Driving to a friend’s house this evening, quite suddenly, the pressure went out of my brakes. I was not in a place where i could safely pull over, so i carefully drive to their house, with my other hand on the parking brake, and miraculously found a parking spot across the road from their home. I parallel parked.
At 9:40 ish, i called triple A for a tow. The phone system suggested i use their app. So at 9:41 i did so.
The app took my info, and said a truck would arrive at 10:41
So at 10:35, i went outdoors to wait.
At 11:15 i got impatient, and called to ask what was up. Oh, the system rejected your address. But i can try to give your information to the dispatcher now.
Do you have any idea how long it will be? No. I finally asked how long she thought i should wait before calling back. She suggested half an hour.
That had been a long call, so at around midnight i called again. I waited on hold interminably. Anyway, it’s now 1, and they still have no idea how long i might wait. But no, they can’t schedule a tow for the morning. They can arrange an unattended tow, or i can try to find someone else to tow the car (after midnight) and bill them. Or i can cancel the request and start over in the morning.
The unattended tow seems tricky. The mechanic is sort of a subcontractor at a gas station, and only “owns” a couple of parking spots. There no way i can leave a message that’s going to get the car in a legal place. And I’m dubious about them breaking into my car and unparking it, too, although honestly, they probably do that all the time, and that’s probably fine.
So I’m crashing in the guest bedroom, turning off my phone’s “do not disturb”, and writing this rant.