Wednesday, May 7, 2008

I hate driving

The tire blew on my car today. It kinda looks like the pic on the left
As I was exiting hwy 85, on the on-ramp of hwy 8, i had to pull over on the side of bridge where cars were going at over 100km/hr.
It was the back left side, so it was pretty close to the road and i was at loss for what to do.
it wasn't like just a flat tire, but it blew to pieces.
After 20 minutes of calling around (to no avail really since we dont have CAA and everyone i know is in toronto) this guy in a white pontiac sunbird pulled over behind me to help me.

His name is Jesse, about early 30s, white, dressed in a shirt and tie. He told me to move the car closer to the side and he parked about 50m behind me closer to the lane so cars will see his car first and then he put on a bright orange raincoat, took the jack out of his car, and changed my tire to the spare. While he was changing it, he told me that he volunteers with the police force, mainly with the job of telling people something had happened to their family/friend.

"It's a hard job, but somebody's gotta do it," he says. He was dressed up nicely cuz he actually just had to do that. He also told me he's pretty used to helping ppl changing tires, the definition of a good Samaritan.I was very worried about his safety the whole time, due to the proximity of him to the road and the speed of the oncoming traffic; but the whole time he kept telling me to keep myself to the right so i dont get hit.

"People can see my bright orange jacket, but they can't see your green!" Honestly, I dont know what i would have done without him. I thought about just calling CAA myself but then i didnt even have a phone number. Another 5 minutes and i would have called the operator for a tow truck number, in spite of the cost. I'm so grateful for his help. I was so lucky to run into him like that.

I ended up driving no more than 80km/h on the way back (the spare tells me i shall not for any reason exceed 80k). I had my warning lights on, as he told me, and it took me forever to get home. It was one painful night. It was the scariest when i was on the contruction sites (which was like half the trip!). I was going at 40-50k on the right lane and the car kept swerving right and left. At one point, i was surrounded by three trucks and i really thought i was gonna die. I didn't get home until 10pm and i left at around 6:30pm. driving at 60-80 and watching cars swish by me is a lot scarier than i thought.

The irony is that i was gonna go switch the tires tomorrow. Remind me never to listen to my mom again.

3 comments:

kingkao said...

3 hours and 30 minutes does not seem that bad at all. Also does not seem that bad of a story, you got to meet a nice man. I like meeting whole heartedly good people and its just so inspiring.

Lynn said...

it was pretty scary.
yeah, but as far as inspiring goes, it makes me sad because even though he's doing something like that, i know i still won't be able to.


it's so sad ur the only one who comments here :P

Adam said...

I agree. It definitely coulda been worse...

I'm so grateful for that guy too...