I love AAA

Yes, it’s true.  I appeared in public with foils on my head.  Yes, that is the AAA tow truck with lights flashing.  Yes, these two things would only happen simultaneously to ME!

Today started out like any other ordinary day…  we homeschooled; I dropped Keeve off for band; I finally went to the Social Security Administration to apply for Nora’s SS number (and they only printed it incorrectly once… that’s not bad); I picked up a refund check at the doctor’s office; I bought a few gifts at Target and then went to get my hair colored and cut.

Lo and behold, in between Target and the salon, I realized my front tire was flat.  Not just super low, FLAT.  Knowing that a color/cut takes an hour, I called AAA, knowing also that the tow truck driver NEVER arrives in less than an hour.  The timing was perfect in my little head.  As the picture shows…. it didn’t exactly turn out that way.  This was the fastest tow truck driver on the planet.  TWENTY minutes!  That’s it!  Just as the last foil went in, my cell phone rang, “I’m here!”  Oh brother…. and out into the warm afternoon I went, somewhat humiliated and embarrassed.

We are not putting one slim dime into this van with the flat tire.  My dear husband has tomorrow off work so we can go get a newer van and trade in this one.  It has over 220,000 miles and has served us well.  But right now it needs new shocks, new tires and the transmission changes gears randomly while driving, so that probably needs to be replaced as well.  I said all that to say, the tow truck driver got out the spare…. that has a bulge in it.  He put it on, but wouldn’t let me drive the van.  It wasn’t safe.  At all.  So he towed the van with the bulgy tire to our home 7 miles away…. and I stayed to get a shampoo, cut and style.

My husband was supposed to be passing by this area on the way home from work in about twenty minutes, so I called him and asked him to pick me up.  That sounds all well and good too, but there was a huge accident on the freeway and it took Rick 1 hr and 10 minutes to get to me.  “Frazzled” doesn’t quite do justice to my state of mind when he finally arrived.  I think he may have been going to ask me if I wanted to go to the movies…. but one look at me and he didn’t.  :o)  Wise man, my husband.

So, FYI: next time you schedule your hair appointment, don’t call AAA at the beginning of the procedure.

Tahoe Traveling Tidbits

Somehow Crosby road trips never go down without a hitch… and I’m not talking about the trailer hitch.  What was supposed to be a 14 hour road trip turned into a 17 hour saga.  Of course, you are privy to the nitty-gritty details right here on MSJ! Lucky you.

Somewhere north of Coso Junction and south of Bartlett on Highway 395 in the interior of the great state of California we stopped for fuel and when I hopped out of the car, curious if I could still feel my feet, I heard a hissing noise.  Even though I needed to desperately visit the restroom, I silently investigated the sound until I determined that it was coming from the front left tire.  Not good.  No, not good at all.  I informed Captain, My Captain, and went inside.  My husband did indeed solve the problem somewhat temporarily with Fix-A-Flat …. and tire repair job in an aerosol can.  Amazing!  The hissing behind us, we ventured back onto the 395.

Sadly, a vibration began not long after the F-A-F was sprayed into the tire.  The vibrating increased until Bishop, CA.  We love Bishop, CA.  If you haven’t been there, you are missing not only the certified purest water in the nation, but an award-winning bakery with the Original Sheepherder Bread and a lovely park with a creek and baby duckies. We stop there every year… both directions.  It has remarkable views of the Sierra Nevadas to the west and another nameless mountain range to the east… and snow-covered peaks.  Lovely sight to behold.

A tire shop was needed… badly.  Rick decided to leave Larisa, Keeve, Trixie (the dog) and myself at the wonderful park and take Austin to go find a tire.  We didn’t really plan the park adventure very well.  We had no cell phone, no watch, no money, no knowledge of where Rick and Austin went, no food and we discovered later, no cardboard or sharpie pens to make signs that read “Stranded, Starving, Sad.”  We figured we could make a few bucks while we waited, but no.  We weren’t even prepared for that!  Larisa did have two water bottles, but at 91 degrees, they didn’t last long. 

At the park, we were resting peacefully (before the panic, the realization that we were indeed stranded, and the hunger set in) on a bench watching mothers and toddlers feed the ducks in a small lake.  The scene was right out of some romantic movie with Weeping Willow trees, a gazebo and everything, except I was on the park bench with my daughter, son, and our dog, not my lovable husband.  Anyway, Trixie was behaving quite nicely….. until a maintenance man drove by on a golf cart.  She took off like a shot, between my legs, under the bench and after the man.  Her leash is one of those retractable thin rope kind that only work on dogs less than 12 pounds.  Stupidly, I grabbed the rope and felt the burn on my pinky finger almost immediately, but not quite fast enough to let go and be free from rope burn.  Owwwie!  Stupid dog.  Now I was stranded and wounded.

We moved to the bakery patio on main street, hoping to see our van shortly… with a new tire.  The kind lady behind the counter, wearing the little Dutch white hat pinned to her hair, did fill our water bottles several times for us.  And there were samples put out every 20 minutes of sticky buns, chili cheese bread, the award-winning Sheepherder bread and shortbread cookies.  At least we wouldn’t go into a diabetic coma!  Well, come to find out.  It was while we were sitting at the bakery we realized the extent of our unpreparedness.  We did spy a cardboard box behind the store adjacent to the bakery that we could have used for a sign, but we still didn’t solve the no-sharpie pen problem.  We played “Name someone who has that car” for 90 minutes as each car drove by.  We named almost everyone we know, but in Bishop there are a LOT of truck drivers, so Pastor Dan and Regan won.

Eventually Rick did return and the tire with the hiss was not the vibrating problem at all.  The right front tire developed a bulge, probably because it was not receiving the same attention, love and care as the other front tire… so it caused the vibrating front end, hoping for some love.  So, two new tires later…. Rick came to save us and thankfully ended our bakery loitering situation.

See?  Crosby road trips are the BEST!

“Yes, M’am, I’m In a Safe Location”

Remember a few weeks back when my week was brought to you by the number 2?  Two flat tires…. two cars…   well, it was actually 5, yes F-I-V-E flat tires over a period of five weeks on our two cars.  The final one (I hope) was last week when I arrived at Keeve’s hockey practice.  I hopped out of the van to hear and watch the rear tire go flat in 15 seconds.  Quicker than usual, I thought. 

I called Rick and he confirmed that I should call AAA.  Believe me when I say that AAA is not making ANY money off of the Crosbys!  I’m so familiar with the drill that I save the AAA operator considerable time by answering her questions IN ORDER before she asks them.  “Hello, I am in a safe location.  I have a flat tire on my 2005 silver Dodge Caravan.  Here is my membership number and my cell phone number.” 

And you know things are not going exactly peachy when the AAA driver’s first words are, “Hey, I recognize you!”  Yeah, yeah, smarty pants, just fix the tire.  Not long afterward he added, “Good thing you got a full size spare!”  I wasn’t quite sure how to take that??? 

Seems there was a large crack in the tire.  Rick asked if I hit a curb or something bigger. I refrained from saying “You mean like the metal beam by your parking spot at the airport?”….. which he rubbed up against .  I’m slowly learning to be such a NICE wife.  It’s only taken me 21.4 years.

The needing-attention-flat tire in the back of the van has become so common place now, I keep a towel in the van to lay it on and I just stack the groceries on top of it…. and the hockey bags… and Jill’s card table for Bunko night.

All this does make my heart glad, however, for not long ago in a dire, out-of-town roadside situation I called AAA to discover that my sweet, economical husband had removed my name from the coverage plan.  What was he thinking?  I think I might just remove him from the laundry plan.  Before the shock wore off, I called Rick to see if the AAA lady was credible.  It was true.  Am I not worthy of roadside coverage???  His explanation, weak as it was, included illogical logic that I drive the reliable vehicle and HE is the only one who truly needs roadside assistance.  I don’t exactly remember my response to Rick at that moment. He probably does.  Kind of like when I mentally blocked the horror of my semi-Dorothy Hamill haircut in the 70s.  But within the hour, I had the AAA gold-package coverage and have used it at least four times since that memorable day.

Thank you, Honey, for taking care of me.

The Number Two

Interesting how life comes at you. This week was obviously brought to us by the Number Two at the Crosby household. In retrospect, I’m wondering if there is a pattern that rotates week by week through the numbers zero to nine, and I just never noticed???

What is she talking about? you ask yourself. Let me briefly explain the twos of this week.

Two flat tires on two different cars two days apart…. weird, I know. Rick called me one evening and shouted in a half-frantic voice over a very loud vibrating noise, “I think my tire is going flat,” BLAM! “Yep, my tire just blew. I’ll call you later.” I never said a word to him, I just listened to the story as it occurred in real time. Two days later Rick woke me up at 5:00 a.m. (two and a half hours TOO early) to tell me that my van had a flat tire and he had to go to work. Of course, it was one of the days I had to drive somewhere….

Emails have arrived this week from two different ladies, both introducing themselves as our new adoption case worker at our new agency, Gladney Center for Adoption. I still haven’t figured that one out. I’m simply glad for double man-power aimed at Zaza’s file in Texas.

We have two extra kids for the next two days.

And my all time favorite TWO of the week,  the two Beatrix Potter Collection books.  I was digging through the books at Goodwill and came across said BP book FULL of her original illustrations of bunnies in jackets with brass buttons.  Slowly I paged my way through Benjamin, Jemima Puddle Duck, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and all the others. They were all there in full glory.  Already piled in my cart were important and pertinent books that corresponded to our current and upcoming homeschool units.  So with a sigh, knowing we did not NEED it, I put Beatrix and her friends back on the shelf. (Did I fail to mention that Miss. Potter is my all time favorite movie?)  The next day I received a wrapped gift from my friend Darla.  She smiled and told me it was for Zaza’s birthday, because we don’t know when her birthday is yet and we’ve known and loved her for a year and a half, so we obviously missed her birthday.  Yes, it was the exact same hardcover Beatrix Potter Collection book that I longingly drooled over.  Inside her garage sale find Darla wrote, “For Zaza!  It’s your mama’s favorite book!”   :o)

If next week is brought to us by the number nine, I’m hoping for nine days under 85 degrees, nine coupon books in Sunday’s paper, nine phone calls from long distant friends and gas for 99 cents.