As some of you may know I was in Chicago, IL for the past week for job related training. The food was really good, but I didn't get out much, however that's not what this thread is about. I guess the best way to go about this is just to lay out the series of unfortunate events.

On Friday, Aug 29 I arrive at O'Hare international airport at about 1:30 PM. My flight is scheduled to begin boarding at 3:35 PM so I figured I'd get there a little early to walk around and see the sights. I get my boarding pass, get through security without any issues, and start strolling about. After a while I notice it's getting close to boarding time so I make my way to the terminal and get there about 5 minutes before boarding time. Then they announce it: my flight was cancelled. Fortunately they automatically rebooked me on the next flight which was scheduled to board at 6:40 PM. No big deal, I thought, I can entertain myself for a couple of hours. So I walked around some more, sat for a while and as 6:35 rolled around, I hear the dreaded announcement on the loudspeaker: "Ladies and Gentlemen, flight 1255 to Houston has been delayed to 9:40 PM". At this point I am getting frustrated. I try to find a comfortable seat somewhere with no luck, and pull out my laptop and pay $7 for internet access. After about 1.5 hours I get bored with it so I end up entertaining myself by staring at people to see how long it takes them to react, then quickly looking away (it's a bad habit, I know). After what seems like an eternity, the flight boards, and we take off.

However, that is just the beginning.

We land in Houston and I call the parking garage transit service to come pick me up. They arrive and I get on and they shuttle me back to the garage. When they roll around to my truck, guess what? I have a flat tire. "well, it looks like I've got my work cut out for me" I mumbled to the driver. So I get all the tire changing tools out of the toolbox and begin the process of changing the tire. I put the lug wrench on to start removing the lugnuts and the WILL....NOT....BUDGE!! I manage, after some serious force, to get 2 of them to break loose, and when they broke loose I thought I had snapped the head off the wrench; they clung that powerfully. When I go to remove lug nut #3, It won't move no matter what, so I put some fat power behind it and really torque down on it. I torqued down on it so hard THAT I STRIPPED THE LUG NUT OUT!!! For those that don't know what that means, I now needed special tools that I didn't have to take this lug nut off. After cursing (really loudly) for about 5 minutes I flagged down the parking shuttle to see if there was a cheap hotel I could stay at since it was now almost 2 AM and I was completely exhausted.

$70 later (hotel room), I made a call to my parents to see if my dad could come to help me in the morning and thankfully he was able to, otherwise I wouldn't have known what to do. At this point I'm about to pass out from exhaustion, so I shower up and hit the sack. Before nodding off, I glance at the alarm clock and to my chagrin it was almost 3 AM. I quickly fell asleep after that, as the hotel was brand new and had REALLY comfortable beds. Unfortunately, that comfort came at a price. Apparently I told my dad and my wife the wrong name of the hotel the night before and they were trying to call my cell phone to find out where I really was. I was so exhausted the next morning that I didn't even hear the hotel phone, which was right next to my ear, ringing. After about 50 or 60 rings, I wake up and realize that it's not a dream, my phone is actually ringing. I pick up to my wife practically yelling in my ear telling my she had to look on the credit card website to find out what hotel I was staying in, and that my dad would be there in 20 minutes. Not a good start to the morning. I look over at my alarm clock: 9:12 AM. UGH...

So my dad arrives with special tools and we get breakfast then go get started on getting the tire off. It took us 1.5 hours in the sweltering Texas August Sun to get the tire off and put the new one on. At this point I am dehydrated and have a huge headache, but the spare tire is on, and I can bring it to a tire shop really quick to get the screw pulled out of the tire and get it patched. I called a few places, and the shortest wait time is 3 hours. GAH!!! So I bring the tire to the closest shop (Discount Tire) and they got me all fixed up. I told the guy at the front counter (who I didn't know was the General Manager of the store) my story and he didn't charge me for the labor, just for new lug nuts. I left the tire shop at about 3 PM

BUT WAIT, I'M NOT DONE!!

"Phew", I thought, "I'm back on the road again." So I hop up on the tollway and after I pay the toll and begin to accelerate, I'm noticing that my truck has very little acceleration power. I'm mashing it to the floor and it feels like I have a Briggs and Stratton under the hood (for those that don't know, that's a lawnmower engine). And then the worst happens. The check guages light comes on: I have NO oil pressure. All of the sudden I hear what sounds like someone using a bench sander on my motor. "Not good" I thought, so I exited the tollway immediately and park in a parking lot. I let it cool down for just a minute, hoping that might help things a little bit. I try to start it, and though it does start, It is squealing really loudly like metal rubbing against metal without lubrication. This indicates to me that a piston has a bad or shattered piston ring, which means I can't drive it anywhere.

BUT IT GETS EVEN BETTER!!!

So I am stranded in Houston, 100 miles away from home. My wife is with my parents 200 miles away from home, and they can't get to me because the interstates are parking lots because of all the ecvacuees. I am still a bit dehydrated from before, and have an incredible headache, so I grab my valuables and head to the McDonalds on the street corner to gather my thoughts and get something to drink. After 4 or 5 hours of phone calls, I finally get someone to come get me from houston: my co-worker. He arrives around 9:45 PM. By this time my headache is so bad that I'm seeing double and can barely speak without slurring my words. I had to leave my truck in the parking lot of a vacant office building complex, and there are no towing signs up for it (state law) so I don't think it will get towed. It is in a well lit area so I hope it won't get vandalized. At any rate, I didn't get home until Sunday at 12:05 AM.

What a terrible weekend.

EDIT - Oh, and on top of that, I have at least 10 evacuees I have to host. AND THEIR PETS!!

Please kill me now.