Chapter 25 | D.I.S.D. pt 1

So I will start off and say for the past couple days my eye has been twitching like crazy. Usually when that happens I know something bad is going to happen. But this time something major....



My mother sent me on the errand to pay the telephone bill. I head off to get ready so I can leave and go pay the bill which is due Tomorrow. I go outside and I reflected on how warm it was today, warmer than it had been with these crazy below 40 Autumn Days. I get in the car and I remembered my mother telling me the telephone office closes at 4pm. Well this is around 3:30. She said if I don't make it in time to put in the drop box. So I felt that if I went the quickest way maybe I can make it in time and get a receipt like she wants and ask if they have telephone directory books. I chose to go the short way and I made down to the bottom and hop on the 2 lane road.

As I'm driving I got this douchebag behind me tailgating me like there's no tomorrow. It's like really?? Is it that serious?? So then I noticed the cars in front of me partially avoid something. When I got close enough I see this there huge SUV parked like the Mad Hatter drove it here from Wonderland. So because we have a van which is larger than most cars and heavier, I have to avoid something just as big as the van and then watch for the traffics in the lane next to the one I'm in.


Now between the tailgater behind me and me trying to avoid this horribly parked truck, anyone would say that's a brew for disaster. So I'm up on the truck and I'm going to avoid it. Bad this about all this was this was a serious curved road which made it that much harder. So I'm avoiding the truck and the person in the lane next to mine either lost all sanity but in once sense they tried to ram me into this parked truck and the tailgater was on my ass like white on rice. Then I heard this loud explosion.


So in the midst of wondering if I hit the truck or not. It amazed me that both the car next to me and the truck behind me had enough time to swerve and "get out of my way" so to speak. Thank goodness I didn't lose control of the car completely or Bunny would've been in a bad wreck. So I pulled over into this restaurant's parking lot. Thinking the front wheel was messed up I stop and parked the car and got out to check. Passenger Front wheel is fine. So I'm like is it me or have I lost my mind. I assumed it was a flat because I remember when I wreck the car a few years back both tires in the front were flat and that god awful sound is unforgettable. Unfortunately it was the back rear. Looking at the tire it looked like someone had tampered with it, which wouldn't surprise me none. Then I stood there wondering what to do.



In the midst of this I ended up panicking because I was confused, alone and sent on a simple errand. What the fuck? Why me?? I asked and I got in the car and desperate I decided I'd call my mother to see if she can call someone to get the car towed home and someone else to being me home. Then I decided not to call her. All that ran through my mind was what if no one comes to get you and you have to walk home?? I may be close to home but it wasn't in walking distance. I say there in a daze wondering what I could do. So I decided to google to see what others did when they had a flat tire. OH MY GOD!! I don't know how many posts I saw demonstrating how to change a flat tire yourself. That's fine and dandy and all, in my case I doubted I had a spare and knew I didn't have a jack lift nor the proper tools needed. I'm totally screwed, I thought. No matter what I googled or what keywords I typed in—DON'T CALL ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE, CHANGE IT YOURSELF. Like what do we live in the Twilight Zone now??


So I broke down and call AAA Roadside Assistance. The reason I did so was because a thought came across my mind. What if Mom wasn't here and I had to do this on my own?? What if I had no one to help me, I would need to figure this thing out on my own. So I told myself this time no I won't call Mom, because if this shall ever happen again and Mom isn't around, I'll have to do my best on my own. Even if I have mister up the courage and wipe the tears away, I have to at least try to do this on my own. So after I placed the request for assistance I got a call from the dispatcher saying that the driver would be running late. I'm like how late? She said maybe an hour maybe even two. But if he's not there by 5:15 call me back. So not only am I stuck here I have to wait for someone who "might" show up. Well that's very reassuring. So he comes around 4:50pm. I made the call around 3:50pm. So he asks me three times what was wrong and I told him I had a flat tire. The third time he says to me:

"Well what did you hit??"

I didn't hit anything, I wasn't even near the curb when it happened.

"You must've hit something because how else would this happen??"

Then for a split second I got pissed. Because I thought how do people get flat tires on a high way or the turn pike?? There are no curbs just 2-4 lanes of cars. Then I'm like he's trying say I did this on purpose. This I told him what happened. So he says he can't be fixed and it needs to be towed somewhere and asked me where I wanted it to go. I asked him if he could make an suggestion. He says "I dunno" and got his fancy phone out and googled. Then says some tire place is open until 7pm but I have wait another hour for it to be towed. Then he asks if I have a spare I said I don't know, it's not in the car. I go in that car everyday. So he says he can't help me. I'm like why do we pay so much money for the membership and they send incompetent people to do nothing but fuck up a situation that much more?? Right then and there I was ready to start crying. I was truly A Damsel In [Some] Serious Distress (D.I.S.D).



So I walk around the car and I'm trying to think. When this older gentlemen asks me do I have a flat. I told him yes. He said do you have a spare and I said well its not in the car. Then he said did you check under the car. Thinking why would they put something like that in such an inconvenient location where no one would honestly look?? He got out of the car and said to the Roadside Assistant Dirver did he check under the car. He said to him:

"She said there isn't a spare so it needs to be towed in"

The man told him no and pointed to were the spare was and I was shocked and then kinda disgusted. So the old man says to me I'll fix your flat no problem. The Roadside Assistance Driver got pissed. So the old man said to him, why didn't you look under the car for the spare?? Why would you tell her it needed to be towed?? Then of course you know it became my fault as far as he was concerned. So he hopped in his truck, in the midst of pulling off he said to the old man:

"Since you know so much you fix then!"

The old man, named Robert said, "I Will."


He was very nice and reassuring. Told me not to worry and that him and his friend Jeff would get it fixed for me as soon as possible. After a time trying to find the tools he needed he got the spare off the bottom and replaced the tire for me and told me he was a mechanic and how sometimes bigger vehicles can't carry a spare inside so they put it on the bottom. News to me! With in 20mins he had everything fixed and I was ready to go, he asked for $40 which I didn't mind since AAA and lord knows who else was going to try to bamboozle me five times that amount. I told him thank you many times and told him how appreciative I was of him. While he was fixing it many men appeared and wanted to come to my rescue all a lot younger and more physical than me Robert. However none had what I needed and really couldn't do anything. I got disgusted again. These guys call themselves men but in an emergency like mine that could even happen to them, they don't even know what to do to fix a flat and don't have the need materials either. Yet they boast how the world can't function without them. I beg to differ. I did ask Mr. Robert if I needed to get a new tire right away and he told me year to do it as soon as I can. He told me not to get upset because these things happen unexpectedly and on the contrary of the the "professional" said you didn't need to hit something for it to blow. Then he got in his friend's car and asked if I'd be ok and I told him yes I would because I felt that I would be alright. Then the next thing I did was look for places who would change the tires, give a tire rotation and balancing as well as a oil change and definitely check the squealing on the breaks too. Found two places, one of which my dad went to offend. Since I couldn't do it right then and there I decided to do so first thing tomorrow morning.



While I was in deep thought and reflecting on what happened today. I thought back to what my dad would've done. Then it came flooding back to me. He kept the jack and 4-way lug nut and all those other car needs in the back for a reason. Then it made no sense to me to carry around stuff that wasn't used everyday. Then I thought about all those times he made me learn to change the oils, change a flat, change the brakes. What I thought wasn't necessary because I felt one day I'll be married my husband will be doing that. But now even if that was the case I could have a man like those men who wanted to help but didn't have the materials needed—useless. I couldn't help but be thankful and say well no I may not know how to cook but I can change a tire and I was sort of proud of myself. Then I realized there was a mistake made.

All that stuff my dad had in the van pertaining to car maintenance we took it out when I ha my wreck in 2009. The car needed to be serviced and stayed in the shop for a few weeks. Then the unthinkable memory popped up. During the bad winter of 2010, a friend of my mom sent her brother and one of his pals to dig us out of the snow. In the mean time she told him to come back during a nicer day to pick up a few things. So he came one day a few weeks later. She have him the jack, the 4-way lug nut bar and all those other car needs. Which at the time we assumed we didn't need because we weren't driving nor were we going to fix on any cars. Biggest mistake ever made. If I could kick myself I would and is do it hard and call myself a big old douchewaffling bonehead. So now not only must the tires be replaced but I think it would be best to invest in such said items and keep them on the car just in case.


Now my main objective is finding a place that isn't booked during the day tomorrow to fix the tires.

I hate asking people for help even if I really need it. I don't want to get my hopes up for something they never planned on doing in the first place. After being let down so much, you can't help but to think that this world is full of mean and nasty people regardless of what they say—



To Be Continued....