The Friday Afternoon Breakdown

Well, it's been a while since I have written a story here. There was the bat story that started it all.  The orange I flushed down the toilet. The time I took a 60 second shower.  And my personal favorite: a complete meltdown over burning the stove from the inside out. But tonight for your reading enjoyment I bring you The Friday Afternoon Breakdown. 

If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time you know that warm sunny summer days are PRECIOUS in Connecticut. We live for them. We soak them in.  And when you work in sales, you take off those days to play golf. Today was one of those days. It also happened to be a Friday in July (a VERY popular go-on-vacation-month for families. The water is FINALLY warm enough to swim and vacation rentals are packed.) I say all of this to set the stage. My story begins at 5:00 on Friday afternoon. Only myself and one other admin were in the office. We walked out to our cars. Mine didn't start. 

I tried again.

No luck.

I mutter one of those quick "God please let my car start" prayers, wait a few seconds for it to get to God's ears, and tried again. 

No luck.

Maybe God needed a minute, I thought.  I went back in and went to the bathroom fearing it might be a long afternoon. I walked back out. "God? Please? Can you just get me home?" I turned the key. The lights and air-conditioning came on but it wasn't starting.  

Now it occurs to me that I failed to mention that David is out of town. He went to his sister-in-law's funeral and the services were from 5-7. He was there with his parents to support his brother and niece and nephews. At the exact time I needed him, he was needed more elsewhere. As I am sitting at home at 8:15pm having had a few minutes to decompress I realize that there is not a "level headed thinker" anywhere inside of me. David is the calm one. He's the level one and being married to him SHOULD make me more level headed too.  But I think it has done the opposite. I have the luxury of freaking out whenever something happens because I know David will remain calm. He'll come up with a rational solution while I am busy over re-acting. It's how we roll. So I was particularly rattled by the realization that I COULDN'T call David. He was busy. I had to handle this on my own.  So, obviously, panic ensued.

My sweet in-laws bought us AAA cards and I have been so grateful that I haven't needed to use it. Until now that is. I pulled it out and called the number. "Due to a high call volume......" I hung up.  I went back in the office to request help on-line. I put in my card number twice and it said "invalid card number". By now it was close to 5:20pm.  

Well, I thought, I'll just have to rent a car. Leave my car here and get it tomorrow once David gets back. I googled car rental places and as it turned out there was one not too far from my office.  I knew I could walk there. It closed at 6. If I hurried I could make it.  When I walked out and saw my loan car in the parking I got a bad feeling. It's not the best neighborhood to leave a Honda in a dark parking lot. It was almost begging to be stolen. But I couldn't get through to AAA and I didn't want to waste a window of a 1/2 hour to rent a car. Just in case I needed it.  

I walked down the sidewalk. Phone in hand ready to dial 911 at any moment. If you think I'm exaggerating, well maybe I am, but remember I am across the street from the gas station that sells drug paraphernalia.  I told you that story.  I walked through the projects careful not to make eye contact with anyone I passed like my mom taught me. My prayers got a little more intense as I walked. "Please keep me safe ... Please keep me safe...." I made it to the CVS, turned the corner and walked along the busy 4-lane road. I could see in the Enterprise at the end of the street.

I decided to call AAA once again before I went in the car rental place. Just to see what my options were.  It would be about $5.00 a mile. I was a ways from home. I didn't want to drop it off at a garage in Hartford without talking to David so I hung up and decided to go with my original plan. 

"Can I rent a car?" I asked as I walked in with four faces just staring back at me. I know it's 5:40 on a Friday, I thought, but you are open to 6. Come on! "We don't have any cars" a girl in the back said. "Really?" I said. "Is there another place around here that rents cars?"  I realized that I was not in a "car rental" neighborhood. I wasn't in a car owning neighborhood.  "Someone can drive you over to our other place about 10 miles from here if they have a car."  I nodded and waited for her to call.  I was feeling good about my decision to not wait around to get through to AAA. The minutes were ticking down. It was going to be close. 

A young guys came out from the back. VERY NICE. He drove me through downtown Hartford to the other side of town to another really small rental place. Just as the sign was starting to come into site the cars stopped. Dead stop. We were in the line for a concert and the traffic was not moving. I started to get nervous again.  I needed a car by 6 or I would be stranded.  We inched along until we finally reached the place about 5:50pm. I ran in and walked up to the counter. "Can I rent a car?" I asked. One guy very nicely said "sure". The guy next to him just laughed.  Snickered really. "Can I rent a car?  You don't hear people come in and say that."  

"Well, I asked at the place on Airport Road and they said no, so I thought I'd ask." I snipped back.  Don't mess with me mister, I thought, this is not the time. 

"I'll take the cheapest and smallest thing you have," I said hoping that they wouldn't come back with a choice between a sports car and Escalade.  I could hear it now. That will be $250 per night plus tax. He offered me a small car for $56.  "I'll take it" I said without hesitation. Whoo hoo!  I filled out the necessary paperwork. I did the obligatory walk around the car with him and I was off. 

Well, as "off" as I could be.  I inched back into the concert traffic and prepared to wait.  

I'll spare you the couple of u-turns, 4 mph inching and attempting to turn on my phone GPS with cops at every corner.  I was just glad to have a ride home.  

It wasn't until I finally broke 5 mph that I noticed my car was making a weird noise and it was running funny.  I didn't think it was in gear. Here I was on the road going about 25mph and my car was working so hard. I knew I couldn't make the turn onto the freeway I was headed for. Something was wrong.  I couldn't pull in anywhere because all the parking lots into different businesses were being used  for concert parking. There were guards at every possible place to turn in.  I crept along about 15mph looking down at my car.  R is reverse right? N neutral. D is still still right? What was I doing wrong?   Brake is off ..... I didn't know but I was scared I was about to break this car.  FINALLY an opening I could pull into. I pulled in and right away stopped the car to the side and started jiggling onto the different gears.  As I'm looking down in front of me I hear a knock on the window. I look up and a man in a uniform is standing there.  Oh yeah! I thought. He's hear to  help me! "Ma'am what seems to be the problem?"  I explained to him my problem. He looked at me in disbelief and said "stay there".  I look up and there are two giant buses behind me. I look around and notice I had pulled in the bus lane at the CT Transit and stopped my car. Now I was holding up the Connecticut transit system in the middle of concert traffic! Mortified I signaled to the man in uniform that I was sorry and I would move. He motioned for me to stay and he sent the buses through another lane.  I knew the horror on my face wouldn't express that my car broke down, my husband was out of town and unreachable, I had gone to rent a car at a place that had no cars, I was completely lost in concert traffic and I had NO IDEA I was holding up a bus lane when I pulled in. But I hoped it would at least say "sorry". After he maneuvered the buses around me, he came over. I explained my problem and he said it looked fine. It was in the "drive" position and I just needed to get used to the new car. So anxious to get out of the way, I nodded "ok" and turned back out on the street.  

Same noises. Same trouble.

Well, I thought, the car is either breaking and I a need new one, or I'm out of gear and I'm going to have face the embarrassment and go back and ask because I can't drive home this way.  I made a u-turn and got back into the concert traffic.  I inched my way back to the car rental place only to see the gate had been closed. It was after 6 and they were closed. I pulled up to the gate and sat for a minute. Big crocodile tears starting to roll down my face.  My prayer wasn't a passing phrase. It wasn't "a little more intense", it was "God, I need your help. I'm at the breaking point." I was desperate, and nervous and feeling stupid and tired and I missed my husband.  

It was then that I noticed there was one more "slot" if you will that the stick could go in and tried that and pulled out. IT WORKED!! Whoo Hoo. Such relief.  Thank you God. 

Now back into concert traffic. I'll spare you the couple of u-turns, 4 mph inching and attempting to turn on my phone GPS with cops at every corner.  I was just glad to have a ride home.  

Now that I knew I could get home my mind was clear of that problem. I turned to my car.  If it broke down about anywhere else I wouldn't have given it a second thought until the next day. But that is such a bad area. And it's such a dark parking lot. And while David may have been happy to get a new car if it was destroyed or stolen, I wasn't up for a car payment quite yet. So I went back to the parking lot and tried AAA again. I got through and they scheduled someone to come and get it. 

I didn't have to wait too long. Someone was right there. I had it towed back to the house.  Again, it was a beautiful summer evening so everyone in the neighborhood was out in the street, in the yards, kids everywhere. Everyone stopped and watched as I awkwardly stood there as this giant noisy truck off loaded my little car.      

But after all the panic and drama and all there was much to be grateful/thankful for:

1.)  The weather was nice. Wasn't raining or cold. Easy to walk.

2.)  It was summer so it was light longer. I was home before dark.

3.)  The one rental place was able to take me to the next. Car was available.

4.)  I had the AAA card to get my car home to hopefully make things easier for when David gets home. (Thanks Nancy and George!) 

5.) Everyone was really nice along the way. 

No major drama here now. Off to sleep.  Not the evening I had planned, but everything turned out okay for now.