Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Four years ago today, I was in Disney World having a dream-come-true trip with two friends. We’d talked about going (without our families) for years during our lunches at school together, and we finally did it over President’s Day weekend 2020. And then the world ended. We were so lucky to have gotten to go, for so many reasons.
Two years ago, Keith and I were in Wales for our first full day, starting out on our greatest adventure. The blog was three days old, and we had no idea what was in store for us or for it. I certainly would never have expected to still be writing the blog.
Today, we had a flat tire on our rental car. Keith called Budget to ask what the right thing to do was. They said they would get us a different car from the Budget in Oceanside. Keith waited on hold for 20 minutes, then nope. No car was available. They said to put on the doughnut spare and to drive the 35 miles back to the San Diego airport. Since it is recommended to not drive about 50mph on such a tire, Keith did not think going down I-5 with traffic going 80mph around us would be a good idea. The next suggestion was that a tow truck come to get us and tow us all the way to SAN. Oooof. Okay. That sounded like an adventure.
I scurried to take a shower, because I had been lounging around. Keith rescheduled meetings. Then we got a text that said the tow truck would arrive between 2:30 and 3:00. That was actually good, because it would work around work. We got another text shortly after 2:30 that we were in the arrival window and should be with the car. We went down to the garage and waited. We talked about how expensive it was going to be to be towed so far. I assumed we would be on the hook for the cost and Keith thought it would be the rental company. From what I’ve heard about rental companies, they are never interested in being responsible for costs. Keith kept saying he wished he’d just taken the tire to a tire place to see if it could be fixed. I agreed that might have been a good idea, but it wasn’t what the guy said on the phone, so it was what it was. He thought about calling to cancel the tow and to try fixing the tire, but he had no information about who was coming to tow us. At 3:05 we got a text from Budget saying that the tow truck was en route (if not already there) and here was a phone number if there were any problems. We waited 5 minutes. Keith was ready to cancel. I said that just seemed so awkward. Maybe our insurance would cover some or all of it. We waited 15 minutes. Keith was getting a bit upset (it’s really hard to see Keith upset, because he is never upset. By that I don’t mean that it is hard emotionally, I mean it’s physically hard to see – he just squishes up his eyebrows a little bit. You really have to know what to look for). He wanted to call. At 19 minutes, I said call. I’m not sure what he was going to say. If he was going to cancel; if he was going to ask how much it would cost; if he was just going to ask where the heck the guy was. He didn’t say any of that, because the towing company had no idea who we were and had no order to tow a car from Oceanside to the airport.
Huh.
I called Benjamin while Keith changed the tire. I was having a lot of tire angst and needed to share with someone. Benjamin was an EXCELLENT person to call. A. He has had the misfortune to have changed A LOT of tires in his young life. I sent the potd to him and when he saw it, he said, “I’m on my way! I have skills!” B. When it is time to be done talking, I don’t even have to be polite or anything. I just say, I’m going now, bye, and I am off the phone.
I got off the phone (I know how cell phones work. I know I can talk in the car. But it was not time for that). We drove 2 miles to the tire store. A very nice man took our tire. Neither he nor Keith could see anything wrong with it, but the tire people were going to do their tire magic dance and try to figure it out. Since it was nearly 4pm when we got there, we won’t get it back until tomorrow.
We drove around Oceanside a bit on our little tire and went for a walk. While we were walking and talking about going to Senor Grubby’s for Valentine Mexican food, we went past this adorable strip mall sign for grilled cheese. I thought the cheese and the bread, and the egg and the bacon, holding hands was perfect for Valentine’s Day, so that is where we went for dinner. It was yummy, but very rich. Man, I sound like an old person. We stopped and bought a bottle of Ginger Ale to drink while we watched an episode of Julia (the show about Julia Child). I saw a movie about Julia Child once with friends and one friend commented that she would love it if her husband loved her as much as Julia’s husband loved her (so much love). I did not miss the opportunity to say, “Mine does.” I think that all the time while we are watching this show, and especially today on Valentine’s Day.
