So the plan tonight was to go see Buddy after work – pick up Becky and drive down to the Golden Bough, which I recalled having been to before.
Turns out I hadn’t – we pulled up to the Forest Theater, which I had been to, and Becky got out to ask for directions as we promptly realized we’d misrecalled.
Meanwhile, a couple people pulled up behind me, so I looked off to the right, noted the driveway, and pulled off to let them by.
Then I heard the *clunk* of rock on metal as I bottomed out my car, and the hiss of tire on dry dirt. Turns out the driveway didn’t actually start for another few feet ahead of me and I’d carefully placed my right front tire on a traction-free zone.
A good samaritan promptly stopped by and tried giving a hand with a push – front wheel drive, car no go with the lack of traction, so that’s a fail. Tried stuffing wood under the tire – nothing quite good enough. Added his water bottle… um. nope. Becky asked about his shirt as he was heading off – I’m going to go look into “Bullet for my Valentine” – supposedly some good old-Metallica style music.
The docent for the parking lot came by and asked us how we were doing, if we needed a push… or if we had AAA. Right. We have AAA! We’re smart. So I called them up and chatted with the lady on the other end – very friendly, asked what was going on, was patient and generally set the tone for the encounter – good humor and ‘just another normal day’.
AAA around Carmel makes a conference call _mandatory_ – which makes me laugh because it makes so much sense – Carmel-by-the-Sea is a maze of dinky roads.
One of the staff for Lancelot (the play currently in the Forest Theater) came out, looked at what I’d done, and announced that he had no idea it was even possible to do that around here.
I’m just special that way, I guess.
The docent comforted me by letting me know she was a Carmel Police officer… and then saying “I hope no emergency vehicles need to come through here while you’re here; things’re narrow enough around here.” Thank you, ma’am.
When AAA arrived he took a look at it, nodded understandingly when I explained that I might’ve been able to get free, but I also might’ve torn the bottom off my car, and winched me outta there at a couple minutes after 8.
What with having been tender of stomach all afternoon and us being late as it is, I decided to forfeit my tickets and take us home – I’ll try again next week sometime.
I felt about like this:
