Be careful what you wish for. I was just thinking it had been a while since I had something humorous to write. Not long after I had a phone call from my stepson his wife had a flat tire and he was on his way to work. Could I possibly help. You also Wesley suggested that I bring a Aiden our grandson who lives with us. He is 16 and strong. I am 74 having had back surgery and lately feeling dizzy.
They had abandoned the car by the side of the road. It’s a country road yet on a late Friday afternoon quite busy with rush-hour traffic. We found the car with no trouble. However, I was distressed to see how close it was to the pavement and how it listed to the right I didn’t really think we could tip it over but I would’ve preferred flat ground.
We retrieved the jack from our truck and got Aiden started removing the Lugnuts. They were on very tight and it took both of us to loosen two of them in the process. I managed to cut my thumb. It was just a tiny little scrape, but my 74 year old skin is very thin. I didn’t have any advantages available and managed to the next couple of hours to suck blood into three pieces of paper towel that thank God I had the truck.
With the Lugnuts off I then showed Aiden how to set up the jack. Unfortunately, the car was so close to the ground. We were not able to position the jack near the front tire where it really should’ve been. We ended up putting it just slightly front of the middle of the vehicle. By the way, this is a relatively small Mazda.
Aiden proceeded to raise the jack while I played flagman and waves passing cars away from us. I’d say it took us at least a half an hour to get the tire off. Then we proceeded to pick up our daughter-in-law and her two young boys. Then we were off to the tire store.
There I purchased a new $90 tire. It seem to take a long time for them to put the tire on the rim. So I walked back to take a look. I don’t know how many times this guy had tried to put the tire on, but I watched him try twice more. Finally, he decided to use a different machine and it easily did the job.
The boys are eating six very high energy. Their mother occupied them most of the way back, playing rock paper scissors. When we arrived back at the car I instructed them to stay, put as there was much traffic, and I was now parked, not only close to the road, but slightly on it.
Aiden and I got back to work. As I had guessed we needed to raise the car another three or 4 inches in order to get the new tire on as you might guess a flat tire comes off at a lower level than a new tire goes on as he was cranking up the jack the car fell onto the ground. Thank God, neither his foot nor leg was under it.
There is now no room to get the jack back where it had been. Then I thought I probably have something in the truck. We could use to dig with in order to get the jack not only under the car, but under the car where it should be closer to the front tire, indeed I found a trowel. Aiden went to work digging as best he could a trough to put the jack into. Thankfully this seem to work. Meanwhile, there was more and more traffic.
There was still an inch to go when thankfully a local sheriffs patrol car came by. Although he passed, seeing us, he turned around to give us aid. It was a relief to see his flashing lights directing traffic away. Once he surmised to our situation, he quickly took charge. He had a better jack in his vehicle probably brought it along with a Band-Aid for my still bleeding thumb. Five minutes later the tire was on, Aubry and the boys were in the car and headed home.
I profusely thanked Tony the officer and explain to him about my website. I told him I’d like to write humorous stories about the problems of every day life. I gave him a card, with the website address, and told him I’d be writing the story and he might enjoy reading it.
I hope you too have enjoyed, and had a chuckle or two at my expense?
See the rest of my site, click here!