Driven to Distraction

Yesterday morning, about 20 minutes before I was ready to leave for work, Dan came running back in from the garage: "my car won't start." It was dead. Dead, dead. No clicky noises, no lights, nothing. Of course, he was the lone opening manager, so he absolutely positively had to be there in 45 minutes. So, I drove him there, then went to work.

Fast forward to 1:30, when he calls and says the closing manager has arrived and said it would be okay for him to leave early. So I leave work, go pick him up, and take him home. We attempt to jump-start his car: no dice. Fortunately, Dan paid for the Extended Warranty on his car, so at 3:00 he makes a call to the hotline, who sends a "local" tow truck; ETA: 60 minutes. An hour later, no truck. Two hours later, no truck. The "local" truck was dispatched from Eustis, which is 40 miles and roughly an 80 minutes' drive away. At 5:30 the truck arrives. Problem: the dealership is 45 minutes away from the house, and the parts department closes at 6. Arrangements are made for the drop-off of the car after hours.

At some point in the day, Dan had arranged a rental car from the dealership. When it became clear we would not arrive before closing, additional arrangements were made for the keys to be available from the sales-desk receptionist. But at 5:30, Dan realized that if he were to trade shifts on Friday with the other manager, and if he was really nice to me, I could shuttle him to-and-from work a second day, making the rental car unnecessary. So, he called and cancelled the car. Of course, being the worrying type, he became concerned that he never saw the car delivered to the dealership... so we end up driving there, anyway. (At least I got dinner at Wildfire's BBQ in Thornton Park out of the deal. He still owes me.)

So today, we left the house at 7:15, so he could be at work before 8. When I'm done today, I will drive back yet again to the Mall at Millenia, and hope-and-pray there is parking. The plan is to dine there, somehow.

To add to the "he owes me" part: In making casual conversation, Dan mentioned that he noticed his lights flicker when he turned on the air last week, and knew something was about to go wrong. But of course, he did nothing on his regularly-scheduled day off this past Monday. Lack of planning and responsibility on his part has required repeated emergency-response behavior on my part these past two days. Have I explained clearly enough, quite how much he owes me right now? <grin>