What a day.
// August 20th, 2008 // 7 Comments » // Blog
Today started off pretty well. I mean, I worked at eight which is not exactly my favourite way to be spending the morning (because I defnitely prefer the night shift) but I got a decent amount of sleep so I wasn’t ridiculously tired. I made it to work early and managed to stop at Timmies along the way.
Work itself was slow (and I have a few stories to post later about people who can’t do math) and eventually three o’clock rolled around which meant I was off from the campground to the conservatory.
Just as always, I headed off down the highway, but then my car started doing this weird jerking thing. Like it took a while for it to actually pick up speed, which was pretty scary when I was getting onto the highway. I figured it was just getting warmed up (or something) because it started to run normally after that little burst.
I’m driving along and suddenly my car just… stops working. The engine oil light comes on (as well as a shitload of other ones I’ve never seen lit up before) and I couldn’t steer. I pretty much freaked out and some how managed to pull over to the side of the road. Luckily, I ended up on the off ramp to one of the exits — out of the way of most of the traffic.
After I somewhat calmed down, I got out my cell phone to phone my mum.
.
.
.
Yeah, it’s dead. Completely dead. Figures, right?
So I decide that the only thing I can really do (besides sit there and cry) is to hop the fence to the nearby mini-putt course. So I do that, and I’m shaking like crazy because I’m so stressed out. I cut my hands up and getting down I landed really weirdly so my leg hurts so badly right now. My shoes kept either falling off or getting stuck in the fence holes so it was quite the adventure just getting OVER the fence. Pretty sure the people who were using the mini-putt were like WTF IS THIS GIRL DOING. Especially because I still had my staff shirt on and my car was more or less hidden by a bunch of bushes. So you wouldn’t have seen it if you weren’t looking (it’s green, too).
I somehow made it to the ‘front desk’ sort of part and asked the guy working if I could use the phone. I told him my car had broken down on the highway and my cell phone had died. He was really nice, and told me to go ahead. So I got a hold of my mum, who called Bev (because I was going to be late for work) and CAA.
I cleaned up a bit in the washroom there (my hands were POUNDING because they hurt so bad and I couldn’t make them stop bleeding… they’re not really deep cuts, but you know how sometimes you can skin your hand kind of, and it won’t stop bleeding and it stings like mad?). My mum told me she’d come pick me up at the mini-putt, so stay there.
So I was walking back and forth, making sure the car was okay and waiting for her. The CAA guy came, so I had to hop over the fence again. I tried to get his attention from the other side, but it was too noisy. He had no idea where I came from and laughed at me when I said I had hopped over the fence. O_O
I got what I needed from the car, showed him my CAA card and he said he’d two it to whatever mechanic my mum told him to take it to. He was a little … not rude, but like, “Omg this stupid girl” kind of attitude until I showed him my member card. Then he was nicer. I apologized to him for being so frazzled.
So to wait for my mum, I had to make another journey over the damn fence. Where I caught my shirt, lost my shoe twice (so I was half way over and had to climb back down) and cut my wrist a bit. ~_~ Somewhere during the fence hopping I also managed to bruise my knee. The fence was really … rusty, so now I’m paranoid I’m going to get lockjaw or something. I cleaned my cuts out but my parents make me paranoid. My dad was totally joking around, but he’s the one who told me my appendix would burst and I’d die, when I didn’t even have an appendix so you can see why his words aren’t always exactly… reassuring.
I had an extra shirt (beacuse I wasn’t going to wear my campground shirt to the conservatory) so at least I could change and calm down a bit. My parents both came to pick me up, and I ended up making it to work for about 4:15 (I was supposed to start at four). Bev was able to get a hold of my 4:00 student and ask them to come at 5:00, so I didn’t miss anyone.
My mum called the mechanic and they said it would cost about $2000 to repair the car.
.
.
.
Pretty sure the car isn’t even worth that much. So we’re not going to, and I’m going to take my mum’s old car (she got a new one recently) so I’ll have that until I go.
But wow, what a horrible hour. The worst part was when the steering wheel stopped working. I had a panic attack beacuse here I am going like 110km/hr (which lucky for me was not the speed I normally go at) and I can’t actually drive the car. I can’t speed up but of course, I could slow down. I was so worried I wouldn’t get out of the way and that some transport truck would crush me or something. O_O
So I’m reasonably safe and sound, the car is pretty much gone (I have to get some stuff out of it, but other than that, I’ll never see it again.
