Should have waited until Tuesday, or, an ad for AAA

October 15th, 2008 @ 5:55 pm | Comments (5)
Filed: My glamourous life | Tags: , , ,

Mama always said, “Girl, you have wheels on your butt.” And for the past couple of weeks, that’s been true. First it was a work trip to Pittsburgh, which I turned into a personal trip to Clarion for homecoming. The following week, I tried to go to Chicago for another work event, and I eventually made it - $2,800 later.

I had grand plans to visit Target before heading to the airport. Of course, as usual, I was running late. But I had about 30 minutes after loading up the car. I hopped in the front seat, turned the key and… nothing.

$&#^@!

Dead battery.

I called AAA (thank you, work, for my free membership) for a jump. I wouldn’t be able to go to Target, but that’s OK. I didn’t really NEED anything, anyway.

Then a neighbor pulled around my cul de sac in his pickup truck. Score! I made a snap stereotyped and guessed, correctly, that he had a pair of jumper cables.

After offering him cash for saving my day, and then promising a free night of babysitting when he refused the cash, I cranked up the radio and headed for the airport.

I was crossing a bridge when I noticed a high-pitched whine when i pressed the gas. And then pushing the gas stopped making me go forward. The engine revved, but I didn’t accelerate.

&%$&^%!!!!!

I hit the AAA speed dial. Because I was on a busy Interstate, the dispatcher promised someone would be there in 30 minutes. The driver loaded up my car and we went to my friendly garage, where my mechanic reminds me of my dearly departed grandfather. The bus I needed to catch to transfer to the train to take to the airport lumbered toward us, so I threw my keys at him, grabbed my bags, dashed into traffic and breathlessly boarded the Number 9 to catch my rescheduled flight.

By Friday morning, I hadn’t heard anything from the garage, so I called to check in on the car. Turns out the transmission was broken, and they don’t fix them at that garage. The only garage they could recommend couldn’t even look at it until Tuesday afternoon. I Googled transmission near my zip code and found a place a couple miles away (AAA will take your car to another garage, if the first one can’t fix it). After giving my credit card number for a $1,000 deposit, I boarded my plane home.

First thing Monday morning, the new garage called and said my credit card didn’t go through. Chalking it up to the garage’s ineptitude with modern technology, I promised to bring the card to pay the balance when I picked up my car that afternoon.

I paid $1,800 and left the garage, my car running not quite the “As good as new” as promised but I don’t know much about repaired transmissions.

Imagine my surprise when 25 hours later I coasted into a McDonald’s parking lot and called AAA for another tow.

And imagine my horror when I checked my credit card statement online this morning and saw the original $1,000 transaction DID go through.

Finally, imagine the shit that will hit the fan if I have to call AAA one more time.