GTA is Your Friend
There are certain types of excitement that I do not need in my life.
Chris, two of our friends, and I went into Philadelphia to see Regina Spektor play at the Theater of Living Arts (TLA). Chris and I had seen her open for the Dresden Dolls last year and had enjoyed her music. We were looking forward to introducing our friends to her tunes.
Normally, I detest driving in cities but for some reason, I decided that I would drive. Chris’ car was at his house and our two friends had already been in their car for 3 hours and it would not have seemed fair to make the one friend drive (the other does not drive). So, I drove my car into Philadelphia.
We were on our way to a parking lot at the end of South Street, which is where Chris and I had parked the last time that we went to the TLA. While going down one street in a less than savory looking neighborhood, I went to brake at an upcoming red light but there were no brakes. I managed to coast to a stop just in time. There was no place to turn off to. There were no parking lots. I continued on, hoping that pumping the brakes would bring them back and that I would find a safe place to turn into. We hit another red light at the corner of Columbus and Washington. I had to swerve left to avoid the traffic waiting at the light, a little further left to avoid the street vendor and I had to apply the emergency brake. It was no place to stop. We made the turn and then I found a storage place along the river that was safe to turn into. I brought the car to rest with a slow motion GTA maneuver using the emergency brake. It was not until then that our two guests had any clue that anything bad was happening. Chris had figured it out a few lights before, but he is perceptive like that. I had held my cool and had handled things as rationally as possible.
It probably was stupid to have continued on for a couple of lights before stopping the car, but the previous places did not look pleasantly safe. Considering that after contacting AAA around 8:30pm, we had to wait until 11:55pm before the tow truck assigned to us finally came, I am kind of glad that we did not have to wait in a less pleasant spot.
We ended up not attending the show. When we parked the car, we still had to go to the venue because I had promised a guy coming up from VA that I would sell him the extra ticket that a third friend had been unable to use due to Easter Family Obigations™. The guy had one ticket for himself, but needed one for his younger sister. I felt that I could not leave him hanging, so we hiked down to the venue and sold him his ticket. Before we arrived at the venue, I called my friend Raquel to ask her if she could come over from Jersey to pick us up since I knew that the tow truck would not be able to accommodate all four of us. She agreed to. I could not just leave my car parked back at Pier 40 Storage because we were not sure if it would be towed by the police or the property owners. We had to get back to the car to keep an eye on it and ended up selling our four tickets to the show. It was a lucky thing that the show was sold out that night.
Right, so calling AAA was frustrating. Apparently, it was a busy night. I was on hold for ages. I did not get to talk to a live person until we had walked from the TLA back to the bridge that goes from South Street down to a parking lot. I made the necessary arrangements with AAA and was told that a tow truck would be there around 9:25pm. Well, our truck was diverted by a police priority tow and as you know, we didn’t see our truck until nearly midnight. And mind you, I did call AAA repeatedly every time one of their promised times went by. I was persistent. Really.
Despite our troubles, our group still managed to have a pretty decent time hanging out at Pier 40 Storage waiting for our truck to come. Raquel came over and waited with us and kept us entertained with tales of her love life.
We had the car towed back to the business in Vineland that had supposedly fixed my brakes back on 3/14/06. Thankfully, I have AAA Plus, so the towing was free (up to 100 miles).
This entry comes several days after the actual event. The car issue has more or less been resolved. My car was fixed by Tuesday afternoon. In March, they had replaced the brake booster to alleviate the problem that I had brought the car in for. This time, they said that it was the master cylinder. Chris tried to argue on my behalf that they must have misdiagnosed the issue last time, etc. They did take a little bit off of the repair price, but not much. I wasn’t inclined to argue as I was still under the influences of a bit of a plague. An unpleasant cold had come to visit me starting back on Friday. It’s actually Thursday (4/20) and I’m still suffering from it. I just didn’t have any fit in me when we were confronting the mechanics. It sucks. I’ll never go there again.
Right now, I’m just glad that everything worked out more or less okay. We’re all fine and alive, which tends to generally be the important thing.
Chris, two of our friends, and I went into Philadelphia to see Regina Spektor play at the Theater of Living Arts (TLA). Chris and I had seen her open for the Dresden Dolls last year and had enjoyed her music. We were looking forward to introducing our friends to her tunes.
Normally, I detest driving in cities but for some reason, I decided that I would drive. Chris’ car was at his house and our two friends had already been in their car for 3 hours and it would not have seemed fair to make the one friend drive (the other does not drive). So, I drove my car into Philadelphia.
We were on our way to a parking lot at the end of South Street, which is where Chris and I had parked the last time that we went to the TLA. While going down one street in a less than savory looking neighborhood, I went to brake at an upcoming red light but there were no brakes. I managed to coast to a stop just in time. There was no place to turn off to. There were no parking lots. I continued on, hoping that pumping the brakes would bring them back and that I would find a safe place to turn into. We hit another red light at the corner of Columbus and Washington. I had to swerve left to avoid the traffic waiting at the light, a little further left to avoid the street vendor and I had to apply the emergency brake. It was no place to stop. We made the turn and then I found a storage place along the river that was safe to turn into. I brought the car to rest with a slow motion GTA maneuver using the emergency brake. It was not until then that our two guests had any clue that anything bad was happening. Chris had figured it out a few lights before, but he is perceptive like that. I had held my cool and had handled things as rationally as possible.
It probably was stupid to have continued on for a couple of lights before stopping the car, but the previous places did not look pleasantly safe. Considering that after contacting AAA around 8:30pm, we had to wait until 11:55pm before the tow truck assigned to us finally came, I am kind of glad that we did not have to wait in a less pleasant spot.
We ended up not attending the show. When we parked the car, we still had to go to the venue because I had promised a guy coming up from VA that I would sell him the extra ticket that a third friend had been unable to use due to Easter Family Obigations™. The guy had one ticket for himself, but needed one for his younger sister. I felt that I could not leave him hanging, so we hiked down to the venue and sold him his ticket. Before we arrived at the venue, I called my friend Raquel to ask her if she could come over from Jersey to pick us up since I knew that the tow truck would not be able to accommodate all four of us. She agreed to. I could not just leave my car parked back at Pier 40 Storage because we were not sure if it would be towed by the police or the property owners. We had to get back to the car to keep an eye on it and ended up selling our four tickets to the show. It was a lucky thing that the show was sold out that night.
Right, so calling AAA was frustrating. Apparently, it was a busy night. I was on hold for ages. I did not get to talk to a live person until we had walked from the TLA back to the bridge that goes from South Street down to a parking lot. I made the necessary arrangements with AAA and was told that a tow truck would be there around 9:25pm. Well, our truck was diverted by a police priority tow and as you know, we didn’t see our truck until nearly midnight. And mind you, I did call AAA repeatedly every time one of their promised times went by. I was persistent. Really.
Despite our troubles, our group still managed to have a pretty decent time hanging out at Pier 40 Storage waiting for our truck to come. Raquel came over and waited with us and kept us entertained with tales of her love life.
We had the car towed back to the business in Vineland that had supposedly fixed my brakes back on 3/14/06. Thankfully, I have AAA Plus, so the towing was free (up to 100 miles).
This entry comes several days after the actual event. The car issue has more or less been resolved. My car was fixed by Tuesday afternoon. In March, they had replaced the brake booster to alleviate the problem that I had brought the car in for. This time, they said that it was the master cylinder. Chris tried to argue on my behalf that they must have misdiagnosed the issue last time, etc. They did take a little bit off of the repair price, but not much. I wasn’t inclined to argue as I was still under the influences of a bit of a plague. An unpleasant cold had come to visit me starting back on Friday. It’s actually Thursday (4/20) and I’m still suffering from it. I just didn’t have any fit in me when we were confronting the mechanics. It sucks. I’ll never go there again.
Right now, I’m just glad that everything worked out more or less okay. We’re all fine and alive, which tends to generally be the important thing.