Wednesday, April 16

Payback

Can you imagine for a second how defeated I feel after blowing the third tire in four months?

Last time, I bemoaned the fact that apparently I looked like someone who is perfectly capable of changing her own tire. Only one person stopped, and it was a lady to offer me her cell phone. (Thank you again, lady!) This time, I think I was more irritated.

When this happened in February, my phone was out of area, and I think that was my main problem. I texted my brother (two and a half hours away) and asked him to call my dad (at work) just to see if it would be possible to get some help. I didn't get an answer (see above, re: phone not working) and decided I'd have to take it upon myself to change the tire. And I did, and I felt pretty damn good about it for the rest of the week. My dad was proud of me, it was nice.

Earlier today, I had barely pulled off to the side of the road and gotten the spare out of the trunk (again, my phone is not working) before an older couple in a truck pulled over and the man (I'm going to call him Walter) took the what-do-you-call-it out of my hands and knelt down to take over. Of course I appreciate their help. What I don't appreciate is their assumption that I needed their help. Now, I'm plenty lazy. I'm sure I would have let anybody who offered take over while I stood back and watched. It was Bessie's (I'm going to call her Bessie) constant comments on how, "You really need a big strong man for this kind of job!" and "It's good to have a man around to do this kind of hard work!" really chafed me. Just because I have a vagina and a set of bosoms does not mean that I am incompetent.

Of COURSE I thanked the couple many times for stopping. And I probably smiled in her direction as she made belittling comments, because they were helping me, taking time out of their day to help and do the right thing. And Bessie kept going on and on about how someone (Oh, excuse me. Some MAN.) had helped her one time and she'd tried to pay him (at this point, I believe I was hoping they weren't expecting me to offer them money) but he told her that someone helped his wife once and he was just paying it back. (If it sounds like a country song, well, it is.)

She laughed as they were headed to their truck, telling me not to forget to pay it back someday. I wonder what's funny about that?

1 comment:

thomsirveaux said...

Bosoms? Bosoms?? What quaint phraseology. :-)

And of course, since you have a vagina and breasteses (see? much better) and thus are seemingly incompetent, they couldn't be AT ALL subtle either in getting their point across about doing good deeds and such, one good turn deserves another, etc.

That said, I'd still take a Walter and Bessie coming along if I ever got a flat, because I really *would* be pretty clueless. But your W & B would probably not stop for me because I am a man and therefore should know what I'm doing. And so, were I not to have my phone with me, I might have a bit of a wait on my hands.