The Explosion

I went out with my voice twin last night. We went to Coldstone Creamery for ice cream.

My car still needs to go into the shop. It's driving rough, but not due to the engine. In fact, it runs so rough that my voice twin commented that one could have an orgasm while sitting in the passenger seat long enough. Which sent me into hysterics.

Both the ice cream and the company were spectacular.

We went back to her house to just hang for a bit. While we were there, my friends dad called me. He had a couple of things to discuss that were important. We talked about my friend ( his daughter) and her health, a potential client for me and the status of the chorale we both sing in.

We hung out a little while longer.

When I left, I took a longer route home so I was on local roads as I wasn't comfortable with the level of bounce over 40 miles per hour.

I called my step-mom on the phone while enroute to my house to let her know that I spoke to my friends dad. I was still on the phone with her when I walked into the house.

I was in the house about 5 minutes when we heard the explosion. Everyone, to a man, who has a window facing south in our condo, ran to the window. But nothing could be seen. My neighbor across the way called me to ask what the hell was going on.

I hung up ith my step mom and talked to my neighbor about the possibilities.

The explosion sounded like either a gunshot ( a big one ) or an M80. That was my assessment. There were "kids" Hanging out in our parking lot which is where the sound appeared to originate. They were there until roughly 11 PM.

This morning I went downstairs to meet Jenna for coffee and noticed my tire flat as flat can be and a perfectly round hole in it.

Not normally being an alarmist, but being raised to be vigilant, my first thought was vandalism. One of those kids must have shot out my tire. And the irony of it was they were hanging out directly opposite from my car. So my thought process wasn't a stretch.

Feeling tense, and just trying to organize my thoughts, I called Jenna. As luck would have it, she was just about near me, so she came to pick me up. She took one look at the tire and we got in the car. Ever the cool head prevailing, she announced that we would go pick up coffee and breakfast and head back to her house. While she may not be speaking to her husband, I was and he would help us. So she called him from the car and said,

"Hi, it's me. I'm not speaking to you but Contessa is. We are picking up coffee and then coming home. I need you to take her keys and put her spare on. "

"OK sure. I'm not doing anything. I just got out of the shower."

So I yell into the speaker phone,

"Thank YOU!!!!" but he was already gone.

We get our coffee and breakfast. At her house I hand the keys over and tell him where my car is parked.

And hour and half later he called from the local tire place. The tire could be replaced for 70 dollars. I authorized it and he said it wasn't shot out. It was an air bubble the exploded.

Mental head slap.

The explosion last night.

Duh.

My tire exploded within 5 minutes of my getting out of the car last night.

Holy crap.

I could have been driving the car when that happened.

I would tell you that I was lucky. But I think it's the answer to a prayer.

I wasn't supposed to BE in the car.

And the Beauty of it????

The shake rattle and roll ??? essentially gone. I will take it in to make sure the passenger side is OK as the shaking seemed to be worse there, but for the most part I was back driving the speed limit.

I can't imagine what that would have done while I was driving. My mind shuts down at the thought.

The funny thing is, I just checked the air pressure last week and all tires were perfect. So how this air bubble came in to play confused me. So I had Jenna's husband explain it to me.

If you rub your tire against a curb while parking or something like that? YOu wear down the wall of the tire. Thus air can get in. Hence a bubble CAN form. And with extreme heat, can expand and with no where else to go? BAM !!!! Explosion.

We were 90+ degree heat till yesterday. It was in the 60's last night. The tire guy was not only NOT surprised that it happened but he was shocked to learn I wasn't driving it at the time. You see the heat and friction from driving is ultimately what did it.

Imagine popping a balloon. Loud right????

A tire popping- the ultimate balloon incidentally - shook the building.

For me, I was just happy to know that my tire didn't got shot out by vandalism. I would much rather be the responsible party. I would rather have to kick my own ass than someone elses.

Drive safely!

The opposite of the Midas touch

Things here are not going well and you know what they say:

"When it rains it pours"

Well - we had torrentional rain, thunder and lightning ripping through the area along with a tornado in Brooklyn last night.

That's just the actual weather report.

The storms, more commonly referred to as my life, took a different format. My bedroom A/C unit leaked water all over my carpet night before last which required me to mop up a boat load of water and found me drying the carpet with a hair dryer.

I spent last night researching "through the wall sleeve" units. They start at $450.00. I found a nice Sears Kenmore model for $499.00 and my neighbor is going to help me install it.

My best friend called last night. His brother, as usual, doesn't learn. He has managed to thwart the efforts to get him hospice services. This is not terribly unusual though, he had to fall severla times in order to first get the cane, then get the walker anad finally the wheelchair. So this did not come as a surprise to me. Or him. But it is frustrating all the same because it's so unfair to his family. And all the people who help care for him.

Then there is the matter of my car. It feels like a roller coaster ride if you are in the passenger seat. I mentioned it to my best friend last night and he suspects the suspension. That never occurred to me, but then that shouldn't surprise anyone. I'm not "handy" that way.

So the money I have coming in PLUS my savings account will be going towards these two expenditures.

I tend to have the opposite of the midas touch. Everything I touch turns to crap.

Let's review the evidence:

• My job: Things were beautiful for about 4 years. BAM! merger. New boss. life is now crap.
• My love life: I met my soul mate. We are both in love with each other but the problem very specifically lies with him not wanting or ready to acknowledge it with some kind of peramanance. So right people - wrong time.
• My friendships: By and large this is not so bad, BUT I do have a couple of friends who seem to have abandoned me and I am unclear why. I should take the hint I guess. If they don't want regular contact wtih me and want to be friendly acquaintances who talk perhaps once or twice a year, thats fine. I just wish people would be up front instead of stringing me a long. One, when questioned, actually went with the "it's not you - It's me. "
• My family: While things are better here, I swear we are like a slightly warped version of everybody loves Raymond. And I'm Robert. Really do I need to say more?
• My home/car: As you have already seen we've covered this above. In the hopes of not being redundant I won't review it again.

Now, you may laugh when I say this but even with all of this above, every night I say a prayer, in the hopes that there is a heaven. This prayer consists of me thanking God for:

• the job that i have ( even though it blows),
• the home I have ( though it needs repairs),
• the car I drive ( same with the repairs),
• the friends and family that I have ( though all of us may be certifiable)
• The relationship that I am involved in ( though it needs a good deal of work)
• My health
• The world that we live in

Then I pray for the following:

• To make the job that am in better. by getting rid of leader
• To help me find the necessary elements to repair my home
• To help me find the necessary elements to repair my car
• To help my family and friends through any trials, illnesses or generals needs and blessings
• To help me with my relationship to get things on track for us.
• Keep me healthy and those close to me
• TO make the world a better place
• To give me strenght and courage to keep moving forward even when I feel like there is no hope, or have lost my way or my desire.

I guess that while I have the opposite of the midas touch, I also still have hope that I will be able to straighten everything out.

Act 1 Scene 5 - The Contessa looks for signs everywhere

I have been writing my Letters to God lately, I have noticed that one of the things I pray for is a sign that I am making the right decisions or signs to help guide me on the paths that I am on.

So I was driving home from a board meeting, where the stupidity and crap that has been reigning for the past two months, finally was put to a timely end. A load off my mind. I was thinking about another problem and came up with a solution. It wasn't a great one and while I felt better for HAVING a solution, it may not have been the best one. So in driving home, I asked for a sign as t whether this was a good solution or not.

Then CRASH.

I merged into another vehicle. A large black SUV ish vehicle.

Entirely my fault. I thought I checked my blindspot carefully before merging, but I was distracted with the solution that I had just found.

We were heading for a traffic light and I DO believe that the SUV sped up to close the gap so I couldn't merge. Be that as it may, I still hit them. But we were slowed down for the light which was red, so I didn't hit that hard.

Still in the essence of doing the right thing... I started up to move to another lane so we could pull over and exchange information.

GAH!!!!! Foiled!!!!!!

They cut me off, cut over two lanes, sped up and got on the Interstate.

Are you kidding me???

Now I am thinking,oh boy, I'll bet there is something illegal going on with them. Then I worry that something happened to them and Pray that they are not hurt.

Then it occurs to me that this is the REALLY obvious sign I asked for. The solution to one of my problems that I came up with, you know, the one that distracted me in the first place????Not a good OR fair one. Not yet at any rate.

This is the kind of thing that happens to women in my family. My mom has had car accidents and tickets the few times that she has had major issues on her mind.

And So it gets passed down.

But it was a big sign. And I feel oddly relieved. I didn't get hurt, My car doesn't have a scratch on it ( explain this to me please!!!) and I am not following through with my solution, but have tabled it temporarily in search of a better solution OR a positive change. I just pray now that those people are not hurt.

There are signs everywhere - you just have to look.