The joy of rage

ChuckF · #1 01-10-2010, 04:31 AM

This past week I have been so bored. Bored into a stupor kind of bored. I am actually excited that class is starting again on Monday. And I've been in kind of a shitty mood because of that and some other stuff that I'm not going to get into here. Tonight I'm driving home on a pretty small (and dark) rural road, thinking how nice and warm my car is and how cold it is outside, when I start hearing the thud-thud-thud and the steering wheel starts shaking. Flat tire.

So I pull over, get out of the car, and see that my back passenger tire is blown tfo. And it is pitch fucking black outside and 25 degrees. (Last time I had a flat I was half way up a damn mountain and it was the middle of August. That was worse.) I got back in the car, let out a primal rage scream, got back out and got to work. Oh yeah, that big flashlight I always carry in my trunk, just in case? - apparently those batteries go dead after three or four years. So I had my little keychain LED. But I got moving pretty fast, and except for a few seconds there where I was afraid one of my nuts would break if the lug nut didn't, everything went fine. (My nuts had retreated far, far into the comparative warmth of my body.) I got the spare on in about 20 minutes, which is not bad considering it was dark and cold. A bunch of cars went by, and one dude stopped to ask if I needed any help. Because I am an idiot, I said "Nah, it's just a flat, I've got it" and waved him on, instead of saying "Hey, could you just shine your headlights here for three minutes?"

But if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all be on TV. Or whatever.

ANYWAY I got back in the car and I was in such a good mood. Like, the best mood I have been in in weeks. My little rage, plus the moderate exertion of changing the tire, plus that one time I mashed my finger trying to line up the spare in the dark, all added up to work out the bad vibes. I so needed that. Now I am ready for another semester of law school. And it's kind of a good thing that I now have a reason to get new tires, because I have needed them for ~3,000 miles anyway, but I kept going "ah, there's plenty of tread on there," and eventually that would have stopped being true.

Oh, and when I got home, some person visiting my neighbors had taken my parking place. But it ain't no thang, I just blocked my neighbors in, so now they have to come ask me before they can leave. And I'm going to pretend to be asleep.

Bring on the world! Thank you rage!

Ymir's blood · #2 01-10-2010, 04:35 AM

So next time Chuck gets mad, just slash his tires.

ChuckF · #3 01-10-2010, 04:36 AM

Ymir's blood · #4 01-10-2010, 04:38 AM

The sense of accomplishment from changing a tire might improve my mood, but rage always leads to depression for me.

ZEZOZE · #5 01-10-2010, 04:39 AM

you're going to be a lawyer?

ChuckF · #6 01-10-2010, 04:40 AM

I think it was mainly the cleansing power of raw rage.

And also, when I was changing the tire, man, I was like, totally changing my soul.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ITSOZAZ

you're going to be a lawyer?

Well, I'm in law school, but the jury is still out (heh) on that one.

BrotherMan · #7 01-10-2010, 04:40 AM

I'm going to write an exercise, weight loss and life improvement book based on this.

Change Your Own Tire, You Fat Fuck

I can feel the moneys rolling in now!

ZEZOZE · #8 01-10-2010, 04:44 AM

well i'm sure you'll tip the scales toward whatever side you represent.

BrotherMan · #9 01-10-2010, 05:00 AM

Dr. Charles Fristians, lawyer-to-be and internet poster, was searching for a way to tap into the hidden rages that all humans have when an accidental flat tire interacts with his unique body chemistry. And now when Charles Fristians gets angry or grows outraged a startling metamorphosis occurs.

The Incredible Chuck!

The Creature is filled with rage and is pursued by internet luls...

Quote:

Mr. Mick T, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

An accidental lulsplosion took the life of a fellow poster and Dr. Fristians as well. People believe that the Creature was responsible.

Quote:

I gave a description to the Danvers Police Department. They've got a warrant for murder out on him.

A murder which Dr. Fristians can never prove he nor the creature didn't commit. So he must continue letting the world think that he too is dead. Until he can find a way to control the raging spirit that dwells within him.

livius drusus · #10 01-10-2010, 05:07 AM

Oh man, is he going to hitchhike all over the country in tight jeans now?

BrotherMan · #11 01-10-2010, 05:10 AM

ChuckF · #12 01-10-2010, 05:40 AM

I was gonna do a Brezh-to-Hulk morph, but is hards!

Dingfod · #13 01-10-2010, 08:11 AM

One bit of advice: AAA, they'll come change the tire for you, or tow the vehicle if that's not possible because you accidentally tossed all the lugnuts into the snow while yelling "Fudge!", only you didn't say fudge.

ChuckF · #14 01-10-2010, 08:17 AM

I have AAA, but I would feel weird calling somebody just to change a tire, even when I know they get paid for it. It's a vaguely disquieting thought, like having a housekeeper or something.

Dingfod · #15 01-10-2010, 08:18 AM

Idiot. They'll do it and they'll like it. Dammit.

256 colors · #16 01-10-2010, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChuckF

I have AAA, but I would feel weird calling somebody who I pay just to change a tire when I need it, because even when I know they get paid for it, I would rather risk my life at the side of the road in the freezing cold and dark than utilize the service for which I pay nearly $100 a month. My life just isn't worth a phone call to the company I pay to help me out of just these kinds of situations.

ChuckF · #17 01-10-2010, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 256 colors

nearly $100 a month

256 colors · #18 01-10-2010, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChuckF

Quote:

Originally Posted by 256 colors

nearly $100 a month

That's how much AAA costs in New Jersey, roughly $100 a month.

YMMV...

ChuckF · #19 01-10-2010, 02:49 PM

Yeah, mine cost about $45 for the year. Anyway, it would have taken them 45 minutes to an hour to get to me, depending on how quickly they left, plus another 15 at least to change the tire. I'd rather do it myself in a third of that time and gtf home.

256 colors · #20 01-10-2010, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChuckF

Yeah, mine cost about $45 for the year. Anyway, it would have taken them 45 minutes to an hour to get to me, depending on how quickly they left, plus another 15 at least to change the tire. I'd rather do it myself in a third of that time and gtf home.

All the roadside services are contracted by the same handful of drivers/shops here. It takes about 2 hours to get any help no matter who your provider is (my roadside is included with my GEICO insurance).

Changing the tire at the roadside is very dangerous in NJ and the Philly area, I imagine moreso up near NYC. Maybe 5-6 times a year, someone is killed while changing his own flat tire on a NJ highway.

SharonDee · #21 01-10-2010, 06:02 PM

Everything costs more in NJ. My NJ coworker tells me that all the time.

I think NJ is trying to get rid of its citizens.

256 colors · #22 01-10-2010, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SharonDee

Everything costs more in NJ. My NJ coworker tells me that all the time.

I think NJ is trying to get rid of its citizens.

Yeah, everything costs a lot more in NJ than anywhere else. My father drives an hour to Delaware to buy cigarettes at half the price as they cost in NJ, and other friends who smoke cigs buy their own tobacco and roll their own cigs.

We wanted to leave before, to save money, but it would have destroyed our kids, who begged us to stay. As soon as the younger one graduates high school, we are so out of here.

NJ is just trying to squeeze as much out of its citizens as it can before it falls into the Atlantic Ocean.

SharonDee · #23 01-10-2010, 06:23 PM

So ... do most of Florida's snowbirds come from New Jersey?

256 colors · #24 01-10-2010, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SharonDee

So ... do most of Florida's snowbirds come from New Jersey?

Perhaps a fair portion. My sister and brother moved to Florida to work at Disney World, and stayed less than 2 years. They thought it was weird to wear shorts on Christmas and never need a coat or a heater. Sister is back in NJ; Brother was back in NJ for a few years before moving to Savannah GA, where it's so cold, he wonders why he moved.

Then he remembers how much he was paying in taxes...

Lauri D · #25 01-10-2010, 06:49 PM

Ah yes, the cleansing power of a good primal scream. I had a similar experience some years back, late at night I was going home from my boyfriend's to my own apartment and used the toll road, forgetting that after midnight there's no person in the booth to take your $, you have to feed coins or bills into the machine. Naturally it's pouring rain and the machine won't accept my bill, by the time it finally works I'm soaked to the skin (had to get out of the car) and I've howled at the moon with rage. Then laughed my butt off all the way home; it was just too absurd not to. A total Murphy's law scenario.