And So It Begins.

When your husband is out to sea, inevitably something will happen. You get a flat, you break your arm, your house burns down. something happens. It's expected. I just didn't expect it to start BEFORE he went out to sea. I am praying this isn't a sign of things to come.

I woke up this morning and got ready to start my day. I had a ton of errands to run. I head outside with the Mom and kid in tow. Get in my car and start it....back out of my driveway and think "Huh, that's really weird. Am I stuck in mud?" So I get out of the car to check...low and behold, my driver front tire. Flatter than a pancake. Seriously. You could actually see my rim.

So we hop out of the car and I go inside to call "Large Tire Company" (not the actual name) and have them come fix it pronto. Well, guy on the phone says "We charge $90 an hour for service calls" Excuse me? I have dealt with "Large Tire Company" ever since I owned a car. Never once, not ONCE have I been charged for them to send out the truck. After my initial shock I said "You know what, I'm going to call my father-in-law who is an executive with "Large Tire Company" and ask him, that doesn't sound right" He stammered and said "er...uh...well" then I hung up. All I could see was red.

Ok, you see, I can't change a tire to save my life. Not on my current car (mini-van) because the bolts are simply to hard to turn. I've tried. My uncle who taught me how to drive, made sure I knew how to change a tire. My Grandpa used to take me out to his Jeep every other weekend just to make sure I could do it. Chris has put me through tire changing boot camp!

But alas, I can't do it. I don't have the Y chromosome. Ok, I could do it on my old car a Geo, but I could also lift it up from the back end....so really it doesn't count when you are dealing with a go-cart.

Oh, did I mention today was turnover day for Chris' boat? Yea, he's on a Boomer. So they have Blue Crew (boo) and Gold Crew (yea). For three months Chris crew are out to sea. They return and hand the keys over to the blue crew, who get it ready again and then they head out to sea for three months. They come home, hand the keys back to the gold crew, they get it ready to go out....you get the picture. There is usually a month or so on either end of a patrol for fixing the boat up to go back out. The month on either end of the deployments is "refit" The busiest time for them.

So today was handover the keys day. Plus, like day one or two of refit. Chris is extra, extra busy. He had to be at work at 6 am this morning. He has duty tomorrow. Yes, 24 hour duty. Monday he has duty until 7 am but then schools until 4ish. Afterward he has to go BACK to the boat, check in with his crew and make sure they didn't break anything THEN he can come home.

ANYWAY, I called his cell and left frantic messages. I emailed him. I called the boat! He was busy. Very, very busy. So finally around noon or one he calls and says "don't worry, I'll take care of it when I get home. I have duty tomorrow so I'm getting cut loose early tonight" Early, in case you were wondering, turns out to be 7 pm. ANYWAY......

So, he got home, put on my ugly little donut tire so I can go get it fixed tomorrow. Then he called his Dad, who actually IS an executive with "Large Tire Company". Turns out that no, it is NOT policy to charge for service calls and he will look into it first thing Monday morning.

Sing to the tune of neener, neener, neener......Somebody's going to get fired. :)
I know karma will bite you in the backside when you enjoy that sort of thing...but dammit after the stressful day I had. I can't help it.

On a positive note, my involuntary confinement to my house DID allow me to get some chores done that I've been...well, quite honestly, avoiding with trips to Starbucks. So, that's a good thing. However, I do have one hell of a caffeine headache tonight without my 5 shot peppermint mocha.