Hi friends, romans, countrymen

Hope your weekend is buzzing along nicely. I kicked mine off last night when I met my friend at the diner for a bite to eat. It ended like this…

Rice pudding topped with whipped cream

I’m blaming the supermoon for my lapse in judgement.

But let me tell you it was so worth it! Best rice pudding I’ve had in a while. And whipped cream is my favorite food group.

This morning I took the doodle to the groomer and then traveled to the park where the big fundraising event for the dog park was taking place. I parked the car here:

End? Hmm….Foreshadowing perhaps…read on!

I saw lots of friends and they all were so confused to see me without my doodle sidekick. There was a “dog wash” where you could get your dog squeaky clean for a small donation, pet store and pet care vendors with free samples and goodies, an animal rescue organization with some of their available pups (be glad I didn’t take pictures because your heart would have melted and you would have wanted to travel from wherever you are to come adopt one.) It was quite the turnout and with the 50/50 and themed basket raffle combined with the sale of some other items the dog park organization raised lots of money to go toward the maintenance of the dog park. Success!

Finally I looked at my watch and realized I needed to hightail it out of there to get back to the groomer where Duncan was ready for pickup. Got in my car. It didn’t start on the first try or the second. I freaked for a second. I just replaced the battery. Hmm….maybe the alternator? Nah. It’s gotta start. So I tried again and this time it turned over. Whew! I made it not a mile up the road when all of a sudden the check engine light came on, the RPM tachometer needle literally started going haywire from 0 to 7 over and over. I tried to make a quick right and pull onto a side street but the car died and power steering locked. Next thing I knew I was coasting right toward the curb where the street sign pole was. I quickly threw the car in park and put my hazards on. Called my friend Nicole who was still working at the event with her husband (she’s the owner of the pet care company I use for Duncan) She sent him to come help me out. We got the car started and he said he’d follow me the 3 miles home. So off we went about one more mile and then the same thing happened but this time we were now on the highway! So I coasted over to the shoulder. There was white smoke coming out of the muffler and it smelled like a combination of gasoline and exhaust fumes. We tried to start the car again and hoped we could get a little farther since I was only 2 miles from home now. No good. This time it wouldn’t start again. That’s when I realized Duncan still needed to get picked up at the groomer.

Ever see an emergency call box up close? I did! Then I gave my “oh well” selfie a shot, and finally panicked that i only had 2 sips of water left because I’m a drama queen

So I gave Bobby my house key, Duncan’s leash and cash to pay the groomer and he left to go get Duncan and bring him to my house while I called up GEICO emergency roadside assistance. I get a free tow but since I was on a restricted access highway I had to pay and I’ll get reimbursed. About 45 minutes later my knight in shining armor a fluorescent yellow t-shirt arrived.

In all the years I’ve been driving (close to 25 years) this is the first time I’ve ever needed to be towed. So I shouldn’t complain =) We got my girl to the mechanic but they were closing so it’s now parked there until Monday when they return. I didn’t know if I wanted to ask anyone else for a favor so I started to walk home. It was hot and almost 4pm already and I knew a 3 mile walk would take me an hour. So I caved and called another friend who scooped me up and brought me home. I was now stuck in the house and thirsty and needed to decompress from the ordeal (yeah, don’t ever let me sign up to be on Survivor) so I decided to make an adult beverage.

Mango, Pineapple and rum cocktail in the works

I had frozen mango and pineapple in the freezer and two types of rum, perfect for a summer cocktail!

It’s all good!

Once I was finally relaxed and over the whole breakdown thing I decided to research a little bit more about my ankle tendonitis. It’s been starting to get a little achier and while I know it’s because I’ve started running again I just had a feeling my nagging tight and sore calf muscle was related. Sure enough it turns out that there is a trigger point which I vaguely remember from when I had acupuncture that causes referred pain to the outside of the ankle right where my discomfort is. While I’ve been using a tennis ball to massage the back part of my calf I haven’t been digging in to the trigger point area to get a good release. Now I’m on to something! I spent about 30 minutes tonight working on it and I can’t believe the almost immediate relief I felt. The human body never ceases to amaze me. Duncan wasn’t exactly thrilled that I was using his tennis ball and rope toy for stretching and trigger-point massage.

He wasn’t too thrilled that he got a haircut and bath either.

Meanwhile I was feeling sad when I realized without a car I wouldn’t be able to drive to Brooklyn to run with some of my peeps. But tonight I got a text that said they’d come to me!!!! WOO HOO!!! So I’m off to go map out a 10 mile route for us.

I’ll report back tomorrow on that. =)

So tell me your breakdown stories. Also, if you’ve recently bought are leased a car tell me what you got. I’m starting to think it’s the safe way to go even though I love my Jeep.

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