And All That, For What ?!

Ok, let's start at the beginning of this lil' story. That would be the end of the working day, yesterday. My boss was looking for the cell phone number of a colleague of ours. I figured I might have it somewhere, and things were slow, so I tried all the resources I could think off. Ended with pulling all business cards from my address book. As I did so, I suddenly noticed the 'dentist appointment reminder' I always keep at the front of those in the inline cover of the booklet. It said 'May 18, 8:00'.
So I was like, oops - apparently I have a dentist appointment first thing tomorrow morning ! It was too late by then, to call it off. So I knew I'd be away most of the first half of the day today, because my dentist resides in the tiny, nearly impossible to reach by public transportation, village called Waspik which is where I grew up. Now, obviously I do this twice a year, so by now I should have a well-thought through approach to this problem, right ? Well, I have a few, actually.
One is to head over to my parents the evening before, then crash there, then go to the dentist in the morning and catch the early bus right after the appointment (very very tiny time window there).
The other is to bike over from my place (about 50 minutes worth of biking as today proved once again) and bike back again after the appointment, at which time I'll take the usual bus etc. to work from my place, just later. Either approach gets me at work late, but today.. well..
I got up at 6. Ouch. 6 30 I was on my bike, heading over to Waspik. I was there around 7 20 !!!
Now, I've gotten kinda spoiled from commuting, staying and living in larger cities for the past years, so I decided to bike around town to find a place to get some hot coffee and some breakfast. Yeah... no such thing, not in that town, dude. So I bike over to the major super market just to be sure, and just as I turn back disappointed in front of it, PANG ! My back tire pops like fire cracker.
So I drag it over to my parents' house, but they turned out not to be home. Since they keep telling me whenever they go on holiday but I always forget, I have no idea if they are right now or not. Either way, I left the bike parked next to their house, with the key and a little note asking politely if it can sleep over for a few days attached to it, thrown in the mailbox.
After the dentist appointment, naturally, I miss the bus. And of course the next one's an hour and a half from now. And that would have probably made me too late for an appointment. Going back home first wasn't an option anymore without a bike, and my parents weren't home to give me a head-start-ride, so I decided to put the best next idea into action. I walked.
That's right, I had to walk some 6 KM to get to a bus stop with more options than the bus line that wouldn't arrive till an hour and a half later. By then I'd been walking for 50 minutes or so already, so I'm not sure how much difference it made, but I caught a little neighbourhood bus that took me the remaining 3 KM to Waalwijk. There I caught the bus to 's Hertogenbosch where I hopped on the train. Of course the train connecting to the bus left three seconds too soon, and the next one decided against travelling further than Utrecht, so it took some more fun transfers and adventures, not to mention cut down on time I could have spent napping to make up for all the sleep I lost this morning so far, before I got to work.
And all that effort.. for what ? To get to a meeting on time that would end up just being cancelled, after going to a dentist who merely scratched my teeth for a few seconds and then said 'alright, see you in half a year again'.
Just thought I'd share this little story with all of you. And I really should write that coworker's cell phone number down.