Mosaic Life

Pissing Off Motorists

May 8, 2009 on 9:14 am | In Uncategorized |

So Wednesday afternoon I left work and tried to start my car, intending to, y’know, drive away. No dice. It was a cloudy day, so I figured I’d accidentally left the lights on and drained the battery; however, my lights were off. So I flagged over a friend and asked him to give me a jump. He did, and I went on my merry way.

Except it didn’t go down like I planned. I got on the access road to the interstate, and wouldn’t you know it, my car stalled out. Couldn’t start it. Couldn’t even get the hazard lights to work. So I’m like “oh crap oh crap oh crap, undo undo undo.” I’m sitting there with my door open, panicking on my cell phone to Brandon, who immediately left to come help me. Then what? Then I sat there in my car with the door open. Cars could get around me, but it was definitely causing congestion. I thought about what the motorists must be thinking. Stupid girl, she probably ran out of gas. Why doesn’t she have her hazard lights on? Doesn’t she know I’m hungry and that it’s friggin’ rush hour? GET OUT OF THE WAY.

So I called a coworker, because I really had no idea what else to do. Besides, I needed someone to call so that the people glowering at me would know I’m doing something to alleviate the situation. He told me about how in Georgia, if you’re blocking interstate traffic, you can call 511 and they’ll send one of those vehicles to help you get out of the way. But I wanted to see if Brandon could do something before bothering them, so I waited. Not looking up. Just looking down at my cell phone, hoping people would realize I wasn’t just sitting around enjoying myself.

Brandon got there pretty quickly. Of course, it felt like an eternity because I’m not used to angering so many people in such a short amount of time. He tried to jump the battery, but it didn’t work. Then this guy pulled over and tried to help us out, but he couldn’t figure out the problem either. So we gave in and dialed 511. They sent the “get the heck out of the way” vehicle, or hero vehicle, whatever you call it, and a policeman pulled over and helped out as well. They were able to push the car off the access road to a nearby service station.

We ended up getting a new battery, though we’re not positive that was the problem. Apparently the alternator is fine, so there you go. Plus, you’re supposed to replace your battery way before your car is 5 years old, and go figure, our car is that old. So hopefully that was the problem.

Anyway, it worked out. It could have been worse. Actually, everything could always have been worse. But I have to say, it’s the first time I’ve had a really positive experience with johnny law where it was encouraging. The policeman was really nice and helpful, and the “get the heck out of the way” driver guy was really cool as well.

So yeah, that’s my story about pissing off a whole bunch of motorists during rush hour. There’s a first time for everything.