Crazy Weekend and Thanks to Bob’s Auto

What a nutty weekend. I can’t even begin to tell you how crazy it was, but it all turned out okay so I shouldn’t complain, but of course that won’t stop me. Upon reflection, I have to say that I didn’t lose my cool and scream out all sorts of expletives in the presence of the kids, or for that matter, lose all hope and dwell on our misfortune with my usual fatalistic sense of doom. In fact, I actually just went with the flow. Could it be that I’ve turned over a new way to look at life... nah!

This past weekend N had his big lacrosse shootout up north in Middlebury, and it’s a bit of a trek, compounded by the fact that his games were early in the AM. Saturday was 9:00AM, Sunday was 8:00, which was thankfully changed to 9:00AM. Still painful, just not as much. I usually like to carpool with another group for a number of reasons, but mainly so that N has some company in the car for the long drive. Plus, he gets to hang with his buddies.

I didn’t even have to be the mooching inquisitor because GG sent out an email to see if anyone was interested in getting a lift with him. I was going to ask him myself, and then I got the email. Funny how things work. I was to meet him at the school in the AM, and then we’d head to the tournament. On the way, however, I noticed the car felt wrong and sounded horrible. I pulled over about a quarter mile from the school and saw that the back tire was completely flat. Big bummer. What I should have done was changed the tire right there, but foolishly I drove the quarter mile and parked the car. That came back to haunt me, but live and learn. We sat and waited for GG while I pondered how I was going to address this situation.

Normally when things like this happen, I get so bummed I can’t function anymore, dwelling on my misfortune. I hate being so fatalistic, but that’s how it is, or should I say, that’s how it was. This time around, however, I feel like I dealt with it pretty well. It was on my mind, no question, but I didn’t let it stop me from dealing with other things in life. Plus, I wasn’t debilitated by depression. I consider this a huge step in the evolution of mankind.

The ride was nice, I always enjoy hanging with GG, he’s a worldly guy who knows a lot about a lot, plus he’s a stellar hockey player. Say no more. He took a scenic route to Middlebury, which was nice, but sort of windy, and one of us got car sick. It wasn’t horrible, but kind of a bummer at 7:30AM before a big lacrosse tournament. I felt bad because GG had to slow down for our benefit. We arrived with no more incidents and N played in both games..

The game went well, N’s team won both of them, and he scored goals in each contest. Afterward the kids were excited and we piled into GG’s car for the ride home. There was some discussion about stopping for lunch, but nobody was really famished, and N and I decided not to eat until after the trip home. Plus, I had to deal with the car. On the ride back, GG was kind enough to slow down again, and of course, I felt bad, again.

Once we were back, it was only about 2:00PM, so there was time to fix the car tire. I could have left it until Monday, but figured there was time. The one big question was if any garages were open and would fix the tire. GG offered to give us a lift to the station in town, but I figured it would be better to drive over to do it. Then we could just drive home, and he could get back home and get on with his life. I put on the spare and drive (slowly) to the gas station.

This is where it got interesting. I drove to the town garage, but they were only selling gas. Big bummer. I wasn’t sure where to go, when I remembered that I keep a phone book in the trunk, and started calling around to mechanics. It being Saturday, they were all closed. In fact, the only place that answered the phone was Bob’s in White River. They are a great garage, trustworthy and reliable, and in our instance, open. The guy said the garage was sort of open until 5:30PM, but he could fix a leak on a tire. Awesome.

We headed over and he took the tire and looked at it. His first question was, “Did you drive on the flat?” Boy was I embarrassed. It turns out that driving on a flat tire is not a good thing, for a number of reasons. In addition to any damage you can do to the wheel, it actually destroys the rubber on the tire. The tire was toast. I asked if he had any for sale, but he didn’t, so we drove home dejected but not without hope.

Well, when I got home, I realized that I had extra tires in the basement. I called Bob’s up and he said bring it on over, which I did. The guy working there, I think his name was Chris, was incredibly helpful, and he put the tire on the wheel, balanced and mounted it, and it was only about $20. I was so stoked, not to mention grateful. Really good vibes from Bob’s.

Now our car is up and running, at least for now. This will probably be the last year we drive it, because it has major rust damage, so much so that I’m wary of driving it, but what are you going to do? We need a car, and it runs fun... at least until the frame implodes. After living for five years up here with only one car, you learn that any car that runs is worth it’s weight in gold.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Boston Trinity Academy and Florian Schwind for the pics.