for blog friends. Victoria reminded me that it was much better to be stuck today, when the temperature was in the 40s, than tomorrow, when the polar vortex hits and it's supposed to be -20!
Then, my emergency flashers died. Kari told me to see if my emergency kit (which I had, thanks to my caring husband), had giant orange triangles, which it did! Breakdown #2 avoided.
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| This post had no pictures, so I took this one. |
It was a good thing I got the substitute, because the tow truck didn't arrive until 8:30 am, so I never would have made it on time. And before I get attacked with comments from disgruntled AAA workers, I'll say that all the phone operators and tow truck driver were just lovely, and I applaud all their hard work towing people like me (even though I pay for their services).
Based on the amount of honking, it seemed the public was on to my evil plan. In truth, there was nothing wrong with my car. I woke up that morning and thought to myself "how can I wreak the maximum amount of havoc and ruin as many people's days as possible?". Sure, I could do something at work, but then I'd be limited to only the staff. That's when I came up with the genius idea to stop my car in the middle of an intersection during rush hour!
Well, it seems I've reached an important blog milestone, and written a post that has enraged the masses, or at least a few people. I considered writing an entire post responding to the various anonymous criticisms that cropped up. The thing is, I'm really not sure what I could say at this point that wouldn't be reiterating what I've already said multiple times. Most of the (non-anonymous) commenters seemed to understand the post, so I don't want to bore them rehashing the same old thing.
I did apologize to the medic. I think my frustration at the situation led me to attack him personally in my post, and that wasn't fair (I also appreciated him commenting with his name).
While I am flattered by so many "anonymouses" who have utter faith in both my running and orienteering skills, I'm not quite sure what their end game was, so I'm dropping it. But, if that's not sufficient, Kara and I have discussed it at length and her response post perfectly says everything I am feeling.
Two final thoughts:
Bitches be bitchin
Haters make me famous
What was your worst car/driving debacle? I wish I could say this was my worst, but it wasn't. It might be the first time I haven't cried during one though.
Well this reminds me of driving my car into a ditch on Saturday and since I had no cell phone coverage, I had to hitch-hike to the nearest town and then waited 2.5 hours for a tow truck ... and the only reason the wait wasn't longer was because I was sitting in a pizza shop waiting for the tow truck to arrive, when someone else who had a pickup truck and can tow cars out of a ditch walked in and I immediately hired him. Yes, the temp in my case was close to 30, instead of a day earlier when it was single digits (but I wouldn't have been out driving around the middle of nowhere when it was single digits).
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DeleteYeowza! You--hitchhiking!!!!!!
DeleteHahaha, dying laughing at the comments on your 50k post! Looks like you ruffled some feathers! The kicker is that I didn't even view your post as negative, so I'm not sure what they're all fired up about. Welcome to the world of haters :)
ReplyDeleteI was surprised too! Especially considering I took time to point out a lot of positives about the race itself - can't win em all!
DeleteOne time I was driving along and my whole transmission fell out. I was 17 and I had no idea what I was doing. Not like now when I totally know what I'm doing at all times.
ReplyDeleteI feel I should know what that means, but all I know is it's why Aunt Becky couldn't take Stephanie to the mother daughter honeybee sleepover.
DeleteCar stories? I got lots of 'em. Many, many years ago I had an old Porsche. My clutch was acting funky and since I had to work the entire weekend I made a garage appointment for Monday and borrowed my mom's Chevy Nova. Bit of a step down in cool-factor, but it got me there. I decided to stop at a bar on the way home for one drink and catch a set of the band. After about 40 minutes I left, started the car and got about 1/2 mile down the road on an elevated interstate when every warning light came on and the car stopped with a loud grinding. Since this was way before cell phones, I flagged down a car to take me to a phone to call AAA. A cop showed up and let me sit in the car with him. When the tow truck driver got there he opened the hood, scratched his head and called me out.
ReplyDelete"Uh...your car doesn't have a radiator."
Yup. Apparently it takes 5 minutes to steal the radiator in a '73 Nova and they were easy to scrap for $$$. And to make matters worse the radiator in that car also cooled the transmission fluid, so it all drained out when they stole it and that destroyed the transmission. Mom wasn't happy...
.... hateful post from the manufacturer of giant orange triangles. They warrant a roadside photo.
ReplyDeleteIn actuality, I've never really had a bad accident / driving experience. Sorry 'bout your luck. Not what I'd expect from a Honda. You do have a Honda, right?
My car before the one I have now used to like to just shut off while I was driving. Once, this happened when I was trying to stop at an intersection and instead went right through it before my car slowed down enough to stop.
ReplyDeleteYour morning yesterday is probably karma for writing such an enflaming post about the ultra :)
My car also decided to screw up my life, except I was fortunate enough that it did the whole no going thing while at home, and still on vacation. It started down our street and then just sort of coasted, engine was running but the transmission was not. I hate cars so much. And I hate car payments, which I now have, but really, who needs money anyway?
ReplyDeleteI once broke down, in the pouring rain, at a stop light about 20 feet past the Goodyear where I normally took my car. Some girl, who happened to be walking by, PUSHED my car off to the side of the road, soaking wet, and then walked off before I could tell her thank you. (Couldn't get my windows down because the car was dead.) Then I had to call AAA to get towed 20 feet back in the opposite direction. That was a good time. But, also, gives me faith in humanity.
ReplyDeleteWhy do people honk at a car that is clearly broken down and has it's flashers on?? Seriously.
ReplyDeleteOkay so here's my car story, and it happens to involve an angry lady from Maryland (I live in Virginia) just by chance. I was making a left turn in an intersection where there are two left turn lanes. The outside lane can go straight or left and the inside lane obviously has to go left. I was in the outside lane, turning left, and the lady on the inside lane tried to go straight through and t-boned me. We both pulled over on the side of the road and she proceeds to get out of her car and start screaming at me about how I cut the corner. I, being 18 years old and being in my first wreck, am crying and trying to get my dad on the phone, who is on a business trip in St. Louis. In the meantime Crazy Lady starts banging on my window because I won't roll it down. Cop shows up because some nice person called him and he gets the lady to go back to her car. Oh but wait, it turns out it's not her car, she was borrowing it from a friend, she's actually from Maryland and she doesn't have car insurance. Super. Cop gives us forms to exchange info and she proceeds to scream at him about how I cut her off and hit the front of her car with the side of my car. Cop gets tired of Angry Lady screaming at him and finally says "ma'am look at her car *points to my car*, there's no way she hit you... you hit her." Cop tells me I can go, as my car was still drivable, and I head home while watching Crazy Lady stand in the sidewalk and continue to yell at the cop while flailing her arms around in the air. The end.
Oh and there was the time last spring I got my work vehicle stuck in the snow. Called my husband to pull me out with his truck because I was less than a mile from our house. The sheriff beat him there and proceeded to push my car all the way into the ditch, where we could not pull it out and had to wait on a tow truck for THREE hours, because even though I was less than a mile from my house I wasn't allowed to leave the vehicle abandoned on the side of the road....
Longest comment EVER.
My grandmother and I went to the store last week and there was an abandoned shopping cart stopped in the middle of one of the parking aisle. And she honked at it. More than once.
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