This Is Not An April Fool’s Joke

This morning began like any other: wake up (unwillingly), walk the dog, eat some breakfast, and head out the door to work.  Then it all went to shit.  I was driving down the highway when my car started clanking, shaking, and making a noise like a honking goose caught in a band saw.  Having pretty much no idea what was going on, I debated with myself whether or not I should try to pull over.  But it was pretty obvious that a shaking, noisy car is not to be trifled with at 60 mph speeds.  So I pulled over as best I could (luckily I found a wide shoulder) and prepared to call AAA and tell them that my engine was busted.  Just after I pulled over, another car pulled up ahead of me and a 50 something man got out.  He started walking towards me and I somewhat panicked, having been told my whole life that people who try to help you at the side of the road may just be trying to kill you.  So I rolled down my passenger window a smidge, and the man said, “Hey, I saw you pull over, do you have a spare?”  I replied, “Oh, is it my tire?  I wasn’t sure what happened.”  The man walked around the back of the car and looked the rear tire on my side, then came back to the passenger side and said, “Yeah, that’s one of the worst one’s I’ve ever seen.”  Super.  He asked if I had a jack and I told him that I was just going to call AAA.  Then I assured him that I’d be ok and thanked him for stopping, and he wished me luck and left.  Whew.  At least I didn’t get murdered.

So I called AAA and my mom, who both said that they were on their way to help.  Oh, and did I mention it was raining?  Yeah.  I sat in my car in the rain, waiting for help and hoping that no one would pull over and kill me in the meantime.  45 minutes and a few tears later, the AAA guy came and changed my tire without a problem.  Luckily I had a full sized spare so I can at least drive around without a problem until it’s fixed.  Then the AAA man put my blown up tire in the trunk, said he hoped I had a better day, and went on his way just as my mom pulled up.  She insisted on following me in her car until I got to work to make sure that I wouldn’t have any more problems on the way.

When I finally got to work, all the other teachers wanted to make sure that I was ok, which was nice.  I tried to salvage the rest of the day and make the best of it, but alas, it was not to be.  For some reason most of the kids today were even more hyper and psychotic than usual, hanging onto my legs, pulling my shirt, and just being plain annoying.  So my day pretty much blew.

Oh, and just for the record, I took a picture of my tire when I got home:

Yeah.