the day my jeep lost a tire

Like all good stories, I'll start this one from the beginning.
I wake up everyday at 6 am with my alarm set to a radio station here in Port Charlotte.
First thing I do when I achieve conscienceness is do my morning stretching which consists of pulling and prodding my body into some form of alert status.
Once I accomplish this, I'm ready for my morning snack; better known as breakfast.
This strange meal known as breakfast is usually a bowl of cereal. Yummy Yummy for my Tummy. :)

After shitting and showering and shaving I'm off to work.

This particular morning drive was not unlike any other day.
I drive 50 miles to work every day and the gas is draining my account as fast as it's draining the tank.

My mom took my jeep in just last week and the mechanic told her to have the back tire changed as soon as she can.
So on my ride to work the jeep starts to shake, rattle and roll along I75.
Right before mile marker 190 the impossible happens, that very same tire that the mechanic told my mom about decides to blow. And when I say blow I mean POP! BAM! BOOM!
All of a sudden I'm going form the left lane going 70 plus to stopped on the emergency lane.
Stopped isn't quite the word for it cause I decide to scoot and shimmy down to the call box to call for help.

HELP!

well I finally get to the damn box and I am so relieved. I will have one of those wonderful Road Rangers along at anytime to help scrape me off the road.

Flash forward four hours and there I am still waiting.

I tried the box several times with no luck at all.
A cop stopped by to help out and even called in to the station to send help.
"Don't worry the Road Rangers come by every 15 minutes" says the cop with a straight face.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice and I'm hunting you down f_cker!

I changed my cell number a couple of weeks ago because my mom had to call long distance just to reach me on the damn thing.
I had that road side service insurance that I've been paying on since I got the freaking phone like 2 years ago.
Well it seems like when they switched my cell number to this side of the coast they also knocked out my road side service.
Nice huh?
Well it gets alot better.
The roadside insurance people (RSIP) tell me that I don't have the insurance on my cell and that I should reach the customer service people (CSP). So I call over to the CSP to find out what happened. They tell me that it was an over sight and that they will back date the service to show that I had it all along. They then tell me to call the RSIP and tell them to call me a tow truck...all is well. I call over to the RSIP and they tell me to call the CSP and tell them to call them.

(I shit you people not this really happened.)

I call the CSP and tell them that the RSIP won't honor their WORD and that they need to call them to settle it. The CSP tell me not to worry and that after they
call over there that all will be well.

Fool me once... you know the rest.

The CSP call me back and tell me that they are sorry and that I'll have to wait 72 hours until I can use the service. The service that they cancelled on me by accident; that I payed like 2 years for and never used.

So here we are 4 hours later. Still waiting for a Road Ranger to at least drive by.
And you know what, I only saw ONE!!!

Well what should I do at this point? My jack BTW doesn't work. It's the jack that came with the jeep but its a toy jack. Totally useless.

I decide to get desperate and call the cell people again.
I get the RSIP back on and they tell me to get the CSP to pay for the service.
So WTF I might as well try.
I call and ask for a supervisor and tell her the whole story.
After a few moments, she calls be back and tells me that they will pay 50 dollars towards a tire fix.

Am I dreaming? Is it heat exhaustion?

What ever it is I am so out of here.

I call the RSIP tell them to hook me up and after just 20 minutes my knight in shining armor comes driving up.

David from Roman's road service was an angel in disguise. If not for him I would still be there waiting for a Road Ranger!

He swooped in fixed my flat and drove off.

Wow I was back on the road. Driving on the interstate. Heading back home first to drop off the car then off to work to finish the last part of the day.

That was up until my "doughnut" tire popped as well.

Doughnut tire is the spare tire for those not in the know.

Well at least I got from mile marker 190 the mile marker 190.2! :)

First thing I do is call my angel back.
"David help you'll never believe this. The spare just blew out. HELP!"

David had to travel like 10 miles just to turn around and meet up with me, so he asks if I can make it to the exit; which I say is fine.
I would say yes to being waxed full frontal if I can get back on the road.

So there I am scooting and shimming down the emergency lane to the exit just moments away from me.

Sounds familiar you say... tell me about it.

After creeping along, I finally get to David. He looks so beautiful. Waiting for me at the end of my long journey.

The first thing I notice is the look on his face.
With a smile he tells me " I've got good news and I've got bad news."
Bad news is your Doughnut is crumbled into tiny weeny little pieces.
Good news I'm heading into Sarasota and I can take you to buy a tire.

Take a guess on what I did next.

In Sarasota we show up to the Good year place and I try to get a new tire for my blown out tire. There was definitely a problem with this tire, but nothing I can do without a receipt or a warranty.

In the meantime I'm calling my old buddy Dean from Miami to help me remember where I bought these tires and other info. He was with me when I made my original purchase.

One hundred and eighteen dollars later, me and David are back on the road.

Wee I'm having the time of my life with this guy. We're talking like we have known each other for years. He's telling me about his friend Jeff who just the night before got totally trashed and busted his company rental apartment's window.
Yikes is his boss pissed!
He listens to my story and seems really interested and I listen to his stories about his high school days and such and they are interesting.
Could this be a future friend? Or something better?
All I know is I remember him very vividly and I would love to see him again.

After seven hours of fighting with this damn day, we finally get the tire on the jeep and I say my farewell to my sweet angel.