Friday, November 20, 2009

Asphalt--+1, Minivan -2


What an eventful week we have had so far--and not necessarily in a good way. To clarify my title I must first give a little background. We live about 2 miles from Caleb and Emma's school, and you don't have to get on any major roads to get there, so it takes only a few minutes--they get out of school at 2:50, so I usually don't leave the house until about 2:54 to get there to where I don't have to sit in line a long time at the school. I also have Jake with me, and he has usually just woken up from his nap--which means he is cranky and does not like to put his clothes back on--so he goes a lot of times in his top and his underwear:-) Well, on Wednesday Jake didn't take a nap because we had a lot of errands to run and didn't get home until around 1pm--so no time for a nap. He was dressed except for his shoes because I told him it was too cold to go in his normal attire. So we finally headed out and it was 2:56-- a few minutes later but I figured we would still get there in plenty of time to pick the kids up. Once you get onto 54th street, it is pretty narrow in a few spots--not much more room than for 2 normal-sized cars to squeak by one another. Right after turning onto the road I noticed a car coming so I slowed down--however the car decided not to scoot over much. I went off the road and while attempting to come back on-apparently hit something that took out both tires on the right side of the van.
So I stopped on the curve ahead to assess the damage and was pretty upset at that point. Shon was out-of-town, I knew no one who lived close to me, and my kids were still at the school. After a panicked call to the school, I told them I would call them back after I figured something out. So I called Megan, and she graciously agreed to come pick them up (love you girl!) Then I needed to figure out how to get the car fixed. I called my dad and he didn't answer, so I tried mom next-she suggested calling the Honda place, so that was my next call. They gave me a towing company recommendation and so that was the next place to call ( I was so thankful that I had remembered my phone!). The woman said she would put the call in and asked me my address:-) I told her I was on 54th street--no address:-) Then I called Sam's, which is where we bought the tires in June. We added the Roadside Hazard protection for $15 a tire, which I later found out was the smartest thing we could have done. I asked if there was any chance that the tires would be covered, not thinking they would be, and the guy said they should be covered. So, at this point, Jake has fallen asleep in the car, I had a plan, and my kids were being picked up:)
Megan and John arrived shortly after I got off the phone with Sam's, and John stayed with me while Megan picked up Caleb and Emma. We all waited on the tow truck, which showed up after about 40 minutes. ( he was on the other side of Springdale when he received the call). We all piled in their car after the van was on the truck, and headed to Sam's. Once there, I was in for a fun hour plus wait with my kids while they fixed the tires. Thankfully, our service plan covered the tires, so I only had to pay around $36 for the instillation.
All in all, it was a very exhausting day. We left Sam's a little after 6 pm, and ran through the drive-through at Sonic for supper. I went to bed early that night, ready for a better day the next day!

2 comments:

Mandi Zachary said...

It was so good to talk to you on Friday, as we were driving to Mountain Home from Baton Rouge! Thanks for keeping me awake! :) Maybe one of these days we will be able to get together...hopefully before the kids are in college!

Reba said...

Oh, bless your heart! Recently I had my first dead battery (I was at Joshua's school though with three kids in the car). Not fun. You did a good job handling it calmly. :)