Tuesday, February 6, 2018

The Tire Was Flat. Pancake Flat

With thanks to "The Jolly Pocket Postman" book for the inspiration, we shall investigate what happens when "a small amount of air isn't there".

Ordinarily, it might not have been such a big problem.  Except that we were on our way to seeing THE PLAY that Penina and Ilana were singing in the choir of.  And had been rehearsing for since August.  And the tickets prominently noted that no latecomers would be admitted until intermission.  And there we were (Chana, who was in for two weeks for winter break [YAY!] and our dear friends Michal and her daughter Raaya).  I guess these were three very good people to be in this situation with, but it would have been my preference to avoid the situation altogether....This also highlights the genius of those running the play who, by requiring everyone in the show to take the cast bus together, not only saved every parent's sanity by not requiring them to shlep their kid(s) into Jerusalem for each of the six performances, also ensured that no one would be missing from the cast/crew due to, say, flat tires.

I called the roadside assistance company and found out that they would be happy to help us.  Sometime within the next 1-2 hour.  And my trying to explain about the play and intermission and rehearsing since August didn't do much good (in the company's defense, I wouldn't say I was able to explain all that at a high level.  Or even one that might have made any sense to the customer service rep on the phone). 

Then--genius!  Chana and Raaya thought to make a sign asking in English and Hebrew: "Do you know how to change a flat tire?"  This younger generation is pretty smart, if you ask me. 


AND SOMEONE STOPPED!!!! And he had a much better tire jack, etc than I had in my trunk.  And he refused to let us even give him a tip afterward.  The general consensus was that (despite this guy's lack of a yarmulke) we had met Elijah the Prophet.

You know how, when someone pulls out a phone, everyone instantly stops whatever they're doing and smiles beautifully?  Chana and Raaya did it, but I decided to just let loose with how I really felt:


B''H, we made it to Jerusalem, found a parking spot only a few blocks away and ran like lunatics to the theater, making it there....5 minutes after the show time.  But the doors were still open!  And (joke's on us) would be for another 15 minutes, until the show actually started.  It's okay--gave us time to stop hyperventilating from our dash through the city.  And it turns out that the ushers still sat people who came even later (not that I'm complaining, since it meant that our Malden buddy Natanyah actually got to see most of the show after her cab driver got lost and she showed up later than we did).

How was the show?  GREAT!!!!  As someone totally and completely biased, I'd say that the choir was the best aspect of it ;).  I'm so glad that Penina (on the right in the photo) and Ilana had a good experience being part of this big event and making the video as well (note to anyone who actually ends up seeing the video, "our girls" are in only the first video, as the second was filmed while were were in Eilat and we made a family decision to go on vacation although the bright lights beckoned).  I'm so glad we made it to the play--it was wonderful to see the final product of all those months of hard work!