As part of Museum Day (free admission offered for participating museums as part of a Smithsonian event), I drove to Vero Beach to McKee Botanical Gardens. It's a small, historical garden know mostly for it's water lilies.
Then a lovely day out went downhilll.
Background: I had borrowed my father's car because I didn't want to drive 3 hours round trip in a car with a wonky A/C. I had called Dad, who was out of town for the week, and he said that his car would be fine for the trip.
When I went to leave the car won't start. I called AAA for them to send a tow truck and learned that I only get the first 5 miles of towing free and it's $5 a mile after that. The repair shop they tell me to go to is 13 miles away and my home is 85 miles away. I called Hertz with the AAA emergency discount number to get a rental car and learn all the area Hertz rental places closed 2 hours earlier. It was almost closing time at the gardens and one lady (who's name I didn't catch) patiently waited for me to leave. The tow truck showed up 20 minutes late which would also be 25 minutes after closing time for the gardens. Tow truck driver, Chris, a very nice guy, had no idea who or where the repair place AAA told me about it but the place he's affiliated with was only 3 miles away. I handed him my keys and say, go for it.
After talking to him and the garden lady, they think Enterprise is just down the street and doesn't close for a half hour. She unlocked the gift shop so we could call Enterprise when Chris walked in and said he has it running but doesn't think it will start again if it's turned off. I choose to drive it back home and stick to US1 instead of trusting it on I95. I have to drive the hour and a half back never taking my foot off the gas pedal so at every stop light I have the left foot jammed on the brake while revving the engine with the right. There are a lot of fucking stop lights on US1. I make it home ok though. I was sweaty, exhausted, dehydrated and hungry. The chicken I had put in the fridge to thaw hadn't. Dinner ended up being sauteed frozen perogies.
If I didn't know others who had also had a bad week (and yes, other things went wrong for me earlier in the week), I would have thought I was cursed or something. I can only hope this week is better though I hasn't started off that way. Today was truly a Monday.