Last Tuesday my mom and I determined I needed to make the eleven hour journey up to visit the Minneapolis/St. Paul area because of a medical issue my body has had for four and a half years. It’s a pretty major issue that makes sitting or lying down or walking or any kind of activity more painful than it really should be; it can be operated on, but only when it reaches a certain point. Which is why I was uncertain as to how I felt when this issue came out of its semi-dormant state of being (which means it reached That Point) and flattened me by turning into a full-blown Issue. But I made doctor and surgery appointments as necessary, resorted to antibiotics and pain medication (yes, how rare for me!), shuffled around wherever I walked, and slept poorly, waking often to try get comfortable.
Previous to this turn of events, my wheel on my Yaris became flat. Actually it was the tire that became flat because the wheel had a little bump in the steel frame. (Hmmm interesting.) Toyota affirmed a week ago Monday they would have a wheel delivered and available to attach to my vehicle by Wednesday 25 February. Unfortunately, they were unable to keep their promise, even with eight days notice!, and I had to get my vehicle off it’s donut before I could drive up to River Falls. Monday, when it was clear to me Toyota was unable and unwilling to work any magic to even get a spare set of wheels (read: free loaner vehicle), I started panicking. I looked at train tickets–too expensive–and even thought about taking Elav’s car–too noisy and without cruise control. Thankfully I am married to a wonderfully resourceful man; he took my wheel and tire around to tire shops Tuesday morning (The Yaris Driving Day), heard a lot of excuses (“too much structural damage”) and finally a shop simply began to slug away at the metal and ten minutes later (and a whopping $9.50) the tire was holding air!! (P.S. Elav learned that people have driven on donut(s) for whole summers, so don’t believe that 40-50 mile stuff they all say.)
Sadly, this is not the ending of the story. As I was on my drive up north this Tuesday evening, with the tire succeeding excellently with its air-holding capabilities, I was listening to a captivating story on Compact Disc (CD). It was so captivating that I was in a completely new time-zone before I even knew it! No joke. I crossed the boarder from Illinois into Indiana before I realized that I was over 60 miles out of the way. So I did the only option I had: I turned the CD off, turned around and called a friend… in a situation like this, the only thing you can do is ignore the fact that you’ve just added two hours onto a six hour drive until you’ve reached the destination and can kind of grimace about it. (On the upside, I did get to listen to my story CD for a good two hours longer than I thought I could tonight. heh heh)
I’ve reached my destination for the night: Rockford, IL at my parents-in-law’s house. Tomorrow I continue on to my parent’s house on a road I am very familiar with and Thursday I have surgery for the first time since my wisdom teeth (does that even count?).
