Morning.

    This morning, as Justin and I usually do, we got up at 6:00, fixed lunches, and got ready in our typical manner. We were even impressed with ourselves for heading out the door 5 minutes earlier than usual. We kissed good-bye, expecting this to be the last vision of each other until late Sunday night - going separate ways for the weekend. At 6:25, I locked up, Justin headed to his truck.

His truck was already cranked and heating up, but he remembered he had to get some tools out of his workshop, so he turned it off while he got a few things. I had just gotten in my car, coffee situated, car in reverse, when I heard, "BUT IT WAS JUST CRANKED 2 MINUTES AGO!!" Along with verbal frustration, I saw Justin jumping around, arms flailing with fury and aggravation so I hopped out of my car to see what exactly was going on. He got back in his truck and attempted to crank it again. And again. And again.

Have you ever attempted to jump a regular vehicle off with a Prius? Yeah, we hadn't either. If you've ever looked under the hood you know it's not like a normal car. It's mostly plastic covers and wire boxes. We turned to the owner’s manual for procedures and to help locate where in the mist of all the plastic we would find the battery terminal to attempt something I wasn’t sure was even possible.

The manual directed us to a little black box in the upper right corner under the hood. It located it for us, but gave us no direction as to how to open it. 5 minutes full of tugging, pulling, yanking, and – anger, we finally got it. It was now 6:45. The terminal was now visible, and we were ready to roll. We connected the batteries and attempted to start the truck after a minute or so. It sounded as if it was going to start, but the battery quickly weakened again and we were back to square one. We continued for another 5 minutes or so, and almost gave up. Justin gave it “one more chance” 2 or 3 times until finally – it cranked! We left the house at around the time we would usually be arriving at work – 7am.

I was driving a little faster than usual on my way to work, because I had an IEP meeting scheduled for 7:45. I still had to finalize and print out the 20 page document and make copies for 3 people. If I arrived at 7:30, I would probably be able to accomplish all 3 things just in time to make it to the meeting prepared.

Turning onto the bypass, 8 miles from school, my car began to shake, and my tire sensor gage lit up. Freaking out, I turned onto the next road and pulled over. I got out and quickly realized, I was experiencing my first ever flat tire. I also quickly remembered that I knew absolutely no one in Aiken other than my principal and my mentor teacher. I called Justin to tell him about it, and requested his service. Then I called my principal to tell him what was going on and to tell him to cancel my meeting, but he had to ask me to repeat myself twice because he couldn’t make out what I was saying through my whining and tears. He offered to come help, which impressed me, but I wasn’t about to make my principal change my tire.

After getting off the phone, I looked around and saw a lawn care company with a parking lot full of trucks. Where there are trucks there are men, right? I wandered over and took a look around in search of someone who looked strong enough to help me - who also spoke English. A little Ford Focus pulled in with rap music blaring, he was my target. I walked over and sweetly asked, “could you or do you know anyone else who could change my tire?” He just looked at this little lady in a skirt and tights, who had clearly had a horrible morning, and let out a little snicker and said, “I can do that.” He turned out to be a very nice fellow had taken his new wife to work and decided to come on into work 40 minutes early. He saved Justin from having to drive all the way from Augusta, and me from waiting an hour. Thanks to this gentleman, I was on the road 15 minute later.

Running late, I pulled into the parking lot at school with a doughnut tire. As I was walking in I passed a fellow teacher who was on morning car duty. I’m sure I looked frazzled, but that didn’t stop her from saying,
“You’re almost late!” If she had known the morning I had, I can only hope she would have held her tongue, for once.

What a morning. Today’s saving grace: It’s Friday! Have a great weekend!