Car Troubles

There are many speed bumps on the road of life, and I just passed over one yesterday.  Oh, the joys of trying to get from Point A to Point B!

I have a former student/friend that I have written about before.  (I called him Bruce.)  Bruce is autistic and lives in government housing in a community about ten miles south of where I live.  He has no driver's license or vehicle.  In fact, he has to rely on social services and friends just to exist "independently" in the world.  He has lived/is living a rather austere life.  I help out when I can.

Yesterday was one of those days.  Bruce has three pairs of jeans that he bought for work.  Somehow, he managed to snag a hole in one of them, so I bought an iron-on Star Wars patch to repair them.  I decided to pick them up yesterday (Sunday).  He also needed a haircut, so while I was there with the car, we would drop in to Great Clips for a new "do", PLUS, he needed to drop some things off at his mother's in another town (about ten miles away)...so we added that to the list.  And, of course, I was going to take him for lunch somewhere while we were out and about.  At least that was the plan.

It was a nice day.  I picked him up at his apartment.  We headed out, but first, we stopped at the Casey's convenience store at the top of the hill maybe a half-block from his apartment to augment the quarter-tank of gas I had left in my buggy.  When we were done at the pump, I turned the car on and stepped on the brake to put the vehicle in gear...and the brake pedal went all the way to the floor.  I'm no mechanic, but I do know my car.  It was instantly obvious that my brakes were shot.  Still, I doubted myself.  The brakes were fine when I pulled up to the gas pump but not when we pulled away from it.  I reached the edge of the fairly busy road and stopped.  There was just enough braking power to do so.  Had I actually pulled out onto the road--or got to the 4-lane highway that we would be on had we continued, God only knows what would have happened to us.  Other cars might have been able to avoid hitting us, but without brakes, I had no way to avoid hitting them!

I announced to Bruce that we wouldn't be going anywhere, turned onto the shoulder of the road in the lane going the opposite direction, and limped back to Bruce's apartment complex...and parked.  Whew!  Another crisis averted!

My brain, however, didn't consider the crisis resolved.  It was spinning.  How will I get back home?  And my car?  What to do with my car?  Obviously, it couldn't be driven.  I have  no local family to rescue me...and it was Sunday.  Bruce was looking things up for me.  I left a message for a former colleague who lives nearby.  Turns out, she was very sick.  Then I thought to call my cleaning gal/friend who dropped everything she was doing to come pick me up.  Then I started calling towing companies.  The first one went to voice mail (and never did get back to me).  The second one said it would take him at least an hour to get someone there.  I made the arrangements to have them tow the buggy to my house, and then my friend showed up to take me home.  An hour or so later, the car showed up.  Towing charge: $131.  (Could have been so much worse.  Still, it's a major hit to the budget.)

What are the morals to this lesson:

1.  Thank God I recognized the brake problem before I pulled out into traffic.  I shudder to think what could have happened had I not been alert to what I felt in the brake pedal.

2.  Always have a charged cell phone!

3.  Never underestimate how emotionally draining an event such as this can be.  I was useless for the entire rest of the day!

4.  Be thankful for the people who still work on the weekends!  I don't know what experiences the on-call tow truck driver was doing when he was called into service, but I sure do appreciate his sacrifice!

As Bruce said, "At least you were able to pick up my pants."  Yeah, Bruce...somehow the hole in your pants and the length of your hair no longer seems quite so important.  I get it.  I hope you do, too.