rdp #6 : nightmare

off on a roadtrip
just fixed my brakes and aircon
first stop — car won’t start
turn the key, click, click, nothing
nightmare, now what? get a tow

tanka by m. nakazato lafreniere

Needless to say I’m not a happy camper at the moment.  I had lost my old cell phone with all my friend’s phone numbers.  No biggie, on my way to San Jose, I stopped by my friend’s Pam’s house in Tempe, AZ to get her phone number to add it to my new phone.   It was just going to be a 10 min stop as she’s close to the freeway and it was 9:30pm so I planned to keep driving.  I also needed a short break from Midnight’s and Pinkie’s meowing — they are not good travelers.

Spent a pleasant 15 minutes.  She’s getting ready to leave for a trip to the Chicago’s blue fest the next day and was still packing.  I get in my car and it won’t start.  Pam’s husband gives me a jump but no go.  Geez. Shortest roadtrip ever.

Pam and Mike are nice so they say I can stay at their house until I get things sorted. Just mail the keys back when I get home.   He calls his mechanic to let him know I will be coming by and I drive them to the airport in the morning in Pam’s new car.  It’s very cool and reminds me of the batmobile as it’s jet black but a lot roomier.

Tuesday I find out from my insurance that I don’t have towing so I call AAA and sign up for their 100 mile towing plan.  $91.  However they say the benefits don’t kick in for 48 hours so I can’t tow until after 5pm Thursday.  So that means early morning Friday as I’ll have to hitch a ride with the tow company to get to the mechanic.

Flashback. Saturday I had taken my car back to the mechanic because they had fixed squeaking brakes the week before but it was squeaking again.  They also poured some freon and ultraviolet dye since my airconditioning wasn’t working.  The air conditioning works great now.

Sunday I spent running around getting those last minute stuff you need for traveling that you realized you don’t have once you start packing.  So put everything in bags including my computer and camera so I would be sure not to forget anything. Made sure I put my mouse and its little infrared clip in a box to be safe and put it in the computer bag. I’ve had the clip shatter when I’ve left it on the laptop when I bagged it so this time I was careful. Tons of snacks, cat food and frozen water topped everything up. I only needed to stop for gas once I got rolling.

Monday, got money. Took a nap so I could drive at night (I am not crazy enough to try to drive by Los Angeles during the day.)  Flung the perishables into the car and was on the road by 7pm. That would put me in the metro LA area around midnight which is perfect and hopefully I will skate by the metro San Jose area around 6am so should just miss the beginning of the rush hour.

10pm Monday the trip was over.  I pull out my laptop around 11pm after Pam and Mike go to bed cuz I slept all day so no way am I going to sleep. To top it off, I forgot my cord to my computer so it died within 10 minutes of my opening it.  So Tuesday I spent a day feeling sorry for myself — $91 to AAA and they won’t even tow on Tuesday and no laptop.  Still it’s better than a tow company because they will do 4 tows in the year and I might be needing it. I can’t call any of my old Phoenix friends because of the lost phone numbers so can’t hang out with Linda or Ed. Pinkie is hiding behind the TV all day because she’s scared of Midnight.  Midnight is upset because very once in a while I put him in the bathroom so Pinkie can come out for a bite to eat.

Wednesday.  I throw off my bad mood and get up.  Pam is cool.  She left a note with her laptop’s password along with the alarm code.  So yay! at least I can start catching up with my blogs. Pinkie ventures out from behind the TV while Midnight is still in the room and takes a chair on the far side.  Midnight watches her but doesn’t attack.  She growls at him but then settles down and goes to sleep on the chair.  This is the first time they’ve been in the same room since their first fight when Midnight moved in with us (Midnight is a rescue cat).    So things are looking up.  My nightmare will fade soon.  If Midnight and Pinkie actually start being ok in the same room all the time with no growling, fighting or anything, it will be all worth while.

This whole thing has been very yin/yang.  I lose my phone and everyone’s phone number — bad luck.  Go on a roadtrip, stop by my friend’s house to get her phone number.  My car breaks down.  Bad luck but the good luck is if I hadn’t stopped to get my friend’s phone number because I lost my phone, I would be in the desert on the far side of Phoenix at a truck stop when my car wouldn’t start.  A truck stop probably would have a mechanic but late at night they would not be open and I doubt I could have found lodgings when I had 2 cats with me.

So I was lucky I couldn’t start at a friend’s house and they could give me a number for a mechanic.  And I imagine arriving in San Jose and finding out I forgot my cord?  I’d be in major withdrawals until Amazon delivered anyways (it’s an oem, so not as fast to get it).  Actually I am in semiwithdrawals now as I have Photoshop and other programs on my computer.  But if Midnight and Pinkie learn to live in the same room without fighting?  It’ll totally all be worth it.  Yin and Yang.  Bad luck can bring good luck and vice versa.  You never know if something is good or bad until the end of the story … and the story doesn’t ever end, not really because life goes on and on.

Still, I hope your week is going way more awesome than mine. Cheers.

Reference:

RDP #6 : nightmare  (both writing, photography prompt)
ragtag daily prompt
Curious Cat

The responsibility of the week’s ragtag daily prompts are shared by:

Wednesday: Curious Cat
Thursday: Tracy, Reflections of an Untidy Mind
Friday: Steph, Curious Steph
Saturday: Mary, Cactus Haiku
Sunday: Martha, I’m a Writer, Yes, I am!
Monday:  Sgeoil
Tuesday: Lorna, Gin and Lemonade

This week’s earlier ragtag prompts

Wednesday: Nightmare
Thursday:
Friday: Redux
Saturday: Insight
Sunday: Imagination
MondayFlummoxed
Tuesday: Sitcom