Blow-Out

Something wasn't right. My car was making strange sounds, so I turned up the volume of the radio to drown out the noise. I figured that if I couldn't hear it, then it didn't exist. You do you realize that I am a blonde?

The noise was still drowning out the radio, so fighting panic, I told myself that I would make it home and deal with my car in the morning. I didn't want to consider the prospect of being broken down on a freeway in the middle of the night. That's dangerous enough, but being a woman in such a circumstance presents its own special hazards.

A few seconds later, I knew that I wasn't going to make it home. If I made it off the freeway, I would be lucky. I could feel a tire shredding apart. Pulling over to the right, I limped along slowly hoping that no one would rear-end me. Eventually, I found an off-ramp in a section of the Valley that I wasn't familiar with. Next to the freeway were some homes with barred windows and cars parked out front, so, that is where I stopped. I figured that it would be safer if it looked like I was parked, as opposed to being broken down and defenseless.

Auto Club came fairly quickly, changed my tire and got me on the road again. The problem now was that I had no idea where I was or how to get home. I was next to the freeway, but there was no onramp.

I just started driving, figuring that I was bound to cross a major road that I had heard of. Within a couple of minutes I came to Van Nuys Boulevard, which was fine. That would take me in the general direction I wanted to go. After driving several miles it suddenly occurred to me that I was almost to Sarah's house. As much as I like Sarah, that is not where I meant to go. I had been driving South instead of North. In the daytime that would not have happened, but at night I couldn't see the mountains that I need for navigation. How do people know which way is North if they can't see the mountains?

After a few more false turns, I did make it home safely, although an hour and a half late. The dogs were not happy about that. In case you didn't know, dogs can tell time.

The next morning, I went to Costco to get a new tire. My tires were still fairly new with plenty of tread on them, so I only needed one. I ended up buying four because they couldn't match the tires I already had and unlike accessories, tires shouldn't be mixed and matched. So, my car has new shoes and I have more grey hairs.