Christmas Shopping In The Rain With A Flat Tire

Let me start by saying: follow your gut. If it feels weird or the vibe isn't right, go home.

So LaVaughn and I decided to go Christmas shopping in Poplar Bluff earlier today because we've been putting it off for weeks. I woke up a little before 11, which was horrible, but I decided to make the best of it. Took a shower, got the glider food ready, made coffee, set up the new internet... the usual. After we ate and LaVaughn took a shower, we headed on our way. 

It was very gloomy today. Cloudy, foggy, misty rain and the temperature was uncomfortable. We took highway 34 which ended up being a bad idea because about 10ft of road was washed out and jagged. Naturally I didn't get over far enough and BAM! Flat tire... yay! Luckily there was a road just a few feet down the road, which we pulled into.

Got out, got the donut out of the trunk and then struggled with getting the jack unscrewed. Broke my nail, clawed my and got filthy in the process. After freeing the jack from it's unnatural hold, we began to jack the car up. Things were going well, we were making great time, got the lug nuts broke off then all of a sudden the jack snapped sideways and broke. We tried for 30 minutes to fix the jack, but it was to no avail.

A lady and her husband stopped and asked if we needed help, but things were going good at the time and we didn't need any help. Then one more guy stopped, but again, we were well on track. After the jack broke only ONE other car stopped in the hour that we were sitting there and they didn't even carry a jack.

That's when I swallowed my pride and called my ex-boss. Well, it was really her husband that I wanted because he has a tow service. This was at like 5:10 and she said he was on his way home from work and she would have him call me as soon as he walked it. Well 30 minutes passed and nothing, so I called back, but he still wasn't there. Waited 15 more minutes and called a roadside tow place in Silva and they were more than happy to help. 

Like the owner was in Poplar Bluff at the time, but he said if he didn't have someone down at the shop he would find someone to send over as soon as possible. Like 10 minutes later I get a call from another guy and he said he was just a few minutes away. I'm so glad we ended up calling someone, because our donut was almost flat. After the guy was done I asked him how much and he replied with, "Whatever sounds good to you." I replied with, "How much do you normally charge?" and his response was, "Oh I'm not charging you that!"

After going back and forth for a couple seconds I finally got him to take $20.

Back to the other guy real quick... the guy that's married to a lady I worked for, for 2 1/2 years. The guy that I've known since 2nd grade, the guy that used to drive my bus. Well when I called to tell him that I found a local guy he was like, "Well that's 30 miles from me, so it's probably best you found someone closer." Wanna know why he said that? Because even though I didn't need a tow and literally just needed to borrow a jack that he could've driven over in his truck or his wife's car, he was still gonna charge me over a dollar mile both ways to lend a and to someone he's known for 25 years. 

Needless to say I found a new tow/roadside company.

I'm just thankful we weren't on 67 and it wasn't freezing cold or raining heavily. Thank God we were able to get help at a steal and make it home safe and sound. Now I gotta take the car somewhere tomorrow to get a tire and then hopefully go Christmas shopping. 

Here are some random pictures I took a little bit ago of the decorations in the kitchen. Enjoy!

Have faith, always.

Seek peace, whenever possible.

Stay hopeful, always.

The ups and downs of yesterday...

Man, yesterday started out so well. We got up about 9:00, got our gliders our of their pouch and put them in separate pouches, and went on our merry way. Then about an hour into the drive, we heard a loud pop sound. We didn't think too much of it, so we kept going. Then like a mile down the road we were getting off of our exit when the car started vibrating. In was inevitable, we had a flat. So we pulled off to the side and got out. There we so many huge truck going by we could barely hear ourselves talk. Then I got the tire and the jack out of the trunk, but I couldn't find a 4-way. I looked and looked, but there was nothing. So then I started messing around with the jack a little bit. After about 20 minutes of that a thing popped off of the jack. And thankfully, it had a 4-way thing at the tip. So after we got the tire changed, we had to get off of an exit. Then we went to this big truck tire place and asked if they knew where we could get our tire patched. The dude told me that there was a place about a mile down the road. So off we went. Well, we couldn't find that place so we got off on Jackson exit and found a little tire place. I went in and asked the guy that was behind the counter(who really looked like Seth Green) if they could patch our tire. And he said yes, but it would be about 40 minutes. So then we had to wait. Well it ended up taking over an hour before they got to us. Then after they got the tire fixed we were minus $10 and delayed 3 hours. But it was pretty much smooth sailing after that. Other than my grumpy glider crabbing the entire way.

We are so happy to be home. That was such a long drive. But it was all worth it. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I probably wont blog any more tonight, I'm still kind of worn our from the drive. And not to mention I'm going to have something to keep me occupied. Until then... peace.

-Megan

Song of the day: Going To California by Led Zeppelin

P.S.
Happy Birthday Aunt Sharon! I hope you have a good one...

Early morning flat...

Wow, Monday sucked. It was about 7:30 in the a.m. when I decided to go to the movie store. I was well on my way when all of a sudden, the car started vibrating on the right side. So I pulled over at this factory called Fine Laboratories. Well I got out and looked at the tire, and it was oh so flat. So I looked in the trunk to see if there was a spare and noticed that there was a tire, but no spare. So I grabbed my cell phone and started to call my uncle, and what do ya know, it was dead! I couldn't believe it. So I sat there for like 10 minutes and watched car after car drive by and nobody would stop and ask if I needed help. And to top it off, some of the people were talking on their cell phones. They were total McAssholes. So I figured I wasn't gonna get any help there, so I started the car and drove about 1/4 mile down the road and pulled on some little dirt road. Well I got out and saw a big sign on the side that say, "Wilson Cemetery." That was a real big plus. Well after a couple minutes of sitting there with my hazards on I figured nobody was gonna stop, so I walked. The first house I saw was about 1 block away. Well I got to that house and it looked like someone was working on it and there were like 3 big ass trucks parked. So I thought to myself, "Hey. I didn't wanna get murdered today." So I decided to go to the next house I saw. That house was about 2 blocks away from that house. Well, when I got halfway up the driveway to that house, a guy came out and asked if he could help me. So I asked if I could use his phone and he said yeah. Well I called my uncle and told him I had a flat and he said he would be there in about 20 minutes. So I gave the guy his phone back and he was like, "Do you need a ride back to your car?" and I was like, "No, it's not that far." but he insisted. So he drove me back to the car and dropped me off. Well I got Milla out of the car and started to take her for a walk up to the cemetery, but halfway there, I saw a dog and literally ran back to the car and shoved her in. Cause I was afraid they would fight. But the dog that I saw was inside a fence and couldn't get out. And it was so cute and sweet. Well my uncle finally got there and put the spare on. Well we started off. He decided he would drive behind me. Well we got about 3 or 4 miles down the road and the car started vibrating again. So I pulled over and got out. And of coarse, the spare went flat. So he said that we would have to take it to a gas station and get air. So we went to the first gas station we saw, and the stupid air pump was out! I couldn't believe it. So we went to a auto shop and the dude there fixed the tire. Well we went back to the car and he put the spare back on. Well that time it FINALLY worked. I got home and was so relieved. Well I called the auto place and asked them if they had a tire for the car and the dude was like, "We don't have any right now, we'll have some Wednesday." that sucked. So we didn't get a tire until Wednesday. But now, everything is ok. This was the worst flat tire experience of my life! And hopefully the last. So everyone who has a car, please check the tires on your car at least every 6 weeks or so. It'll totally save you in the long run. So peace out... - Megan