Thank God and Mother Mary for large and small miracles

Breaking down in the dark at 6am on the freeway is not fun! Ask me how I know!

Actually, it could have been much worse (note the title of this blog).

I left the house a little late today, being that it was noisy until 4am around the bedroom door. No matter. Up at five (ish) and out the door at 6 (ish).

Funny thing: when I walked out the door, a little voice in my head told me not to take the car that I usually take to work. I ignored it. That was unwise.

I drove the mile between my house and the freeway on ramp without incident. It wasn't until I accelerated onto the freeway that I realized anything was wrong.

As I pressed the clutch to the floor of the car, the gear shift would not move into fourth gear. I tried pushing it back into third, but it still would not engage the engine. When I lifted my foot up to try and double clutch, the pedal remained pressed to the floor. The pedal had stopped working. So I was stuck in neutral, coasting along, unable to give the engine any gas.

Mind you, I was merging onto I-5.

Thankfully, the exit that I would take to get onto Highway 2 to go to the shop is less than a mile from the on ramp. So I didn't even try to change lanes- I didn't need to. But as I approached Highway 2, I realized that if I didn't get off of the road in about ten seconds, I was going to be stuck on a ramp that merges with a major highway. Unable to move. This did not sound appealing.

I puttered to the right as quickly as I could (in other words, not very quickly), scooting between some orange construction barrels onto the shoulder of the road. Because it was dark, because it was raining, and because I was paying more attention to getting out of the path of oncoming cars than I was to where I was going, I didn't realize that it was a construction zone. Between my house and the shop, it was absolutely the best place to have a breakdown (see title of blog). None of the equipment or workers were there yet.

I stopped and called my bosses to tell them I'd be late. Then I called my parents (I was only about a mile from home. See title of blog). Then I couldn't think of what to do. So I started muttering Hail Marys. I got through about ten; I'd have said more, except an incident response worker pulled up behind me right then (see title of blog). Apparently they peruse the zones before the construction workers get there.

My mom arrived a few minutes later and took me to work (I was only ten minutes late. And it didn't matter, because my truck was getting new tires and my crew couldn't leave yet, anyway. See title of blog.). My father and brother got there soon after. They called AAA. The car is OK; we think the clutch cable failed, so the transmission is fine. We just need a new cable (see title of blog).

As I said, it all could have been much worse. See title of blog.