Vehicular uprising

The vehicles around here must be talking to each other.

I took the car in this morning to get its oil changed because the next paycheck is not looking pretty and it really needed to be done, especially with Heidi going to Iowa City this weekend. No problem - I just took it out to Car-X and the oil change usually takes 30-45 minutes depending upon how many people are ahead of me. I would just take my book and my iPod like I usually do and just chill there while the oil was changed. About 45 minutes into the adventure, the guy came and told me that the transmission needed to be flushed. Crap. There goes the easy 40 dollar oil change. Instead, I walked out with nearly 200 dollars of car maintenance done. Again, with Heidi going to Iowa City, it probably was the best thing to do, and really, what are you going to do? NOT flush the transmission?

So that's all well and good. Heidi heads to Iowa City and I dink around until it's time to go pick up Anna from school. I even managed to get the wood out of the back of the truck which has been in there for the better part of 2 weeks. I get in the truck. Nothing. It doesn't turn over, it doesn't do ANYTHING. I may not know a lot about car maintenance (fluids is about where I begin and end), but I know enough to know that's a dead battery. Fat lot of good that does me because Anna still needs to be picked up from school. A quick call to the mother of a friend of hers tells me that she is going to pick up her daughter, but they are on the bike. Fuck. It leaves me with one option.

I had no other choice but to get on the bike (with the trail-a-bike behind it) and head off to pick Anna up from school. She, of course, was thrilled to see that I had brought the bike. I, of course, was amazed that I didn't have crushing chest pain on the ride, proving once again that I am in better shape than I think.

All in all, it's not a big deal. I'll wait till Heidi gets back on Sunday to jump start the truck - we have nowhere really to go. If we have to go to the vet tomorrow, we can always go on the bike again because the trip to the vet will not involve bringing Walter (for those not following the Walter drama, go to Heidi's blog.) But we do have to get to the store here for a few odds and ends, which we will be doing here in a minute. On the bike.