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October 09, 2009
An interesting week
Twilight: movie people, originally uploaded by maraniia.
So, I had my trip to Philadelphia on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday, I was Detroit and the always-lovely Flint. In Michigan I discovered the joys of the Coney Dog, which as far as I can tell is the same thing they have at Skyline Chili in Cincinnati. However, in Michigan, there's a coney dog restaurant on every corner. I'm not sure why I didn't notice this until yesterday. It was quite delicious.
But you're probably wondering why my picture today is of the cast of Twilight. I'll get to that.
Back to Tuesday. As some of you know, my dear car, Yoshi, has been through a lot in his lifetime. And so it was that on Tuesday morning, I drove Yoshi out of my parking space and onto Lake Shore Drive, where I noticed the check battery light was on. I paid no attention, as my car often flashes warning lights. Soon I was on 55, when I noticed the check engine light was now on, and the car was overheating. Stupidly, I drove all the way to Midway Airport, where the poor car died in the entranceway to the garage. Now, not only was my car broken, but it was blocking the way into the garage. Luckily I was able to jump start the car, drive it to a safe parking space, and catch my flight to Philadelphia.
Then the fun began. I called AAA, who promised to have a truck there to tow me, and that it would be a truck that could fit in the garage. So, when I got back to Midway at 9 that night, I eagerly anticipated my upcoming awesome ride with a tow truck driver. But, when the tow truck driver arrived, he informed me that his truck could not fit in the garage, and could I please push the car down to the exit? I said this would not work. He then said he'd get another truck to come, who could fit in the garage.
So, I sat in my car, listening to WGN. It was a particularly dreadful program, hosted by two pedantic professorial types who were carrying on about Samuel Johnson and what a dour person he was. 45 minutes later, the next tow truck arrived, and he too said he could not fit in the garage. I silently cursed AAA, and then told the driver I could not drive the car down the garage, and I need a truck who can get in the garage. He went home.
Because it was about 11 o'clock at this point, I went back to the airport and hailed a cab. The cabbie grumbled the entire way about having to accept my credit card for the $40 ride home, which really just topped the day off.
After another cab ride back to Midway on Wednesday morning, more wrangling revealed that AAA could not find a tow truck that could fit in the garage. I then consulted with the parking people at Midway, and they gave me the name of a company. Yet, when I called them, the man on the other end said his company doesn't go to Midway, only O'Hare, and he doesn't know how they got his number.
The only thing that kept me from launching a nuclear missile of profanity was the entire absurdity of the situation.
Finally I did some googling, and the first tow truck company I called promised they could fit in the garage. I was a bit wary, but when I came back yesterday, he was there waiting. We went right in, he hooked my car up to the truck, and away we went. My destination was a mechanic way on the North Side - a long trip from Midway (which is on the Southwest Side), but even worse during rush hour.
About this time, I noticed my driver had a DVD player in the truck. He was watching "Twilight." And so I hopped in the truck, we drove an hour and a half up to the mechanic, and we watched Twilight. We left Yoshi there, he dropped me off at the Brown Line, and I was on my way. Biggity bam.
It was quite possibly one of my strangest tow truck experiences. God knows I've had a lot of them. For example, my family and I were driving on the expressway between Montreal and Quebec City. As was its wont, our Chevy Suburban died. This was in the days before American cell phones worked in Canada, and my dad and I trudged about a mile to a rest area.
We didn't make it, because an elderly French couple picked us up and gave us a ride. They spoke not a word of English, but took us to the rest area. There, we called for a tow truck.
When our tow truck arrived, he seemed rather nervous. Then we figured out why - a second truck soon arrived. This second truck was actually the one that AAA had called, and the first one was a rogue driver who picked up the call on the radio and hoped to swoop in. These two fellows spoke little English, but eventually we got the first one to leave in exchange for $20.
Our driver then took us all the way to Quebec City, where the Chevrolet dealer also spoke no English. Their diagnosis of the car's problem: "alternator, kaput." Priceless.
entry no. 1410
Posted at October 9, 2009 03:16 PM