Drrrrrrrr

Having a bad day.

Overslept. Woke up to rain and thunder -- which I like, except, in NW Arkansas, this means a front is coming through, which means, usually, I'm going to have a migraine, which, sure enough, I now am, here it is, sitting here, a hot wet spade of pain jamming itself in above my eye.

Then: driving the kid out to stay at the fellow liberal professor's house, out in the country, about twenty miles from Fort Smith, a nice drive, which the kid enjoys, and which she entertains me on, this drive, by singing songs about her imaginary friends the fuzzball family and by pointing out to me how lovely a sky full of storm clouds is, I notice that the dashboard lights aren't lighting up anymore. Hmm, thinks I. That's odd.

A few miles later, I notice the windshield wipers aren't actually working very well.

Oh, me, I think.

I turn off the headlights. This helps the performance of the wipers a bit.

For a while.

Hell and damn, I say.

"Shut up," I tell the kid. "I'm having a crisis."

"What?" she wanted to know. "What, what, what?"

We do have AAA, but I have just remembered, of course, that my cell phone is at home, by my computer.

We are close to the other liberal professor's house.

We make it there. The car seems to be running fine. I think, okay. (Remember I'm a classics/comp lit professor. What do I know from internal combustion engines.) I think, I'll drive it back to town and leave it at the repair shop. The guy can fix it while I'm at school.

It seems like a fine plan.

I take the kid inside. I tell plan to liberal prof and her husband. They don't seem to think it is an insane plan.

I get back in car. And make it back to the highway before the engine quits completely.

Luckily the torrential downpour does not actually start until the tow truck actually arrives.

Nor does the migraine arrive until now.

And the repair shop guy very nicely gave me a ride to school.

And -- because of the storm? -- it was seventy degrees instead of the 98+ it has been all week.

So could be worse.

And I'd believe that if my head weren't killing me.

Oh -- and mr delagar is up in Fayetteville taking is language qualifier today and won't be down until four or five o'clock, nor will my vehicle be fix anytime before six -- so I am WITHOUT WHEELS.

Hah.