A tale of struggle.
I'm mostly just typing this out to kill time and also have somewhere to refer people to when I'm inevitably asked about it.
So, presently I'm taking a biology course at the
College of DuPage to make up a science credit I need to graduate the high school. LT doesn't offer science courses during the summer for some reason, so I had to outsource everything to here. It hasn't really been problematic, the classes are basically two hours of notes (Which I ignore and use the time to do the homework instead, since they're effectively notes that I'm graded on), a five minute test, and then a remaining two hours of nothing, typically spent asleep or playing vidya.
This has so far been fine. I still need to get my license (It's on the grand list of things for me to do this summer before ollying outy to actual college), so my brother has been driving me out to Glen Ellyn from where we live in Brookfield since he has things he needs to do himself here anyway. It's about a forty minute drive, but nothing terrible.
Unfortunately, today we ran into some trouble a bit past midway to the campus. As we pulled off a bridge to start heading west towards the campus, the engine started sputtering, almost like it was hyperventilating. At the same time, the RPM display started to go nuts, and quickly seeing the problem, my brother hit the hazard flashers and cut the radio. After a couple more metres, squeezing the engine for what we could, the engine finally died. We were a block away from the parking lot we had been aiming for, hoping we could find someone nice enough to give us a jump there. We were right at an intersection when the engine cut out, and it didn't take long for people behind us to start getting (justifiably) upset, honking as the went around us.
Unable to think of anything else to do, my brother decides to call the police and see if they could help out at all. It was definitely an emergency of sorts, at least. At the same time, a young homeless fellow comes over, asking if he could help at all. I explained the gist of the situation, and although he looked well in shape enough that we could have probably pushed the car, decided to turn his offer to help down since we already had the police on the line. Once my brother comes off the phone, he then explains to me that the police would be unable to provide the jump themselves, not wanting to risk the computer equipment in their cars, but that an officer would come down to help get us out of the way and direct traffic around us until we could get a jump.
About ten minutes later, the officer comes in from behind us, having performed a pretty sick maneuver to put himself between the traffic in our lane and our own car. After we've explained the situation to him, he offers to either push us down the road to somewhere safer, or he could call a tow truck company. Since neither my brother or I are really "financially sound," we decided to take his offer for a push. At first, my brother was worried because he couldn't get the car into neutral, but all he needed to do was have the keys in an on position and his foot on the brake. You know, what you usually do when shifting...
After a waiver has been signed, the officer returns to his car and turns on his lights and sirens, creating quite the show behind us. Gently nudging our car forward, he directs us to the smaller road on our right at the intersection, and my brother fights the car to turn it. Although our brakes were mad wonk and we had a close call midway down, we were able to successfully bring the car down to the curb of a small road where we would be less in the way. Thanking the officer and confirming that everything should be alright from there, the situation was back in our hands.
After a little discussion, it was decided that with my brother keeping an eye on the car, I'd venture out to find someone to provide us with the jump start we needed. Fortunately, we had passed a large shopping centre on the way down that street, and I headed right over there. For no particular reason, I decided I trusted BestBuy more than Toys 'R' Us, and went inside. Responding to the greeter's "are you looking for anything in particular?" I laughed sheepishly, and explained that our car's battery had given out, and could you by any chance ask over the PA or something if someone could provide a jump? The fellow was pretty sympathetic, and asked over his manager regarding what to do. She led me over to an employee who didn't seem to be especially busy, and asked if he could take a moment to help us out. He was surprisingly friendly and compliant.
We drove over to where my brother was waiting, and performed the jump without any issues. Thanking him profusely, my brother and I finally drove the remaining eye to the distance to CoD, with more than a few scares as the RPM display went nuts again. Pulling in outside the Health and Science Center where my class was, the car gave out only minutes later as I tried to find directions to the nearest AutoZone.
TO BE CONTINUED MY RIDE'S HERE LOL
