First of all, I wantd to call this a day from hell, but thought that would be a bit bad for a blog. So I called it the above. As you read this, you may feel that the latter was a better title.
It occurred yesterday, actually started Monday afternoon with a ext message from my daughter, Jenn. It read "I'm in Pittsburgh and my plane had been delayed. I may miss my flight from Dulles to Munich." I quickly Skyped Jenn. She said that they had been told that the plane they were taking would not leave for a couple of hours, and told my daughter at first that it would be no problem. jenn knew better and this started the process for her that went very badly. To hear of her day, check her blof attached to this blog under craftiworks@blogspot.com, I think. Anyway, I spent the next several hours working with her over the internet. She told me she had finally aranged a flight, and then I didn't hear of the number or the time of arrival. I stayed up until 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, and then got up at 8:30 to try to find out her situation. Deb and I decided to go to the Toulouse Airport early. On the way there, I was passing a car and suddenly heard a terrible noise. I had blown a tire! I got out of the car and looked for a spare. had one, but it was one of those bubble tires. 48 miles per hour limit. Then I looked for the jack. None to be found. in the tire well or anywhere else I could think of at the time. I looked all though car. Then I ecided, maybe the owners manual would have a location, if it was a hidden jack under the frame or something. Guess what, no owners manual. I then took another look in some of the cubby holes and finally discovered that it was well hidden, but I had somehow found it. I changed the tire (after over 1/2 hour of looking for a jack). We started again and Deb said, 80 kms(the tire speed of the replacement), I was going around 86kms. I slowed dowwn, and she again said "80" and I snapped at her pretty bad. Well, that was not the thing to do and the rest of the ride to the airport was a bit tough. I knew that I'd been wrong, but I was tired, and wanted to just get this all over with. As we arrived at the airport, Jenn texted us and sad she was in Frankfurt Germany and would be in Toulouse at 2:15. What great news, I thought. We coulod pick her up and still get a tire to replace the flat one! Ha! What a joke.
20 minutes later Jenn is texting again. I missed my flight from frankfurt because I had to go through customs twice. She was losing it, i was losing it, and her mother was no happier. Again check herblog for her part of this. She said she'd call but I called her instead. She said she'd text when she found anything else out. A little later she called and said she'd be in at 6:45. I said that this could work,I could get a tire before I picked her up now. So I went to a tire dealer/garage at a mall. The man behind the counter could not understand English, and my French phrase book did not prepare me for this sort of issue. So after miming and charading for about 15 minutes, he figured out what I was telling him (never was good at charades). He said, "tomorrow, you call". I said what? He said "call tomorrow", too busy today. I said my tire was not good and I needed one now. At about that time a helpful person came up and explained my plight to the salesperson. The salesperson smiled broadly, shook his head yes, and said "tomorrow, you call." I left the joint.
Deb and I happened by another tire centr by pure luck, Wewent in and the salesperson asked, I presume, "can I help you," in French. I started miming again and was ready for another round of charades when he said, "I speak some Englick" Not a typo, that's what he said. I told him about the tire. He said he could find one and asked for my green card. Now I didin't understand what a green card was, but I didn't think I was given one for the trip and said I didn't have one. Was I going to be deported like some illegal immigrant. He takes me to the car and we precede to look at every piece of paper we can find. No green card. It, I found out later is the owner's card. He said never mind and went back to write me up. He then says, "Come back in 2 hires (again, no typo). I said OK. I hand him my keys and he says "Go, come back in 2 hires" and throws the keys at me. Long story short, the tire caame to 131.89 Euros or around $180 American. I told him I hadn't asked for a set of 4, just one. He didn't get the joke!
Jenn finally arrived at 6:45. We had a quick sandwich at the airport, and we left to find out way home. We didn't find theproper 4 lane and ended up driving for 2 hours on back roads. Finally, I saw a sign for Albi 68A and went happily to egt on the road. We were finally on the freeway!! For aaround 10 minutes and we were sent off an exit because the 4 lane was closed! Unlike America, there was no detour sign to suggest where to go. At around 9 at night I couldn't ask anyone how to get to ALbi, particularly when I couldn't understand the answer anyway. So I called Tim. I had no clue what he was saying on the phone, but knew when I trid to repeat his directions, he was not excited with my comprehension. Finally I understood him. I went back under 68A and into the center of Albi. From there it was a 30 minute drive to the Le Preiure! WHen I got here, Timhad a bottle of Jameson's and a bowl of ice! What a guy!
Well, you tell me, which title would be better.
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