Thursday, February 25, 2010

TMI Thursday: Winter-1 Sean-0

(If you're looking for the Championship of the Best Pittsburgh Sports Blog Tournament, please scroll down to the next post.)

I give up winter. You win! The record snowfall in the DC area has taken its toll, but it’s more than the snow. The bushes that line the one end of the driveway now take up part of the driveway. I’m not sure if they’ll ever go back to their previous position. However, it is the potholes that delivered the knockout blow on Monday night.

After leaving trivia night, I hit a massive pothole just before entering the Beltway immediately resulting in a loud clunking sound for each tire rotation. After having two flat tires in a span of one week last year, I thought I had another one. Actually, I hoped that it was just a flat tire though this sounded different. I pulled over but there was not enough light to see the damage. I drove another few blocks hoping that there would be a gas station to no avail, so I ended up pulling into a bus stop area off the main road. Although the tire looked and felt fine, I wasn’t chancing driving on the Beltway and I-66 (the worst road in America).

10:29pm – Called AAA. Spent 22 minutes on the phone because they could not determine where I was located. I thought I was on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda; however, it turns that the Beltway is the border between Bethesda and Rockville and the road changes its name to Rockville Pike. Who decided that roads need to change names every few miles in the DC area?

Other highlights of the call:
- AAA operator attempting to spell Wisconsin starting with Wics and it got worse from there.
- I explained nearly 20 times that I was next to the Grosvenor Metro station. I probably pronounced Grosvenor 20 different ways.

10:51pm – Finish phone call. Told a tow truck would be there by 11:30.

11:33pm – Call AAA. Truck will be there by 11:56.

11:50pm – Tow truck arrives.

11:55pm – In the process of attaching my car, a bus arrives but cannot get through because of the tow truck. Naturally, there was only one bus that stopped by during the 1+ hour I was already there.

Did you know that AAA tow trucks cannot divert from the GPS directions? Instead of going directly to the Beltway, the GPS had us go through a residential neighborhood before proceeding to the Beltway. According to the driver, he almost got reprimanded once for not following GPS directions that had him going the opposite way on a one-way street. Way too much Big Brother stuff going on there.

12:30am – Arrive at gas station/service station.

Around 12:50am – Arrive home.

It turned out that damage wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared. The service station straightened the left front wheel bead (I don’t know what this is) and replaced and balanced the tire which had an internal leak that could not be repaired.

I’m not sure if there’s much of a TMI in this TMI Thursday. If anything, I learned that if I’m going to be out unplanned until nearly 1:00AM, it’s best to call your wife to let her know the situation.

The other morale of the story is that we finished 2nd at trivia night!

For more TMI Thursdays, please visit LiLu and you can click here to see all of my TMI Thursday archives.

3 comments:

Messiah said...

Clearly, it's GROVE-nurr. But if you're talking to someone on a national intake number, they probably just think you're mispronouncing Governor.

That really sucks, Sean. Miller Lite on me next time.

ClevelandPoet said...

I'm sure the bus loved you!

you should have mentioned to AAA that you finished 2nd that may have helped you along.

Sean said...

Messiah - The episode turned into a good (well, at least mediocre) blog post and story, so something positive came from the night.

ClevelandPoet - Actually, the bus driver didn't look upset. After I hit the flat tire, I noticed at least 2 other cars just off the side of the road with their flashers on. I think he probably understood better than most the pothole problems.

The AAA guy turned out to be pretty cool. Maybe I should have invited him to the next trivia night!