After a morning meeting, I bopped around campus delivering Earth Week kits from one building to the next. As I was driving down the street I hit a pothole (again - click here to see what happen last spring when I hit a pothole) and BOOM! My entire car shook and immediately my car started beeping at me LOW TIRE. I pulled over in the nearest parking lot, got out of my car and assessed the situation. I had not one, but TWO flat tires on my passenger side. What.The.Heck.
Of course I called Andi, because I never know what to do in those situations, but he didn't answer. I text him "Call Me ASAP" but then realized he probably thought something was seriously wrong with the baby so I quickly texted him "about the car" and he called me a few minutes later. He advised me to call Roadside Assistance and see what they said. Obviously two flat times = a tow truck so they arranged for one to come and get my car. I text Andi with the update on the situation and he called back to say he didn't want them to take the car to the dealership they'd arranged. So I found myself sitting in my car for the next hour, calling AAA and Roadside Assistance a million times to cancel the first tow's arrangements and line up a new one. It's times like this I HATE BEING A GIRL because I have no idea what I'm suppose to do. Why can't my husband magically show up and take over? Because he's working? Well, fine then.
Thankfully I have a wonderful co-worker who offered to drive me around today and stopped by my car to pickup all my marketing materials that needed to be delivered. About an hour later, the tow truck finally arrived. Of course it's a man and I cringed as I waited for him to make some snide comment about women and driving or ask me how the heck I popped two tires at once. To my surprise though, he was really nice and just loaded my car up onto the tow bed.
Mr. Tow Truck Man asked me if I wanted a ride down to the service shop with my car and after a bit of hesitation, I decided to go with him. The auto body shop is a few blocks from my house and I thought it might be easier to ride with him vs. waiting for Andi to pick me up or hitching a ride home with my co-worker. So I maneuvered my pregnant body up into his big truck and buckled my seat belt. Thoughts of Adventures In Babysitting danced through my head. I wondered if me and my baby would be kidnapped and killed by his metal hook for a hand, but again I was relieved - Mr. Tow Truck Man was really nice and made small talk the whole way. Also, he had two regular hands. Phew.
We rolled up to the service station down the street from my house and I knew it was going to be bad when the worker said "whoo, damn" when he looked at my car. Now there's the stupid boy remark I was expecting earlier. I told Service Station Worker to contact my husband directly with all questions. I'm sure it'd be millions of dollars to fix my car and I knew I wouldn't make the right decision. Better for Andi to handle it from this point forward.
Andi called me later this afternoon to tell me I need four new tires. Apparently it's something to do with all wheel drive and having the same amount of tread ... who knows. Anyway, $900 later I'm crossing my fingers I have a car to drive tomorrow. And that it'll be out of the shop in time for our drive to Nebraska this weekend.
Fun times. Fuuun times.
Oh, honey - they're just TIRES. Expensive to replace, but it's not like a new transmission or something. Have some confidence in yourself and don't let auto guys intimidate you! Remember, if it was rocket science, trade schools wouldn't have mechanic programs - you'd need a PhD.
ReplyDelete(PS: I once hit a curb - on a road trip to South Padre, no less - and bent a rim and shredded - literally, SHREDDED - a tire. It happens to the best of us.)