How NOT to Tow a Car

We packed up the soccer kids into Shirra's minivan and started down the driveway. The car felt odd; I got out to inspect, but I knew what it was before I'd looked: The car had a massively flat tire. It wasn't just a big soggy. By the time we noticed it, the tire was practically off the rim.



Luckily we've always belonged to AAA. I sent Shirra off in my Aztek and phoned for roadside assistance. Within an hour (ok, exactly 59 minutes later), the tow truck had arrived. The driver phoned me from the bottom of the hill. We decided that he'd drive past the car, turn around, drive past again (this time facing the right way), and then put the minivan onto his flatbed so that he could tow it into town. Then his truck got stuck in the muck.



He tried to rescue himself, to no avail.



So he called for backup. As I write this, another truck is en route from Beacon. It's going to reverse itself in our neighbor's driveway (nearly a quarter mile away), back up thru the curve, and pull my guy out. From that point, it should all go as planned.

I Tooted in Anger

Maeve asked me to drive her to school today as a little treat. She seems to enjoy the bus, but we always have fun singing on our way to school, and she loves sitting beside me in the little Smart Car. When we got to the school, I decided to drive in the equivalent of the supermarket fast lane. This is an area around the right side of the building with a lollipop turn: You drop off your kid and, seconds later, drive off. It's only one lane wide and is closed off with a curb on both sides.

The woman in the minivan in front of me let her kid out of the door. Then another kid got out. Then a third. I was beginning to expect some clowns to step out of the car next. The clown who exited the car turned out to be the mom. She left the vehicle, chatted with a teacher, and then noticed something one of the kids had left in the car. She went back to the car, retrieved the item, and went into the building to give it to the kid. On her way back to the car, she talked some more to one of her kids and made a quick appointment with a passing teacher. Meanwhile, since we were kept from leaving, the queue was getting so long that cars were starting to have difficulty entering in order to drop off other kids.

Finally, Clown Mom started walking back around her car to get in. Just to make sure that she didn't get any ideas about going back to run a few more errands, I gave my car a little toot. As she started to get into her car, I hear her tell the teacher, "I think he must have bumped his horn by accident." Nope. And you're lucky this wasn't happening in Manhattan, Clown. I would have been sitting on that horn, and I wouldn't have waited quite so long.