What a day...

My intention was to go to work early, so I could leave early. So, I started at 8 am, but didn't get to the office until 4 hours later. Why? I would like to blame it on poor road conditions (the roads hadn't been graded) and crappy weather. After leaving one of our locations and heading to the office, I drove down the road I always go on. Because the roads weren't graded, the build-up of snow created grooves/ruts. Plus, it was really icy. Anyway, as I was changing lanes, I started to fishtail and must've hit a patch of ice because I spun out of control and landed on top of the median. Thank goodness no one was around, so I didn't hit anyone and no one hit me. But my car was pretty much buried in snow. Great. And of course this had to happen on the coldest day of the year! I tried to get a hold of a tow truck, but everyone was fully booked and wait times were up to 12 hours. Some weren't taking any calls because they were backed up. So I called roadside assistance and told them my situation. The lady I spoke to said she'd send a tow truck, and because of where I was situated, she put me on 'priority status'.

So, I sat there and waited. All the cars that passed by slowed down to take a look. Some even pointed. And there were even a couple that seemed to give me a dirty look. Uh hello?! Do you really think I wanted this to happen?!? Driving by and looking at me doesn't really help my situation. Plus, you'd think they'd pay attention to the road in front of them, so they don't cause their own accident? There was one car who stopped and asked if I was OK. I told him that I was just waiting for a tow truck.

As I was waiting and watching everyone pass by and look, I noticed an ambulance in the distance. I couldn't really see what was going on, but figured there was another accident. Minutes later, I saw a fire truck. Then I noticed that there were heading in my direction. I looked behind me to see if there was an accident, but there wasn't. As they got closer to me, they slowed down. Huh?! There they were - an ambulance, a fire truck, a police car, and a fire and rescue truck - all stopped in front of me. I noticed the guys in the fire truck (who btw, were quite good looking) look at each other and chuckled, as if to say 'we got called out for this?'. When they jumped out of the truck, I rolled down my window and told them that I only called for a tow truck. He asked to make sure I was OK and that I was warm enough (which I was). The policeman also asked me the same thing. Then one of the other fire guys offered to push me out. If they could do it, then why not. But they couldn't. The snow was too deep and I was stuck. After they left, I realized that they probably could've pushed/pulled me out with their fire truck. But I guess they can't really do that. Besides, they might've damaged the car.

I felt bad that they were called out on my account. I mean, there could've been another accident where someone needed medical attention, and here they were wasting their time on me. You'd think the person I spoke to at roadside assistance would ask if I needed medical attention before dispatching an ambulance, a fire truck, a police car, and fire and rescue. But apparently it's automatic for them to send them out?

In the meantime, I called the office and told them the situation. Between talking to roadside assistance and the office, my phone was dying. Great. And the lady from roadside assistance told me that I had to keep my phone lines open. So, I decided to walk to Future Shop (which was a couple blocks up the street) to get a car charger, since I don't have one. When I got there, they were still closed. They didn't open until 10 am, and it was only 940 am. Ugh. So I went to Staples to warm up and to see if they carried car chargers. They did, but not for my phone. Now what was I to do? I didn't want to walk back to my car because it was too cold (windchill of -41C), and my phone was dying. I tried to call roadside assistance to let them know where I was, but the courtesy phone wouldn't allow me. So I had to call the office and get my co-worker to call roadside assistance for me and conference the call. I told them where I was and gave them the number to Staples as an alternate number to reach me. I also requested that the tow truck pick me up at Staples before heading out to my car. She updated my file on the system and told me that the tow truck would call me about 10 minutes before getting to me.

At about 1050 am, I got a call (actually a recording) saying that the tow truck would be here in 10 minutes. But for some reason, I had the feeling that they would be going to my car, instead of meeting me at Staples. I had to do a conference call with roadside assistance again to make sure that they were going to pick me up. She said that that's what they had on their system. But minutes later, the actual tow truck guy called me and said they were at my car and were set up and ready to go. Argh! So I had to run back to my car, which is a bit difficult in -41C windchill factor weather. It took about half an hour before they got me out. But in doing so, they managed to rip out the anchor thing at the front of my car. So now I have to see how much that is to get fixed. The towing company should get billed for that. Or it should be covered under warranty.

By the time I got to the office, it was noon. Time to have lunch. In retrospect, the accident could've been avoided because I didn't really have to go to that location. It was just automatic for me to go there. Bottom line is, at least no one got hurt.