The Good Samaritan, Foodler, Moby Dick and Another Water Main Break

When we walked out the door, we saw a driver in distress. He couldn't get his Prius out of the snowy and icy parking space. He was parked on Capitol Hill going in the wrong direction. Since we lived in Milwaukee thirty years, we are somewhat experts on this subject - and will never buy anything but a four wheel drive vehicle based on this experience. So, as usual, my husband offered his help (a very rare thing around here), ran back to get the shovel, a few Harris Teeter grocery bags from the trunk for traction, and back and forth they went for at least twenty five minutes. That usually wouldn't be so bad, but we had just placed a pick up order for Moby Dick in Arlington. And, we tried using Foodler to order the take out rather than call. Since we were already way behind schedule, I knew the food would be cold, but also my husband should be able to quickly run in and pick it up because it was already paid for. When he arrived, he was told the food was somewhere in a car getting delivered to who knows where. This was confusing because the order was placed as a pick up, they don't deliver that far away, and the email confirmation stated it would be ready at this address. So the order had to be "reordered" and we waited another half hour. When we finally arrived back home, the street was blocked off because of yet another water main break - the second one in two days. Not only does this add to the noise and disruption in the neighborhood, but really limits the street parking spaces by about twenty with all the equipment used to fix the mess. So we ended up parking way up the street and found it really difficult to park because of all the ice and snow piled up. Lessons learned: being a Good Samaritan can cause delays; it may be better to call in a take out order rather than use Foodler - or use Moby Dick's on line service; and don't live in a place with lousy infrastructure. I guess we are plain out of luck.