Another CRAZY Day...Feb.20!

It was another crazy day with the Mannings. After I picked up Bess from school, I felt and heard the car doing something funny. I had to drop something off at a friend's house a block or two away from Bess's school, so I got out and noticed a big screw or something that looked like a screw in my back tire. It was making the loudest noise...air coming out of my tire FAST! Well, of course, today was the day that my cell phone was out of power (and I have not gotten a car charger yet). I tried Frank on his cell phone and my phone cut off on me right as it started ringing...Great...What to do?

Our house was right down the street so I decided to go home as quickly as possible, call Frank from my home phone, and charge my cell phone in the wall for a minute or two. Frank said for me not to drive, but that was not an option...We had too much to do today to be without a car. He said to go to Wal-Mart...Maybe a 5 min. drive. I grabbed Bess's ballet things, just in case and ran out the door. When I got back in the car the pressure in my tire had gone from 33 to 27 in maybe 2 minutes sitting in the driveway...The "normal" pressure in the other tires was 35 or 36. As I turned onto Trenholm heading towards Forest, the pressure began dropping faster and faster...24 then 19 then 16...Plus, we were stopping at every light we came to. At Trenholm Plaza I really did not think we were going to make it (and my phone now had maybe 1 min. max talk time on it). Frank was fussy because it was time for him to eat lunch and Bess would not stop talking to me...I was a nervous wreck. Finally, we pulled into Wal-Mart and my pressure in the tire was 7. It was completey flat.

The lady at the tire center said most of her people were at lunch and they could not even look at it for at least one hour and then it would take a while to get it fixed or replaced. Well, there was a Chick-fil-A nearby and luckily I had the stroller for Frank to ride in, so we were all set. Before we left, I called a friend with a child in Bess's dance class to see if she could possibly pick Bess up from Chick-fil-A. Of course, I had to use Wal-Mart's phone because mine kept on beeping that the power was fading. My friend said that was no problem at all so we were good to go.

We started walking to Chick-fil-A. After we got out of Wal-Mart's parking lot, we had to walk down a somewhat busy road for a minute or two before we got to Chick. What a sight!

We ate and then my friend, Juliana, picked up Bess for dance. Frank and I started walking back to Wal-Mart to check on my car. The lady said the new tire would be $140. Now that was the last thing I wanted to spend $140 on...But then, the technician said he might could fill the tire with air and patch the hole. This sounded MUCH better! Frank and I strolled around Wal-Mart and shopped for some birthday gifts (5 children with birthdays this weekend) while we waited. That saved me a trip to the toy store, which was great! While we were shopping, I was paged over the store intercom twice. I was not paying attention and did not hear the first time, apparently. Frank called the phone in the tire dept. (from his Caller ID) because I had used their phone to call him earlier when mine was out of power.

Another mom tip...Always charge your cell phone the night before...Plus get a car charger!

Anyway, we were done and ready to go. Wal-Mart only charged me $9.50 to fix my tire (thank goodness). I even made it on time to pick up Bess from dance at 2:15.

What a day!