Kick in the Pants P.S.

Triple A, man. You’re glad you have it but boy do you have to jump through some hoops to use it. My girl’s broke-down car was stranded 100 miles to the west for 8 long days while the ‘experts’ dickered. The service station couldn't fix it, the dealership couldn’t fix it... They all threw up their hands, cried  “We don’t know WHAT”S wrong with this car !” and, as a nice kick-in-the-pants P.S. said,  “Get it outa here."So Annie and I each called in sick and spent five harrowing hours trying to do that.The advice from the clowns who handed over the keys? “Drive it ‘til it starts screaming; then call Triple A.” So drive it Annie did, with me following close behind in my car, eyes peeled for the white smoke which in this case would NOT mean “We have a Pope!” but rather “Your vehicle’s in its death throes, get the hell out!”Well, the car did break down again, of course it broke down. As Annie drove it, the engine light came on and it was sure-enough screaming and groaning and finally she  motioned that she was pulling over. Lucky for us we were near a service plazas. We pulled in there and made our call.“Oh!” sang the Triple A guy merrily. “Well Triple A doesn't service cars on the Turnpike What we can do is call the state police who after more than an hour will come tow you off the Pike and leave you on a nice twisty secondary road from which  you can then call again and wait another hour while we decide whether or not to come save you.”We spent that first hour we spent waiting for the Staties who never came. When we finally called the AAA  again we got a new  guy who did put us right through to State Trooper Sullivan. “Wh-a-a-a-at? That's not right,"  he said when we explained what we had been told earlier. “We'll have a tow truck there in five minutes.”It came in four minutes and its driver didn’t tow us to some secondary road and leave us there. He took and towed Annie’s car clear back to Annie’s own mechanic 60 miles to the east. He was a sweet young guy with a nice smile and we gave him 20 bucks which I hope he spent on beers with his chums.