A “Wheel”-uva Day!

Arg! Yes I have to get that out. It was just a really “tired” out day!

Warning: quite long but you may find it funny. Go ahead and laugh. Or cry. Or laugh till you cry…

It all started, well, sometime last week when Alan noticed the tires on our van looking a little low. Just enough to notice but not enough to say whoa, we better look into that! But really, wouldn’t one look into that anyway?

We probably should have looked into it.

Today was not a day to have to deal with tire issues. Last night I received a last minute call from someone asking if I would teach the Beehives cake decorating at their activity the next day (which would be tonight). I thought about it and saw that yes indeed I was free and that I would love to. So I agreed.

Alan had already been to the store when I got the call so it was too late to ask him to pick up a few things that I needed. I figured it would be easy enough for me to run that errand today after dropping Samantha off at preschool. Then I would come home and make frosting and get everything together before picking her up from preschool at 3:00.

The other thing on the agenda for the day was a swimming lesson at 4:00 also for Samantha. I figured I would get home from that in time to make dinner, feed the baby and put him to bed before I left for the activity with my stuff already gathered and prepped and in the car ready to go.

Weeelll…the best laid plans…

I loaded up the three kiddos and headed out to preschool to have Samantha there by 12:30. We made it down the road as far as one (one) house when I realized I had a flat tire. I’m frustrated at this because, well, it’s frustrating, but also because we’d seen the tire mighty low when we were in Delaware on Sunday. We figured we’d fix it Monday evening. Somehow we forgot about it. Doh!

I unloaded the kids and we walked back home. Thank goodness we hadn’t gotten very far! I called Alan and he called AAA. They sent someone out to put the spare tire on for us. Somehow they’d gotten our address confused. They knocked on a neighbor’s door who didn’t know who’s van that was. So they called me and I came right out only to find the AAA guy had just discovered our other neighbor’s classic cars in his driveway and was drooling over them. Said neighbor was outside and they got to talking. Meanwhile I’m standing there with baby in arms clearing my throat. Um-hmm (cough), yeah, I’m right here…

No biggie though. I thought it was kind of funny actually. He did get right to work but once that spare tire came into view his “uh-oh” was not comforting. It turns out the spare tire was a previous balding FLAT tire. Doh! again!

So AAA had to call in a tow truck because the truck they sent was just a tool truck, not a tow truck. So they towed the car to Pep Boys which is only a mile from home so our tow was free. Yay! And I broke the news to a sad Samantha that she wouldn’t make it to preschool today. We had tears at first but then we had a very energetic Samantha all afternoon. I wonder what they are doing in preschool that makes her so energetic! She was very bouncy!

Thinking back on Sunday, we had also noticed the right front tire had some staples in it but it wasn’t going flat or so we thought. Now today, since we needed a new spare we had to buy two tires. So we asked Pep Boys to put the two new tires on the front and put the right front tire in place of the spare. Then we would remember that if we ever had to use the spare we would have to replace it quickly.  We’d hoped this would save us from having to buy three new tires today. We didn’t think we would need it right away. Famous last words.

We received word that the car would be done around 3:00. Thank goodness Mike was home so I donned my sneakers and put Joseph in the pouch so I could take him along thinking he’d really enjoy a walk. I was just about to head out the door when it dawned on me that Joseph would need his car seat for the ride back. Oh! Duh! And still wanting to take him with me I thought I could put him in his car seat and hook it into the stroller. But the stroller was in the back of the van! At Pep Boys! Doh! again!

So I left Joseph et. al. with Mike and walked the mile myself to get the van and got home just in time to rush us all out to Samantha’s swimming lesson. Coming out of the swimming lesson guess what we found! The left rear tire was flat! Oh maaannnnn…

Okay, so I’m stressing out! Katherine is screaming at me because she wanted to walk across the parking lot by herself and I wouldn’t let her and she wanted to sit in Joseph’s car seat and I wouldn’t let her and all this after having a temper tantrum in the Community House while Samantha was swimming. I’m worried about making it to the activity tonight because, you see, there was no time for me to go to the grocery store so I didn’t have my ingredients for frosting yet. I still had dinner to make and a baby to feed. Not to mention washing my tips off and making the frosting (for which I still needed ingredients…you get the idea) and the tire was flat and we were stranded and I had no cell phone and we would have to wait and it was already almost 5:00 and! and! and! URG!

Thankfully a woman coming out of the Community house lent me her phone and I called Alan and Alan called AAA again. They probably had a good laugh. They showed up, changed the tire and in the process broke one of the bolts. That alone was a $50 addition to the already high cost of this little adventure! Ug-guh! Of course I didn’t know that then. The AAA guy said they only cost like $5 or so. I was going to say labor is such a pain. Well, it is. (That could be taken differently. But anyway…) I guess those mechanics have to eat too. I hope they get a good chunk of that fee! Because if it goes to the company I might just have to jump over the counter at them and wring some necks! I didn’t even think to ask if the mechanic actually gets that money. Darn. I should have.

But back to the story. Alan went to the store for me and went home to get dinner made while Samantha, Katherine, Joe-boy and I waited at the Community House and then we were headed home by 5:30.

But, there’s more. That spare tire that we knew we were going to have to replace right away was now in place of the tire that just went flat. And guess what. Half-way home I noticed that our friendly little air pressure light came on again signaling an impending flat tire. At this point if I had a cell phone I would have called to cancel for tonight’s class that I was seriously doubting I’d make. And I prayed really hard that we would make it home before the tire went flat.

We did. Thank goodness! But I wasn’t about to take the van out anywhere again except straight back to Pep Boys. They were thankfully open until 9 so after Alan served dinner and while I made frosting and fed a baby (not at the same time mind you but that would have been great if it were possible!) Alan took the van and walked back in time for me to leave for the church. He even loaded my box in to the car for me.

The plan was for me to make it back home in time for Alan to walk over and get the van before the store closed. We figured that was the end of the adventure for the day. I was off to teach my cake decorating class and the van was getting two more shoes replaced. And Alan was home with the kids. All’s well that ends well.

I arrived at the church house all ready to teach my class and only a couple minutes late when lo and behold! Another tire went flat!!

No, just kidding! But almost as bad, it seemed, at this point. I’d left my tips and bags at home! Doh! (again) I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. I think I laughed. But I was thanking my lucky stars that my mom was there too and was able to run and get them for me while I started the class. And she even stayed to teach us how to make roses. Finally! The evening ended on a high note. It was a fun lesson and we discovered some hidden talent and I went off afterward to pay for the van so that Alan wouldn’t be rushed to walk over to get it before the store closed.

Of course they recognized me when I went in to pay for it and get the key. I’d only made it half-way across the store when the man at the counter says to me (half-way across the store): “Sienna?” ummm…yeah. “You’ve had a bad day haven’t you?” ummm…yeah.

And as I’m writing this I’d suddenly realized that I’d put the van key in my pocket instead of back on it’s chain when I drove the other car home and I’d forgotten to give it to Alan. I panicked when I thought maybe he’d left for the car by foot and without a key! I checked. He was still home. Whew!

I think I’m ready for bed and this day to be done!

Um…can I have a better day tomorrow?  I don’t think that will be difficult.