Let’s walk through 4 days in the life of Matt:

Friday: $205 parking ticket downtown, goes to $410 if I don’t pay within 45 days

Saturday: Fine. (Whew!)

Sunday: If you were in traffic around seven PM on I-45, that was me. I was cruising along comfortable at around 70 miles per hour when all of a sudden the car starts shaking violently and making terrible noises. I manage to stop it, but unfortunately I’m in the innermost lane, and there’s no shoulder. Hazard lights are on, luckily no one hits anyone, but traffic is starting to pile up behind me. I get out and walk around the car to see what it is, it looks like my rear right tire has completely exploded, as seen in the pictures below. I’m already on the phone with AAA and they say they’ll put the call on “rush.” About fifteen minutes later, traffic is backed up a least a mile and I’m still sitting in the lane with my hazards on, waiting for the tow truck to get there so I can get out of traffic. A very kind man stopped behind us and said he would help us get over to the shoulder; next thing I know, he’s walking out on the freeway stopping traffic, and I manage to get the car to limp over to the right shoulder. I thank the man profusely when he comes over, and he asks if there is anything else he can do and then drives away. A few minutes after that the first tow truck pulls up, not AAA, so useless. Another one about a half an hour later, same story. I get back on the phone with AAA and they are no help at all, they say the call is being taken care of as fast as possible. More time passes, and by now we’ve been there at least a hour and a half, possibly more. Finally a third tow truck pulls up—I walked up tentatively hoping that this could be the one. He tells me he’s with AAA but he isn’t the one they sent, he just saw me on the side of the road and stopped. After another call he gets approval and fixes everything up just fine. However by that time my study group that was meeting at six was long gone.

Monday: I hope that this is the stupidest thing I do all year, but I am ashamed to say I actually ran out of gas. My gauge is erratic in its reporting, and I’ve had it be where it was today for a couple of days before, but today the car just stopped running. Luckily it was on a side street; unluckily it wasn’t in the best part of town. There was a gas station only a block away though, but they didn’t have any gas canisters. So Mat and I ended up carrying about a gallon of gasoline in various containers to and from the car until it had enough to start and actually drive to the gas station.

Although things were pretty bad, they could have been much worse. On Sunday I had actually left my cell phone at IHOP that morning, so I was without communication that day. (I did get the cell phone that evening; a manager had picked it up and nothing had happened to it.) Luckily Sarah had her cell phone and we were able to get in contact with AAA, even if their truck never came. Also the company was good, and the only thing that got a scratch on it is that tire. I’m ready to pick up and move to the mountains though :).