So there I was, driving down the road on Sunday afternoon. I pull into the left turn lane and hear a loud “snap” sound. Then the car starts to bounce a little. I stopped about 15 feet shy of the intersection. I tried to push the gas, and the car didn’t move. Shit.

I got out of the car to see what had happened. Both front tires are turned inward. The tie rod had snapped on one side. There was no way I could push the car off the road. I had zero cash on me and no other means of paying for a tow truck. James was nice enough to loan me the use of his AAA card to get a free tow.

The problem was he was in Midwest City and I was on the south side of Oklahoma City. Duck was kind enough to bring it to me, but he was in the middle of something at the time, so I’d have to wait a bit.

While I was waiting, I called the non-emergency police number to let them know I was stuck in traffic (at James’s suggestion) rather than let them discover me themselves and be angry. About 20 minutes later, the officer arrived to block traffic so no one hit me. (While I was waiting there was a little fender bender that occurred ten feet away.)

The officer was patient at first, but after about 20 minutes he started to complain. After he’d been there about 40 minutes, another officer showed up to take his place. He was an ass from the start. The first one hadn’t even checked to see if I had an ID on me. That was the first thing this one did. After a couple minutes, he came back to talk to me after checking my license.

“Did you know your license was suspended?”
“What?”
“Your license is suspended.”
“Huh?”
“Why is your license suspended? What have you been arrested for or gotten a ticket for?”

After thinking about it for a bit, I decided it probably happened a year or two ago when my insurance had been canceled because I didn’t have the money to pay them at the time. The insurance company is required to notify the DPS when that happens. I didn’t receive the notice that it had been suspended. I’d even been pulled over once, for a broken tag light, and that officer hadn’t noticed, or was being really nice.

“You’re lucky I didn’t see you driving so I can’t arrest you.”

Asshole.

I’ve been driving Rachel’s car, even though we broke up over a month ago (that’s the one that broke). My car is currently sitting in the driveway with two dead rear tires, a dead battery, no gas, an expired tag and a need for an oil change. But before I can take care of that, I have to come up with the $350 to reinstate my license first.

Shit.