"That's a double whammy re: the car. I shall be very wary tomorrow morning on my way to work."

My first suggestion was "take the bus", but given your luck with transportation over the past few days, I'm not sure if that would be safer.

Re current generation: ah, yes. Makes me feel about 90 because I just want to throttle them. In my office we tend to get a fair number of recent college graduates, and they range from wonderful (can we clone you?) to wretched (how'd you ever survive college when you can't follow directions?). One guy (mid-20s) works with an older woman (70s), and has *yet* to figure out that talking as fast as he can doesn't make it easier for her to understand him. However, another guy (same age group) takes his time talking with her, and she just adores him!

*crossing my fingers that you just happened to go to the play on "goof off day"*