It Could Have Been Worse

Last Friday I pulled into a shopping center to meet Em at the wicked awesome New England store Christmas Tree Shops and slowed to a stop behind a few other cars. Then I heard a LOUD grinding sound. Imagine running over a cement block and/or a tree stump. I put it in reverse and nothing happened. I got out of the car and noticed the right side of the car was low in the front. Differential Diagnosis: broken axle, flat tire, cracked flux capacitor. The wheel looked fine despite its funny angle and the fact that the whole car and wheel well rested on it. So I figured it was the axle, i.e. the thing the wheel is attached to got tired and wanted to rest on the ground.

The next few minutes are sponsored by Google and AAA. Since we didn't have the number for our mechanic, I utilized my new found tool 1-800-GOOG 411 and immediately was connected to my auto body shop (we found them during the telephone pole incident, or haven't you heard of that one). This was followed by a call to AAA who dispatched someone to tow my car leaving behind some large pieces of metal on the ground that I hoped the mechanic didn't want saved.

Anyway, to skip forward. The awesome mechanic Dave and his dad Jim (Both of whom Emily admittedly has a crush on) fixed out car in three days at a very low price! They rock! However I just await the next problem, especially because they wouldn't accept the car as payment. I offered to give them the car if I could drive it for the next three months instead of paying them. They didn't want it and hinted that it may not last three months!

Moral: People always say "It could have been worse."This is one time where I really did feel thankful that it happened when and where it did. Had it happened 5 minutes earlier on the freeway it would have been a horrible if not fatal crash.