So this past week I had a meeting for work in Salt Lake. I took one of the state vehicles, and was on the road by 7:30 am. Because I travel the furtherest out of everyone in my office, they usually assign me the oldest car (because once the car hits 100,000 they sell it). Which meant I was taking the ford focus.
Ever since I've started working at this job, the focus' battery light has been on. I've told the receptionist and she has emailed the guy in charge of cars at least three times. Since the light is always on in the car, I just thought it was something with this car.
When I started the car it took a few extra seconds to start. Not unusual because the last time I looked at the temperature it was 1 degree.
I started driving and rocking out to the radio, when in American Fork the radio shut off stating "low battery" on the screen. Now I've driven old cars most of my life and know the battery can recharge itself, so I turned off the lights and anything that would drain the battery and kept going.
When I got to Lehi, all of the dash lights came on (ABS, air bags, etc.) including the parking brake. I testing the brake a few times (while on the freeway) to make sure I didn't space it and leave it on. It was off, but the light was on.
When I got to Thanksgiving Point, all of the lights and gauges turned off. I still had the gas and still had brakes, so I decided to continue on to Salt Lake and just go the same speed and as most of the other cars.
Going up the point of the mountain the car started to chug and I knew my time was limited. I got off on the next exit (which felt hundreds of miles away), and tried to plan where I was going to stop. Since I still had control of the gas and brakes, I decided to try and make it to a parking lot.
I came to the stop sign at the bottom of the off ramp, and the car completely shut off. I tried turning it on, but there was nothing. So, I jumped out, cranked the wheel and started pushing. Then I heard "Get in the car and steer!". I turned around to find a man pushing my car. I jumped in and said out loud "Where did he come from?" and steered the car into the shoulder/snow bank. I hopped back out and said "Where did you come from?!" and he said "The car behind you". But there were already people in the car behind me and I said "Thank you!" over my shoulder as I got back into the car. We had pushed the car completely perpendicular to the road.
I called the front desk and the new receptionist had no idea what to do. Another co-worker transferred me to the guy in charge of cars' cell phone, because of course he wasn't in that day. He told me he would "try" to find someone to come pick me up and would get a tow truck.
I called my supervisor and then the guy in charge of the meeting I was supposed to be going to. He told me that another co-worker of mine was coming up from Utah County. I called her and she said she was just leaving Alpine and would swing by on her way. She also told me it was 6 degrees out.
I called the guy in charge of cars to tell him I got a ride and he told me that my stalker co-worker was coming to get me. He said that I needed to stop the stalker from coming. After multiple attempts to contact the stalker at this desk, on his cell, and at the front desk, I gave up (later found out the front desk tracked him down and stopped him).
I sat in the cold for another 30 minutes. Luckily I had my down jacket and wool socks on. But no matter how well dressed you are, when you just sit in the cold, you get cold.
The moment the tow truck called, my co-worker drove up. I frantically tried to tell him where the car was, leave the keys according to his directions (Ok, I'm sorry, the car is dead and not going ANYWHERE, so why hide the keys?!), move the files from one car to the other, and write a note for the highway patrol stating "tow truck enroute" all while my fingers where nearly popsicles.
We made it to the meeting and my adrenaline finally wore off. I did the training for the new workers. I handled an "emergency" situation for a new co-worker as she refused to get off the phone with help desk because she locked herself out of the computer (a family had stopped by to drop off paperwork and just needed copies, yeah not what I would call an emergency either).
I drove my co-worker's car back to American Fork where she told me another co-worker was and would be driving back to Provo. I get there and it turns out she never asked the other co-worker if he could take me and she didn't even know if he was still there. She had me walk into the building she thought he was at and start looking into windows. With no other choice, I did. Luckily as soon as I walked into the building and turned left he was there and he said he could take me.
I spent the next 15 minutes following my co-worker's crappy instructions of where to park her car. With a few choice words I thought I found it. She was bugged when I called her again to make sure I was in the right place.
I had to sit through my ride's meeting and then he took me to Provo. However, he drove from American Fork, back up to the Alpine highway. I thought he knew a short cut, but it halfway there he said "I go this way because it's the only way I know". 20 minutes later we were on the freeway to Provo.
I made it back to work and caught myself up on what I missed. Called my supervisor and gave him updates.
The sad thing of this all is, is crap like this happens to me all the time and I'm starting to get used to it. I was just glad it was me and not a car full of DCFS kids. I'm also glad I can go home to my bed and warm (or slightly warm because I'm cheapskate) apartment and I don't have to sleep in a freezing car.
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