I went to Schmoozers on Wednesday, for about three hours. It's a weekly respite program sponsored by the Jewish Family Services. I volunteered some time back, but for one reason after another, I haven't been going. Coming back home, just before reaching the intersection where I would be turning left onto my street to go home, a long block away, my car died. Died!
I had enough momentum to turn into a parking lot just before the intersection, and was able to pull into a parking slot. But I was tugging for all my might on the steering wheel, as the power steering went out. Of course.
I couldn't find my AAA emergency card. Of course. I had left my day planner at home, and thought maybe the card was in one of its pockets. So I called Megan. She's a night worker now, so she was sleeping. Didn't answer the phone the first time I called. So I tried again in a few minutes. Oh, yes, I did have my cell phone with me.
Well, while Megan was on her way to my place, a very nice gentleman and his mother pulled into the parking lot of the business where I was stranded. When they came out of whatever business they visited, he thought perhaps I might need assistance. So I took advantage. Since I live nearby (not nearly walking distance for me, but nearby) I asked him if he'd drop me off at my apartment.
Ooops! I couldn't find my keys. He asked if I wanted to go back and search the car & parking lot, but I said I thought my daughter had an extra key. (She doesn't, but she will have.) So a neighbor who has an extra house key let me into my apartment.
I searched my day planner for the AAA card, No luck. Checked my wallet for the third time, and guess what? The card had slipped down in the pocket so far that I couldn't see it. Only by probing every single card slot in my wallet, did I finally find the card. I told Megan she could hit me, but she declined.
OK, so I called AAA from home, told them where the car was in relation to my home, and said I would go back where the car was parked and wait for the tow truck. Gave the operator my cell phone number to call to let me know when the tow truck would arrive.
ONE HOUR LATER, still no tow truck. So I called AAA again. This was 3:20pm, and the operator said a truck would be there between now and 4:10. Well, at least there was a shady place to wait. But as I was talking on the phone, I saw a tow truck go by, southbound, but it didn't make the right turn. The problem is, at that intersection, going southbound, one street (the one I was on) is a right turn, then there's a half-right turn right there, and the rest of the street goes straight ahead. So he took the half-right.
I get a call from the tow truck dispatcher saying his driver was on the street but couldn't find me. (He wasn't on the right street). Anyway...Megan and I were watching for him to come back, but he was travelling northbound this time, and made a right turn, when he should have made a left turn. Aaarrrgghh!! So Megan ran down to the intersection, knowing that the driver would realize very shortly that he had turned into a residential area instead of a business area. She was waving frantically at him when he got back to the intersection.
Now here's the real un-Irish part. I still hadn't found my keys. Couldn't turn on the ignition. Don't know how to hot-wire the ignition, so couldn't start the car. I had put the car in Park, and without a key, couldn't put it in Neutral. So the tow truck driver lifted the back wheels, then had to DRAG my car backward out of the parking slot so he could hook it up properly. Oooooh! how much rubbber did I lose from my almost brand-new tires????
OK, he finally got the car hooked up, hauled it to my favorite mechanic, and while the driver was getting my car into the mechanic's shop, Megan was calling a locksmith who had made a duplicate of my ignition key when I bought the car. It would cost $100 for him to come to the car and do whatever locksmiths do to figure out how to make a new key from the ignition slot. OY!
Well, what am I going to do? The mechanic can't do anything if he can't start the car. (Now I think about it, would he have been willing to hot-wire it? Well, I'd still need to have a key made, wouldn't I?)
So we get the paperwork done, and Megan brings me home, and I'm really upset with myself. WHERE are the damn keys? Megan went home and left me to stew by myself.
Knock-knock-knock. Now who's that at the door? Ah!!! The Good Samaritan who gave me a ride home. He found my keys in the backseat of his car. Since I had had him stop in front of the building, he knew at least generally where I live and decided to take a chance on finding me.
Megan had suggested that I might have dropped them in the car instead of in my purse, but when would the guy have an occasion to look in his backseat? Luckily for me, right away. I almost bowled him over with hugs and gratitude, I have his name and I'm saying a whole bunch prayers of thanks and blessings for him. And I don't have to spend $100 to have a locksmith make a new key. So I called Megan immediately and told her to cancel the locksmith!
The timing chain had broken. It cost me $500+ to have that little matter taken care of. Which almost wiped out my tiny savings account and the rest of my checking account.
I have a very wonderful, thoughtful, helpful granddaughter in LA, so I called her asked for a loan to get me through the last two weeks of August. Bless her heart, she didn't even ask what for. But I did tell her, and she was properly sympathetic. I'm still waiting for FedEx to get here.
But there is a good side to this tale of woe. If I hadn't gone to Schmoozers on Wednesday, I would have gone to two doctors' appointments in Folsom (about 20 miles away) on Thursday, and the timing chain would have broken just before the onramp to the freeway.
So now I have an operational car, but I'm going to have to have more work done, as I doubt it will pass the smog test. *sigh* And it needs to be be done soon, as my registration expires the middle of next month.
Shalom