Gremlin Strikes Again!

Slowly catching up with ya'll. Not leaving a lot of messages ... and I *love* the fact I get updates to everyone's pages in my email, this way I'm sure to read everyone's entries. Leaves less room for me to get all confused trying to catch up.

OMG!! What a day. My computer teacher had emailed me the other day, there was a computer glitch and some of my test grades were lost. Did I happen to copy the score sheets for the tests, or otherwise record the grades? Of course not, so I had to retake ALL of the course tests. No biggie. I scored 100% on all of them (but couldn't document that), I could do it again. Just come in early today to do the re-takes she said.

Right, early. Sure, no problem. Only ... the Gremlin had other plans for me at 8 AM besides sitting doing test re-takes.

I go out, scrape the ice off the car only to find that my left rear tire is every low. No biggie, just drive up to the tire shop. They know me. I'll be in and out in less time than it takes to say "fill it up to 30 psi, please". A few minutes later I'm on the road ...

Only to get stuck in traffic because of the 8:15 train that rolls through every day. I pull into the school parking lot at 8:45 AM. A full 45 minutes late. I see the teacher in the smoking area. She'd forgotten all about me coming in early today. So, no biggie about the rough start I had, she says. Besides, we're done with the book work, so there'll be an hour of class today to do my re-takes. Whew!!

Then there's my graphics class. Handed in all sorts of projects today. Worked on my last project, too. Only ... I messed up. I hit the wrong function button in the program and lost everything! Now I have to start all over again. It's due Wednesday. I'll be heading up to school tomorrow to do that entire project again. Geesh.

The rest of the school day went fine. We even got out of drawing class an hour early today. Yippee!! Until ... I get out to my car, only to see the same tire that was low this morning is now flat as a pancake. Great!! Just what I needed. Oh, WAIT!! I have a portable air compressor in my trunk. I search the trunk. Nothing. Someone must have borrowed it and not returned it. Then ... THUD!! as the high winds slam the trunk on the top of my head. Yup, still hurts hours later.

I called Campus Security. They have a compressor. They'll be right out to fill my tire. Moron they send has no idea how to use the damned thing. He finally figures it out, and I can see my tire slowly inflating.

Common sense says to head up to the tire shop and have them check it out. So that's exactly what I did. Or ... tried to do.

Maybe I should mention here that my gas gage doesn't work. Hasn't since I got the car. I use the trip odometer as my gage. A little math is required to figure out how many miles the odometer will show when I'm low on gas and need to refill. Sooooo ... that said ...

I ran out of gas on the way to the tire shop!! I ran out on the main road, but managed to coast about half mile (downhill) to the gas station. The car petered out just inches from the pump!! WHEW!!

However, the bad news is ... my tires are beyond help. They need to be replaced as soon as possible. Or, the way my schedule is this week, the sooner the better! LOL!

I'm praying they'll make it until Friday when I have a day to devote to the tire shop.

I wonder if I can keep the Gremlin distracted until then? I don't need him to make my tires his entertainment for the rest of the week. LOL!