fifth time's a charm?

It's been a while since the days of Flat Tire Wednesdays, as you may recall. Could Thursday be the new Wednesday? It was, yesterday!

I had noticed my tire was a little low on air, but being that it was freezing outside and I didn't have any quarters, I decided the tire could wait a day or two for some more. Within my 'day or two,' period, however, my tire blew out. I was driving a coworker home from a training, and I immediately knew what was wrong. The all-too-familiar "thwap thwap thwap" I felt under the car gave it away. My first thought was, I am an idiot! Why didn't I just give it some air yesterday!? I didn't even know if this would have made a difference. As I told my friend (who, did I mention, is pregnant?) that we had a flat, I pulled over into the nearest place out of the way of traffic. It was a church parking lot.

I didn't have a lot of luck at the last church parking lot I pulled into with a flat (Ever read that Good Samaritan story? Well, they were like...whoever passed by before the Samaritan). However, I felt a spark of hope when I realized this was my chance to prove myself. All previous attempts to change my own tire had ended in failure. I would not make the same mistakes this time. I knew what to do, and I wasn't going to forget any key elements...like putting on the parking brake.

I set to work with purpose. Parking brake: on. Jack: ready. Hub cap: off. Wrench-like thing that comes in two pieces: assembled and about to take the bolts off. And that's where I got stuck. I used all my strength, but I couldn't make a single one budge. My coworker, who regularly and good-naturedly makes fun of me for being a skinny blonde kindergarten teacher, got a kick out of it as I started jumping on the wrench, trying to make it turn. "I want to be an independent woman, but I'm (jump) JUST (jump) TOO (jump) SMALL!!!"

In the end, my friend's husband came with a borrowed car, which was a good thing, because she had to pee. He also could not get the tire off, which relieved my bruised ego a bit. Hey, it wasn't just because I'm a wimp. Also, he had Triple A, so they came to the rescue. The Triple A guy, Ernesto, easily removed the affected tire with his power tools, put on my spare, told me "no" when I asked him if I could have prevented this blowout, and wished us (and the baby) a blessed day. Hurray for Ernesto! My car was temporarily repaired, and my guilt was assuaged. A good ending to a familiar situation.

Next time....next time.