The iPhone that was and the tire that wasn’t

I got an iphone. A branspakin new iphone. I am delighted. It’s awesome! For work I needed one. Work pays for my entire plan – all I had to buy was the actual phone. I am completely in love. And it really has helped my productivity at work.


For example – this morning I needed to wake up and order bagels for an all day meeting we have today. Normally – this would consist of me opening my computer, waiting for it to turn on, looking up the specifics for the meetings, looking up the nearest Einstein bagels number to the meeting, putting the number in my phone and calling. Today – I woke up, grabbed my phone – looked up the meeting and number, and it automatically called it from the website. Now I realize this is old news to most people. And I know the capabilities of phones that actually work – but this is exciting for me! I can check my work email so quickly now, wherever I am. Work during meetings at an offsite location, where I have no internet… Also this weekend, we all played Words With Friends on our iphones. It was a blast. LOVE my iphone! And love that I don’t have to pay anything to have it!!


So I’m driving down the freeway on the way to work on Friday morning. Listening to Pandora on my iphone because I CAN! Normally I carpool and would not be driving, but I was leaving straight after work to go to some friends’ house for the weekend. I’m in the left lane, and suddenly I lose control of my car. It starts going back and forth and swaying and I know I’ve completely lost a tire. A tire going flat/ shredding is one of my greatest fears, as I’ve heard horror stories about them. Fortunately, I had heard the stories, so I knew what had happened – knew the signs and could stop quickly. Unfortunately, I was in the far left lane and there was no way I could get over to the right side. There was space to pull over, but I still was out in the road a little bit. I hadn’t ever been in that position before, so I had no idea what to do. Do I pull over to the left? Is that legal? There is a lane so it must be… can I make it to the right? I know you are not supposed to drive on a flat tire and my car was completely gone at that point… so I pulled over as much as I could. Cars are going around me, and my car is shaking from the speed. I am a little freaked out.


Who do I call? I’m pretty sure I let my AAA expire. I think I have roadside assistance with Toyota. I’m partly in the road – how are they going to tow me? Do I call the police? I’m still partly in the road… do I call my Dad? I decided against calling Dad - I thought he’d really question my sanity in calling him clear across the world to ask him these questions. Daren had just gotten to town Thursday night and knows everything and is one of my best friends, and is actually close enough to help if I need it, so I called him. About 4 times. He didn’t answer – and who does answer their phone at 7:30am when they don’t have to work? (He actually called me back a couple minutes later, all groggy and concerned. What a good friend!).


Next step – I called Toyota. As I thought, I do have road side assistance. They transferred me over to someone who could help, and almost as soon as he got on the phone with me, there was someone by my window. A cop! He told me they were stopping traffic so I could get across the road. Great! I look behind me, and there is an incident management vehicle in the middle of the road, completely halting all traffic. I limped across the road to the right side and pulled off. The cop told me he and the incident management guy could change the tire, no problem. So I hung off with Toyota who was going to send a tow truck (I was so flustered, it didn’t even occur to me it was my TIRE. I have a spare and think I know how to change the tire. I could change it myself. I could ask someone who lives close to help me. Absolutely no need for a tow truck. But clearly I was not thinking clearly. The cop and the incident management guy were great. They changed the tire and had me on my way in no time.


But, it still remains, that I completely stopped all Northbound traffic for about 5 minutes on Friday morning. I was that awful person who makes everyone late. I am more than a little embarrassed.


The funny thing, is while I was sitting there nearly being obliterated by traffic, I saw the incident management guy go by going south, with his sirens on. And I thought, “Well Brittney – it could be worse. You could need that guy.” And he was coming for me. Hahahaa…


I took Tim into Toyota later that day. They said there was a hole in my tire almost the size of my fist. He had no idea what would cause a hole like that. Said it was punctured from the inside out. Whatever caused the hole must have worked its way out at freeway speeds. So I had to pay $200 for a new spare tire. In the whole 5ish years I had my Olds, I never needed my spare. I guess I was really lucky.


So now, if that ever happens again, I know what to do. Having my tire go out on the freeway is now no longer a big fear – I’ve experienced it. It was absolutely no fun – and turned into a whole drama since I was on the left hand side, but it all worked out.


Lessons I learned – never drive fast on the freeway, never drive in the left side lane, and check your tires every day. Yup – that’ll all happen.