So far this morning...

Aiden and I got out the door about 15 minutes late this morning. That quickly turned into an hour late.

As I was pulling my car out of the garage, I noticed that I had to press on the gas more than normal to get the car rolling into reverse. I didn't think too much about it and got on the interstate. I was getting up to speed with the rest of traffic and realized I was having some trouble controlling the car. It was raining so hard and the wind was so crazy, that I was unsure if it was the weather or my car acting up. After a couple miles, I bright yellow pick-up truck pulled up next to me, honking. I looked at him and he yelled something about my tire, so I quickly got off at the next exit.

Down here around Houston, we have these roads that line most interstates called feeders. I decided I would take the time to get onto a feeder in case my tire needed to be changed. There are much less cars driving on the feeders than there are on the actual interstate.

I hopped out of the car to check the damage, and sure enough, I had a flat tire. The rear driver's side tire was completely flat. It didn't explode or come apart. It was just flat. I called Travis to see if he could help me. I understand the basics of changing a car tire, but I don't have the confidence that I could get the lug nuts back on tight enough to drive on. That scares the crapola out of me.

Thankfully, Travis was able to come put on the spare for me. Unfortunately, the sky completely blacked over and was in the middle of a torrential down pour when he arrived. Of course that means the rain was flying almost horizontal to the ground, because Galveston never has a normal, light rainstorm. It's always the equivalent to a monsoon.

When Travis finally go to us, I got out of the car again to show him which tire it was and help him get the spare tire out. I was hoping to lessen the amount of time spent in the rain. He yelled to me over the rain to get back in the car so I wouldn't get too wet. It was too late. My butt was already soaked from the minute I spent out in the rain.

Turns out, I had a screw in my tire. Travis kept my tire so he can take it to get plugged today. Travis is saturated from the waist down and on his right arm (the side the wind was blowing into).

I had to stop at McDonald's and buy Aiden a crappy breakfast since he missed breakfast at the daycare. Then when I finally got into work, I forgot my umbrella and my delicious lunch that I was really excited about (chicken and hummus pita). I park five blocks from work, so it's not worth going back for. It wasn't raining by the time I got to work, so that's why I didn't think about the umbrella. Hopefully it's not raining when I get off this evening. I guess the lunch thing sort of works out since I am planning to meet Jenna for lunch at the cafeteria.

When I got on the elevator at work, another man got on the elevator with me. After the doors closed, there was a good 20-second pause before the elevator lurched upward. We both looked at each other, a little panicked, wondering if we were going to be one of the "lucky" ones to get stuck on this particular elevator. Thankfully, it moved on and I didn't have to add another catastrophe to my day.

These elevators still have not been repaired or replaced since the hurricane. The university got funding last year to do the necessary work, but for some reason it still hasn't happened. The guy on the elevator said something that helped brighten my day.

"Since the hurricane, my wife and I have conceived a baby, delivered the baby and now he can talk. And they still haven't fixed the broken elevators on campus?"

Thank you for cheering me up, Stranger.