"Ma'am, we are experiencing an extremely high call volume, it could be 90 minutes." Fantastic, I thought. I should be nice and friendly to your AAA man by 7:30pm sitting on the side of the road, with 3 children, after being up since 5:00 working all day, with what I thought was a popped front tire. "Thank you. We'll be here," was my actual response. I wanted to say so much more but with Random Acts of Kindness Day fast approaching, I decided to practice being kind. Besides, I really needed help and wasn't going anywhere without them.
That evening started with a great family picnic with my family, including my parents and sister. Chris left a few minutes early in his truck to go pick up the new bed for my youngest. Things were actually going pretty "June Cleaver" at this point. The first week of school was behind us, everyone loves their school, and we had just finished a fun family evening at the park. As we head home, I opt to take a more scenic route to avoid traffic. No one was fighting, we were talking about our day when.....POP! I had hit the same pothole my sitter did this summer when she popped her tire. As I pull over, I had to think who to call first...AAA, my dad, my husband, my sister, my best friend? I opted for my husband. I knew his ego would be crushed if he knew I called my dad first, but let's be honest, I really wanted to. Anyway, I followed marriage protocol and told my mechanically challenged husband. Since he was on a wild goose chase trying to find where he was to pick up the bed (I knew this would happen), he was delighted that I was willing to call AAA (and my Dad). I will not bore you with the details, but once we got the tire off, we realized that the tire was fine...it was the rim. Even
better more expensive. As we (who am I kidding?..that would be Dad) got the spare on, we realized that it was (in fact) flat. About that time AAA arrived. Since my luck was getting better and better, I wasn't surprised to hear that his air compressor wasn't working at 100%. Eventually I arrived home to an irritable husband who didn't know which to be more upset about...the fact that the bed was way more difficult to put together than he had anticipated or the fact that we were going to have to spend a few hundred dollars on a new wheel. Where I pride myself with my ability to argue when I am the most exhausted, I (again) opted for the kinder approach and walked away. I cannot promise I didn't gesture anything as I turned the corner, but what he doesn't know won't hurt him.
If you are detail oriented, the side view mirror is from another incident for another post.
