I think my kids have it right. They tell me all the time they don't want to grow up.
"Why?" I asked my son one day after he announced this fact.
"Because then you have to be responsible for everything...pay bills, go grocery shopping, work...you don't get a summer vacation. I don't want to be a grown-up," he replied.
"Me either!" echoed Ruth.
"Or me!" said Hannah, not wanting to be left out of the conversation. It was otherwise clear she had no clue what we were talking about.
Yesterday and today are those days where I wish I wasn't a grown-up anymore. Oh sure, being told what to do sucked. And so did being harassed by other kids. Zits. I hated zits as a teenager. Wait a minute...I still get those. Oh never mind.
So I was minding my own business yesterday afternoon, getting ready to go to my evening class, waiting for Jeremy to come home when I get a phone call. Looking at the caller ID I saw it was his cell phone. This can't be good, I think to myself.
"Hi, um. I'm stuck. I have a flat tire," Jeremy said.
"Oh man. This will make me late," I said.
"Weeeeeelll, it's kind of worse than that, " He rained further on my parade. "I'm in a very precarious position on the side of the busy highway and it's total rush hour traffic. There's no way I can change it at this spot. I'd get killed. In fact, I'm kind of worried that I might get hit in the tail the way the van is situated. There's no shoulder here, hardly at all."
"Do you need me to come get you?"
"Um, well, I don’t know. I could call this guy who's still at work..."
"I think we have roadside assistance through the car insurance," I offer. "And I'm coming to get you..."
"I'll just call this guy and he'll pick me up..."
I cut Jeremy. off. "I know we have roadside assistance. We pay for it. And I don't want the van sitting there. I'm coming to get you. Let me call my prof."
I had every intention of going to class late. I really did. However, my good intentions were foiled. Jeremy called our insurance and they sent out a tow truck. I drove thirty minutes to where he was stranded and pulled up into the half sized shoulder just in front. It was extremely scary. I had to climb over the passenger side to get out. And as I walked towards Jeremy calmly sitting in the van, I thought for sure my guts were going to be splattered all over the road by some idiot going eighty miles an hour and not paying attention.
As I walked over to the van I saw that the tire was beyond flat. It was totally shredded. Jeremy climbed out of the van on the passenger side and we looked at it together.
"Oh man," I said. "You're lucky you didn’t get hurt or have a serious accident."
"I know," He replied. "The insurance company said that the towing guy will give me a call."
We chatted a little bit about work and what we were going to do. It was bad enough that this had to happen, but of all nights, we were going to take the van to our regular mechanic to have it inspected the next day. Already we had canceled the inspection due to a funeral, we were not happy at the thought of having to do it again. The car was stranded a good forty-five minutes to an hour away from our regular mechanic. We weren't going to get it towed that far. As we were chatting we saw the tow truck fly by going the opposite direction on the highway. He honked his horn to let us know he saw us. And within five minutes he came to our rescue.
Jeremy talked with the tow truck driver for about five minutes. The road was so noisy I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but I gathered from the pointing and gesturing the driver was telling him where the van would be dropped off. Jeremy made his way back to our car, jumped in, fussed at the kids for making too much noise, and then told me the news.
"The insurance will only pay for the guy to tow it to the nearest dealership."
"Why?" I asked incredulously.
"Because it's the car insurance. At least it's a good base of operations to change the tire."
"Ok. I suppose."
"The tow truck driver called for a police car to block off the right lane so he can get the car on the truck, so we can just meet him at the dealership."
"Let's go then," I resigned.
In the meantime the kids began their "I'm hungry" chant. It was pushing 6:30 and along with being tired of being squished in the back seat of a Dodge Neon, they were beginning to fall apart from the need for dinner. We decided we'd have to find a fast food restaurant somewhere. The problem was, we didn’t know where we were, exactly.
We pulled into the dealership and waited for the tow truck, who seemed to sneak by while Jeremy was busy trying to find out if someone could sell us a tire once the van got there. Sadly, the entire parts and repair department was gone for the day. And why shouldn’t they? After all, this day was just getting better and better. Jeremy returned to the car, and I announced that he missed the tow truck and I didn’t know where the van was dropped off. A brief walk around the dealership building, and he found it parked on the side. By this point, the kids were having fits. Their tummies hurt and so did ours. The crabbing commenced.
"We'd better find dinner first and then deal with this. We're also battling sunlight. We've gotta get this fixed and try and limp it to the Mechanic so it can get inspected. But I guess if we have to leave it here to be fixed till tomorrow, canceling the inspection won’t be the end of the world." I was thinking out loud.
I knew, though, from bad experiences with Dealership machine shops, we didn't really want to leave the car, regardless of our appointment. So, we went and found a Wendy’s, and scarfed down dinner. Fortunately, there was a firestone across from the Wendy’s, and we inquired if they'd be open to put a tire on a rim. They informed us of their closing hour and replied "If you can get it here before then. But if not, there's a sears at the local mall...they're open till 9pm."
We returned to the dealership where Jeremy and Josh commenced in attempting to get the spare tire off the bottom of the car to put on the wheel. After a futile ten minutes, Jeremy announced it was rusted on. I inquired if we could get the tire off, leave it on the jack, take the rim, and get a new tire. This sounded like a good plan to Jeremy so he went to work on Plan B. Meanwhile, the sun was setting and time was slipping away. The kids were working up to frenzy, tired of being cooped up in the car, and now doing the pee-pee dance. I helped Ruth pee in a Wendy’s cup, and at least alleviated that irritation for her. It was cold and windy and awful outside, so it wouldn’t have been a good idea to try and squat behind the bushes. The situation was becoming more miserable by the minute. Finally, the tire and rim came off the car, and we put it in the trunk of our working car.
"Boy, that looks terribly precarious," Jeremy commented looking at the jacked up van. "I hope that doesn’t fall off that jack. That will cause some serious damage."
"Oh please don't tell me that!" I cried. And we left the dealership to find this "Sears" hoping and praying the van would be ok.
At sears, I rushed all the kids to the bathrooms, because now Ruth needed to do a number two. Oh Joy! Can this day get any better? I asked myself. But I was relieved to be in a warm building with a flushing toilet, even it was a disgusting one. Another crisis averted, I met up with Jeremy in the automotive department were we were informed that it would be about an hour. What were we going to do with three tired kids, two tired parents, for an hour? Somehow, the time passed, and we got our tire. Unfortunately, the sun had set. This was going to make putting the tire back on more difficult.
We made our way back to the dealership and pulled up to the van.
"OH NO!" I cried out. Jeremy looked where I was looking. It was clear the van fell off the jack. "Now what do we do?" I asked him. I was feeling very weary at this point. It was almost 8:30 in the evening, and I felt like crying.
"I don’t know," He lamented.
About that time, two teenaged guys came around to inspect what had happened. I quickly got out of the car and explained the situation in full detail. Taking pity on us, one of them said "Let me get one of the mechanics out here and take a look at it." Apparently, two of the dealership's mechanics were there working on their own personal cars. Thank God for that, otherwise we would have been stranded.
One mechanic came out with his flashlight and Jeremy recounted our tale to him. He looked around to see if there was any serious damage, and thankfully couldn’t see any. "But then again, it's dark out here. Let me go get a jack." He brought out a jack and the other mechanic and they attempted to lift the van. It was not an easy task because the van was now lower to the ground, and the mechanic was having trouble fitting the jack under the frame. The second mechanic went back in for another jack. After what seemed like an eternity, they managed to get the van lifted enough to take a better look.
"Looks like nothing serious is damaged. This is bent here, but I'll get something to bend it back," the one guy announced. He came back with a crow-bar looking thing, and bent whatever part was misaligned. They put the tire back on for us and gave us their disclaimer to really have our regular mechanic look at it. It was dark and they couldn’t guarantee there wasn’t something out of place that they couldn’t see. We decided to chance it, drive it to our regular mechanic to sit in the lot overnight, and then it could get inspected, and repaired from the nasty fall it took.
This afternoon we got the word about the van. $1000 to repair it to pass inspection. Some days, I really hate being a grown-up.
