Post by Ana on Jul 7, 2009 17:59:40 GMT -5
So....I haven't popped in in a while and figured I'd be saying hi.
Also I have an awesome story to tell.
So last Thursday night my mom flies into town to spend the holiday weekend with me. On Friday morning, we get up and drive down to VA so I can look at a horse I wanted to buy. According to the seller, the horse was "very quiet" and "lazy". I, uh, didn't find this to quite be the case when she bucked and I came off and my left foot took the brunt of the force of my landing.
I figured things weren't too bad when I was able to stand up and hobble out of the field. Obviously I wasn't going to get the horse, so my mom and I left after hearing the seller say several times "she's never done that before..." and went up the road to this pick your own farm with like, a bakery and fruit stand and stuff that we'd passed earlier and mom wanted to look at. While hobbling around in there I realized my boot was starting to feel tight so I hobbled outside and took it off. Indeed, my foot was swelling up like a balloon.
Mom got me some ice and took over the driving. I insisted we continue on to Leesburg as we had had plans to look around downtown and hang out. On the way, we procure for me an ankle brace and a pair of crutches. Leesburg isn't as fun as it could be because my mobility is severely hampered.
It wasn't bad, though, but anyway! On the way out of Leesburg, back up 15, I suddenly comment. "Wow. The road noise suddenly got weird. .... Wait, that's my tire". Indeed, my tire was completely flat. Luckily, this is why God invented roadside assistance.
Still, while we were waiting for roadside assistance to come along, mom comments something about "where are all the good Southern gentlemen?" or something like that. Not two minutes later, a guy pulls up and asks if we need help. We demurr because: roadside assistance. He leaves.
A few minutes later, someone from the end of the road we've pulled off on shows up and says they saw us from their house and he wants to know if we need help. Again, we demurr, but say thank you. He leaves.
Another few minutes later, and the first guy shows up again. At first, because he's in a big truck, we think it's roadside assistance guy but then mom goes, "that's the same truck from before". He comes out and offers us both bottles of cold water for while we wait. He also ends up giving us his name and phone number (because he's just up the other end of the road) and claims his wife will drive down and pick us up if we need to go to the bathroom or something while we're waiting. We thank him again and he leaves again.
A few mintues later, someone pulls up behind us to get their mail. (All the mailboxes were at the intersection instead of along the road). They ask if we need help. While they're there, first guy comes back again, this time with a covered plate. He tells us they were cooking out on the grill and had some leftover bear and asparagus if we wanted it. He also strikes up conversation with the mail people behind us. With three vehicles on a relatively small road, we have now effectively blocked the road.
Roadside assistance guy shows up. Mail people leave, presumably to go to their house. Bear-meat guy stays and watches or converses with mom or something while roadside assistance guy does his thing. RA guy mentions it doesn't look like there's any huge, gaping holes in the original tire and he might be able to patch it here and now which would be more reliable than the donut. He goes to do this and comes back after a minute or three and says it was actually the air valve that cracked and let all the air out which is fixable but not something he could do right there but we could probably get it taken care of at AutoZone or something.
We thank him, everybody leaves, and we're back on our way, albeit more slowly than before. As we are approaching Frederick, Mom suggests it'd be smarter to see if we could get the tire fixed that night instead of driving all the way home on the donut and then trying to find someone (on the fourth of July!) to fix it in the morning. So I use her handy-dandy iphone to look up an AutoZone in Frederick. They tell me they have the parts for that sort of repair but they don't do the labor, which I remember as they're telling me that "oh yeah, that's how AZ works". They suggest Mr. Tire. So I look up Mr. Tire and call them. Guy says, "Uh, where are you? Because we close at 8." It was at that time about 7:46. We are by this point on the east side of Frederick. They are on the west side. We take the Patrick street exit. Which takes us right through every light in downtown Frederick. We manage to pull in at nearly 10 minutes after 8 when I am sure they are going to have the doors locked and tell us to go away. And I totally wouldn't have blamed them if that were the case!
But now, they let us. Guy at the counter says the mechanics were packing up and he asked them to stay a few minutes because we called. Guys were really very nice about the whole thing. They even gave us cake! (there had been a birthday that day). And I ended up with four new tires when all was said and done (I am hard on my tires. Two of them hadn't been replaced since I got the car in 2003, IIRC). They also managed to do all of this and align everything in about a half an hour which I was, personally, kind of impressed with.
So anyway, I spent the rest of the weekend not doing much of anything besides sort of keeping my foot propped up and sometimes remembering to put ice on it. Mom convinced me to go to the doctor on Monday. Doctor looks at it, does x-rays and goes, "yeah, uh, you fractured this right here, get thee to an orthopedic doctor!" So I've got an appointment for this Thursday.
And I'm sitting here with ice on my foot.
So hi! How are all of you?
Also I have an awesome story to tell.
So last Thursday night my mom flies into town to spend the holiday weekend with me. On Friday morning, we get up and drive down to VA so I can look at a horse I wanted to buy. According to the seller, the horse was "very quiet" and "lazy". I, uh, didn't find this to quite be the case when she bucked and I came off and my left foot took the brunt of the force of my landing.
I figured things weren't too bad when I was able to stand up and hobble out of the field. Obviously I wasn't going to get the horse, so my mom and I left after hearing the seller say several times "she's never done that before..." and went up the road to this pick your own farm with like, a bakery and fruit stand and stuff that we'd passed earlier and mom wanted to look at. While hobbling around in there I realized my boot was starting to feel tight so I hobbled outside and took it off. Indeed, my foot was swelling up like a balloon.
Mom got me some ice and took over the driving. I insisted we continue on to Leesburg as we had had plans to look around downtown and hang out. On the way, we procure for me an ankle brace and a pair of crutches. Leesburg isn't as fun as it could be because my mobility is severely hampered.
It wasn't bad, though, but anyway! On the way out of Leesburg, back up 15, I suddenly comment. "Wow. The road noise suddenly got weird. .... Wait, that's my tire". Indeed, my tire was completely flat. Luckily, this is why God invented roadside assistance.
Still, while we were waiting for roadside assistance to come along, mom comments something about "where are all the good Southern gentlemen?" or something like that. Not two minutes later, a guy pulls up and asks if we need help. We demurr because: roadside assistance. He leaves.
A few minutes later, someone from the end of the road we've pulled off on shows up and says they saw us from their house and he wants to know if we need help. Again, we demurr, but say thank you. He leaves.
Another few minutes later, and the first guy shows up again. At first, because he's in a big truck, we think it's roadside assistance guy but then mom goes, "that's the same truck from before". He comes out and offers us both bottles of cold water for while we wait. He also ends up giving us his name and phone number (because he's just up the other end of the road) and claims his wife will drive down and pick us up if we need to go to the bathroom or something while we're waiting. We thank him again and he leaves again.
A few mintues later, someone pulls up behind us to get their mail. (All the mailboxes were at the intersection instead of along the road). They ask if we need help. While they're there, first guy comes back again, this time with a covered plate. He tells us they were cooking out on the grill and had some leftover bear and asparagus if we wanted it. He also strikes up conversation with the mail people behind us. With three vehicles on a relatively small road, we have now effectively blocked the road.
Roadside assistance guy shows up. Mail people leave, presumably to go to their house. Bear-meat guy stays and watches or converses with mom or something while roadside assistance guy does his thing. RA guy mentions it doesn't look like there's any huge, gaping holes in the original tire and he might be able to patch it here and now which would be more reliable than the donut. He goes to do this and comes back after a minute or three and says it was actually the air valve that cracked and let all the air out which is fixable but not something he could do right there but we could probably get it taken care of at AutoZone or something.
We thank him, everybody leaves, and we're back on our way, albeit more slowly than before. As we are approaching Frederick, Mom suggests it'd be smarter to see if we could get the tire fixed that night instead of driving all the way home on the donut and then trying to find someone (on the fourth of July!) to fix it in the morning. So I use her handy-dandy iphone to look up an AutoZone in Frederick. They tell me they have the parts for that sort of repair but they don't do the labor, which I remember as they're telling me that "oh yeah, that's how AZ works". They suggest Mr. Tire. So I look up Mr. Tire and call them. Guy says, "Uh, where are you? Because we close at 8." It was at that time about 7:46. We are by this point on the east side of Frederick. They are on the west side. We take the Patrick street exit. Which takes us right through every light in downtown Frederick. We manage to pull in at nearly 10 minutes after 8 when I am sure they are going to have the doors locked and tell us to go away. And I totally wouldn't have blamed them if that were the case!
But now, they let us. Guy at the counter says the mechanics were packing up and he asked them to stay a few minutes because we called. Guys were really very nice about the whole thing. They even gave us cake! (there had been a birthday that day). And I ended up with four new tires when all was said and done (I am hard on my tires. Two of them hadn't been replaced since I got the car in 2003, IIRC). They also managed to do all of this and align everything in about a half an hour which I was, personally, kind of impressed with.
So anyway, I spent the rest of the weekend not doing much of anything besides sort of keeping my foot propped up and sometimes remembering to put ice on it. Mom convinced me to go to the doctor on Monday. Doctor looks at it, does x-rays and goes, "yeah, uh, you fractured this right here, get thee to an orthopedic doctor!" So I've got an appointment for this Thursday.
And I'm sitting here with ice on my foot.
So hi! How are all of you?