First time for everything

I’ve been a member of AAA since I got my driver’s license. It’s just one of those things that I’ve always had, but (thankfully) have never had to use.

Until this week, that is.

The kids and I were headed to one of our county libraries and we were literally turning in to the parking lot when I heard an ominous KATHUNK!

“Gee, that didn’t sound good.” I thought. Which is much, much nicer than saying “Shit. You’ve got to be kidding me. Yes, I know I said a bad word. Just get out of the car.” what I said.

I hopped out of the car and snapped a picture with my trusty iPhone so that I could send it to Dave. I texted him the picture and asked “Should I head home?”

He said heading home would probably be best, but he suspected that it would come out as soon as I started driving and then things would get really bad.

I loaded the kids back in to the car and headed home. I had the foresight to avoid the country road that I had taken in, heading instead for the two lane highway that had a big huge berm.

As I drove out of the parking lot, I could hear the kathunkkathunkkathunk of The Thing in my tire. I wasn’t a 1/4 mile down the road when the kathunking suddenly stopped, and the Heaven Sent Tire Pressure Management System that comes installed in my car came on, letting me know that I was indeed losing tire pressure.

I pulled off to the side of the road as far as I could and called AAA. There was some confusion because the call was sent to Columbus, Ohio…where we used to live. I never changed my cell phone when we moved 3 years ago, and they used the number as the way to track me down.

When the Columbus, Ohio operator couldn’t find me, you know, since I was in Maryland they transferred me to my local office who assured me they would have someone to me in about 40 minutes.

The whole time this was going on, Jacob was reading his books in the backseat and Emma was full of questions.

“What happened?” – We got a flat tire

“Is someone coming?” – Yep they’ll be here as soon as they can.

“Can I help him?” – No, baby, it’s a pretty big job.

“Can I play in the grass?” – Um, no. The cars are going by really fast.

“Will you read to me?” – Sure!

“I have to go to the bathroom, but I’ll hold it even though it’s poop.” Gee, thanks.

I did start to get a little nervous when a man who was very obviously NOT the AAA guy pulled over and asked if I needed help. I was thinking what I had in the car that I could use to bludgeon him. Thankfully, when I assured him that someone was coming, he left.

“Who was that man?” – Someone who wanted to make sure we had help coming.

“Why did he stop?” – Um, to make sure we had help coming.

“When’s the real guy coming?” – He’s coming right now. He’ll be here soon.

One the AAA guy got there, he was done lickety split. It seriously took him less than 15 minutes. Which seems fast, but really I have no idea.

When he was done, he said he would wait to make sure I got on the road alright.

Which is a good thing, because my car wouldn’t start. The battery was dead. Really, why wouldn’t it be??

So, he jumped the car and I was on my merry way. I was home exactly 65 minutes from the time I called AAA. They did a really good job from start to finish.

The morale of the story: Make sure you have your kids poop before they leave home, just in case they can’t hold it…