I was right. Gloomy, cold, miserable, rainy...not a great day for a drive. But, it's over now, so off to fight another battle. I smell logs burning in neighbors' fireplaces. I am enjoying a roaring fireplace, vicariously.
As I emerged from my meeting in Round Rock this morning (I drove down, arriving there just before 9:00 am), I met an ugly, leaking sky. I jumped in my car and started to drive away. A godawful noise and a strange "feel" to the car made me stop just a short distance away, near the edge of the parking lot. I got out to discover a completely flat left rear tire.
In my younger days, I would have simply jumped out and replaced it with the spare, but I decided I did not want to do that today, inasmuch as it was 42 degrees, raining, and I was wearing a jacket and sports coat and had no gloves, etc. to protect my body from the elements and the dirt on the tires. So, I called AAA. "We'll have someone there within 45 minutes," I was told. About 30 minutes later, I got a call on my cell: "We're sorry, we cannot have someone there as soon as we thought. It will be another 2 hours."
Bastards! I decided to change the flat myself. I discovered that it's not easy, trying to change a flat tire while wearing "work" clothes. But, ultimately, I got the thing changed, only to find that the spare was damn near flat, too. I drove around to the front of the hotel to ask where I could find the nearest tire repair spot. The bellman, who was elderly when I graduated from college, offered a general idea of where I might go to look for a tire dealer, so off I went, my nearly-flat spare barely keeping me moving as my flashers warned everyone to steer clear.
Fortuntely, the tire place was very close by. They aired up the spare, repaired the flat, and sent me on my way, only $23 poorer. While waiting for my tire to be repaired, I got a call from the AAA service truck, who was looking for me. Seems that AAA, who I called to cancel the request for assistance after I decided to change the flat myself, failed to tell the repair service. And I pay for this "roadside assistance" service from AAA?
After getting my car ready to head back to Dallas, I hit the road and spent well over four and a half hours driving back...it took me an hour less to drive down. The slower trip back was due to heavy rain, more traffic, darker clouds, bad drivers, and a horrendous slowdown as I approached downtown Dallas at about 4:00 pm. I was in traffic for an hour from that point until I got home.
But now, here I am! Dry, wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, sipping a stiff drink, and feeling like retiring. I always seem to feel like retiring...not retiring as in retiring for the night, but retiring as in becoming permanently and pleasantly unemployed.
Oh, well, maybe next year. Tomorrow night we're off to a Christmas party (or, rather, a party using Christmas as an excuse for being given). I have yet to buy any gifts, at all. I may not buy any. Probably won't. My wife suggested we blow off the gift exchange thing this year and, instead, spend money and time having fun during our time-off from December 24 to January 2. OK, I said. OK. I'll buy that.
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