Cranky Stabbington Rides Again

Remember how I said that the toxic people in my life were dead to me? WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU REMIND ME YESTERDAY?

Seriously.

A year ago, J's friend D was on vacation all the way over on the Arizona/New Mexico border (about 4 hours away) when his car broke down. After 19 hours of waiting for the Cochise County Sheriffs to fetch them, they gave up and called us. J drove down there and towed them back to their home (about 80 miles south east of PHX). Then, D stayed with us for three weeks until he could afford to get his car fixed.

Six months ago, J used his connections to find D a super cheap used car. That ran. Decently even. D now has three cars. D, by the way, is a mechanic by trade.

Friday night, D calls J. He's down past Tucson and his car is broken down. The only one of his three cars that runs, by the way. J leaves the house at 8pm, drives 2 hours and tows him back to his house. Apparently it was a blown water pump. He then stays over night, drives D into town to get the parts, helps him fix it and comes home.

Sunday, D's wife calls. Guess whose piece of shit car has broken down on the AZ/NM border again. NO SHIT. So, at 3pm on Sunday, I call every single rental place in the PHX area looking for a tow dolly. I finally find one in the town D lives in and J leaves to go get him. It's a four hour drive each way.

All of this would be merely an inconvenience, only D, as usual is dead broke. WE paid for all the fuel AND the trailer rental.

OH BUT IT GETS BETTER. Or worse, depending on your point of view.

J calls me at 10pm on Sunday and tells me that because he has to work, and D hasn't got a car that runs, *I* need to take off work early, drive 80 miles to pick up D, load up the trailer, drop his truck off at a repair place, then drive the trailer back to the rental place and OH BY THE WAY, all of this needs to be done by 4pm.

So, like a sucker, I leave work at 1:30, drive down and knock on D's door. He's not ready to go. Half hour later he comes downstairs. It's now 3pm. Despite the presence of 3 teenage boys inside, me, D and his 10yo daughter Lea hook up the trailer and load up the truck. Then, OH OF COURSE, D needs to dink around with the truck. It's 3:30. We have to go about 25 miles. I, as you know, am blessed with The Crazy. One of my symptoms is I get all panic-y when I'm late for an appointment. We manage to get the truck to the repair place by 3:45 but are still about 20 minutes from the rental place. I call them and explain that I live 80 miles away and won't be able to drop it off the next day, that we're on our way, are maybe 20 minutes from them could they PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stay on site until we arrive? The girl assures me that they can.

At 4:03 we pull into a deserted parking lot. With a locked gate. And no one answering the phone.

AND OF COURSE in all his forward thinking J has rented the trailer round-trip meaning I can ONLY return it to this place. That is closed. That is now going to charge me an additional day and to where I will have to take ANOTHER 3+ hours off work to drive the trailer.

AND THEN, J calls me and chews my ass out for not making in on time. Because it's OBVIOUSLY all my own personal fault.

OH HELLS NO.

So I start calling rental places until I find one that will be open long enough for me to get there.

It's in Phoenix.

That's 80 miles away.

We haul ass and drop it off and you know what? In addition to charging me an extra day for dropping it off late the UnNamed rental company wants to charge me DOUBLE the rental price for returning it to a different location.

So let's add this up.

3 tanks of Diesel at $75 each = 225
1 Day of trailer rental = 60
Tank of gas for bronco = 60
Late Penalty = 60
Wrong location = 172.50

That's $577.50 kids.

Have I said OH HELL NO yet? Thought so. I, in my best cleavage thrust forward, big batting blue eyes, sweet helpless girl manner related with as much humor and chagrin as possible to the UnNamed rental men how frustrated I am with this whole situation. Luckily for me one of said UnNamed rental guys is the district manager and agrees that the other location has been a poor representative of their company and so he waves the late charge and drop off fees.

I thank them profusely and run to the truck in case they change their minds.

Then? I drive ANOTHER 80 miles to drop D & Lea off.

AND THEN I DRIVE ANOTHER 80 miles home.

I left work at 1:30 and I walked in the door to my house at 9pm. I could have been at Disneyland in the time it took me to drive the same stretch of freeway five times.

To be told that I should have "used my time better".

AND PEOPLE WONDER WHY I DRINK.