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Thursday, June 22, 2017

Sucky Weather!

There is nothing like getting all gussied up to go to an afternoon play,  just getting on the interstate to get to said play, and hearing sirens the entire way because the entire county is under a tornado warning. It does make you turn the radio on to see exactly where they are supposed to hit. Since I was headed east and the storms were tracking north from the west, I figured I had enough of a head start to outrun them, plus they were not supposed to touch down in the area where I was headed. But it did get a little unnerving hearing them scream the whole 30 minute drive.

I made it to the play, enjoyed seeing all my Independence Place friends perform then got ready to drive home. I was barely back on the road headed for home when the blooming sirens started all over again. I turned the radio on a local talk station and  heard tornados were headed toward my neighborhood. Since there was nothing I could do about the storm and they weren't headed where I currently was, I got off the interstate at the next exit and decided to wait for it to pass before driving toward where the action was supposed to happen. 

The first thing I saw was a Sonic, so why not wait while enjoying a frozen limeade, right? I was sitting in my car, sipping my refreshment and listening to some seriously bad music Sonic piped through their speakers when a young male Sonic employer came up to my window and said "You need to go right now and take care of your tire. You probably don't have 4 pounds of air in it."

Of course! I was sitting in the rain, avoiding a possible tornado near my house and now I have a flat tire.  I pulled out of Sonic and drove about 2 blocks to a tire store. They did not have the size my car needed and called about 3 other places close to them to see if anyone else had one in stock,  Since they couldn't find one, (but did locate the nail I had picked up in the tire) they put a temporary patch on it, filled it with air and told me to go straight to my tire guy. He had everything I needed but could not get to it until the next day.  Bummer! So now I was driving about 25 miles in high winds, torrential rain, with a bandaid on a leaky tire with a nail in it.

Since no one knows what actually happened I could create some drama and tell you about the blowout on 459 in the downpour and pull a Blanch DuBois about how I always rely on the kindness of strangers. But, truth be told, the patch held, I made it home fine, met TheHub at the tire place and left my car so she will be among the first in line for service in the morning. (Aside here: How come the tire store nearest my house has 10 of those tires in stock and no one on the other side of town has even one?) Hopefully they will get to it quickly so I will have my vehicle in working order before Mom gets out of her eye appointment. It is at 8:15 and My Beloved Sister is going to take her on her way to work. The appointment always takes an hour, and since Estes opens at 7:30 I am hoping  they will have my car ready by 8:30, so I will be at her doctor's office in plenty of time.  If not Son2 is going to pick up the slack for me.

And you might not think there was an upside to this, but sinceTheHub had to meet me at the tire store (I suppose he could have left me there overnight but that would have been a different type of drama, perhaps with murderous intent) and he was a tad earlier than he usually comes home, we decided to go to a local meat and three for a vegetable dinner. Fried green tomatoes, collards, creamed corn and cornbread__yum! It was still pretty early when we finished eating so we went exploring and wound up at a local brewhouse. If you ever find yourself at Redhills Brewery try the grapefruit brew. It was fantastic!


28 comments:

  1. What a day. I am glad you found the upside - and hope your car is first 'cab off the rank' tomorrow.

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    1. They have 4 bays to service cars so I just hope I am one of four!
      I don't get terribly upset with weather or odd circumstances. I would have preferred to have the flat on a pretty day though.

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    2. Anne,
      You know a Sonic with the flimsy canopies and no walls is just the place to wait out a tornado warning! Funny thing--in 1977bmy best friend was moving the next day, so we took our two-year-olds out to Sonic and sat there during a tornado watch. We laughed the whole time about where we chose to take cover. We did not have a flat tire, but the electricity went out that night and she had the whole house packed for the moving van the next day when two of her four children started throwing up in pitch dark and nothing but tp to clean anything up. I think that your experience and hers may be the inspiration for "when it rains, it pours."

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    3. I was on the other side of town from the potential storm so I was fine. It was just raining hard with occasional flashes of lighting there.
      I had much rather have a flat in the rain than a houseful of barfing kids with no lights and nothing but toilet paper to clean the mess.

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  2. Just curious...where did you go for dinner? We haven't tried Red Hills yet, but I love the local connection. (Glad this story had a good ending!)

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    1. We went to Fried Green Tomatoes. We seem to go there a lot when we need a veggie fix. Red Hills is a nice brewery, with tons of room so you don't feel crowded. They had another with coffee and chocolate notes that was very good too but seems a little heavy for summer.

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    2. Have you tried the place inside the Old Bruno's on Lorna? I understand it has a very good lunch but I have never been there.

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  3. Well as much as the Blanche Dubois story might have made for some great reading, I would mot like to think of you stranded on 459 in the storm.You are good at finding the silver linings-yummy dinner out.

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    1. I have had people in my life who were the gloom and doom prophets of the earth. I found when I was much younger that I had rather laugh, though sometimes that laugh comes after a string of !^%$@(*^%#

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  4. Kudos to the sonic guy for speaking up and possibly saving your life! It is pretty funny that you would wait out the tornado weather at Sonic. Your veggie dinner sounds divine!!!

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    1. The 2nd tornado never touched the ground and was about 25 miles from where I was, so I was fine at Sonic until the flat thing!

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  5. whenever we pick up a nail, or a small pointy stone, we get the tire patched and they always hold until we need tires anyway. but we don't do a lot of highway driving, that could make a difference--so glad the sonic employee noticed it!

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    1. Me too! Unfortunately the nail was in the side of the tire and not able to be patched. I drive the interstate just about daily, even if I only use it for short distances. It is just so much easier to get around that way.

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  6. A whole lot of excitement and not the good kind. Sound like your day ended on a nice not though :)

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    1. You know what they say about what happens. Crappy stuff and good stuff intermingle nearly every day, so I try very hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.

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  7. Wow, what a day. Sounds like one of mine but mine don't have the weather. I am the tornado. I grew up in the Dakotas, so I know all about tornadoes.Fun times sitting in the shelter.

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    1. Our county is quite large and they issue the alerts county wide, so I always try to see where in the county they are headed. I generally don't worry about the alerts but the last time I took shelter was when I noticed a small tree flying sideways across the yard. I cut that one too close

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  8. Ah, too, have always depended on the kindness of strangers. Isn't it interesting that Vivian Leigh won two Academy Awards and both were for playing Southern belles? Man, I'm glad I'm never stuck in a house with barfing kids now and I probably never will be because it doesn't look as if my worthless kids are going to provide me with barfing, pooping grandkids.

    STELLLLLLLLA!

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. hahaha, I do have one granddaughter but she lives so far away I missed most of the pooping stage. So far we have never been there nor has she been here when the barfs hit, but she is only three so there is still plenty of time for that.

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    2. I hope she never barfs on you.

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  9. You made me kind of anxious as I read your story. However, that was all erased away when I read you had creamed corn. Haven't had that in a long time and I used to love it. Yum!

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  10. Glad you made it home safely after all of that drama (including the play that was a LOT of drama :) !! My daughter's Jeep recently fell victim to a tire poker - there was a person using a screwdriver to randomly stab tires (he's since been caught!) and she was lucky he only ruined one of her tires and not all 4!

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  11. Wow! How could anyone possibly get their kicks doing something like that?

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  12. Glad you decided to wait out the storm and that led to the discovery of the flat tire. I've experienced a tire blow out while on the freeway and that was scary. I've driven with a nail in my tire, too (but I didn't know about it until later!). Glad you were able to go out to dinner and turned it into a good experience, after all. Hope your car was ready in time to pick up your mom, the next day.

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    1. The car was not ready but I had told Son2 I might need his car, so everything worked out in the end.

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  13. I'm glad they were able to patch your tire.
    I honestly feel like we have had a wetter than usual month. I think we have had either a thunderstorm or some kind of shower every day for over a week now.

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