Change

As much as I enjoy the "city of choice" contest, it is time to post something else... I wanted to post about my experience today, it was a bit rough and I hope to never have to do it again. But... I am sure I will have to at some point. See, I had a tire problem, it was completely flat, down to the rim. Can't drive on it, so who should I call to have come and help me with it? Dave, he's really far away, it would be time for the baby to have another bottle by the time he got here and then to wait for him to change the tire... Option A: Not a great option. Maybe Trent, he may or may not be able to help, but I hate asking for help... Option B: Okay option. Option C: Call my neighbor and see if she could come get the kids and I, and then have Dave take care of it when he gets home... Option C: So far my favorite idea... Okay, now for my cell phone, humm, I wonder if it will work because I am in Round Hill, no coverage... Humm, I wonder how I am supposed to make any calls at all while my cell is nestled nicely at home, plugged into it's charger... Options A-C all require cell phone use... Onto next part, we'll number those options...

New options: Option 4: Walk to someone's house to find a phone, carrying baby and hoping they are home. .. Option 4: okay, but... not great. Option 5: Walk all the way home on a street (no sidewalks), with Baby and Carter. Option 5: again, okay but not great. Option 6: Change tire myself. Option 6: Humm, that's an interesting thought...

I went with Option 6. I had to look up in the book where the spare tire was because, I didn't know. Then I had to read again on how to get the jack out, because it was stuck tight in a hole in the wall of my van. Did I mention that it has been rainy and so it is really really wet and muddy outside? Okay, let's get those lug nuts off, ummmmhhhmmmmmmpphhhhhhhhaaaahhhhh. Nothing. Not a budge. I stood on it and it wasn't until I jumped on it that it moved, a little. Me, jumping up and down on a little metal bar in my sandals while Carter jumped up and down in the mud puddle next to me. Very fun. Next after getting all of the lug nuts loose enough to finish by hand, it was time for the jack. Now, that was fun. Again, back to the owner's manual, because my car is really low, nowhere to look under neath to see where to put it. Luckily, they have conveniently placed small bars near each tire for the jack to go on. So, I just had to feel for it and I could position the jack in just the right place. Talk about tedious... impossible to do the jack quickly, none of the tools provided make it easy to turn it... you have to insert, turn half-way, pull it out, insert, turn half-way, pull it out, insert, turn half-way... anyway, you get the idea. This, alone, took 10 minutes... Then, I could get the tire off, but when I tried to get the new tire on, the car wasn't high enough, another 3-4 minutes later and it was time for a new tire. This was hard to do by myself, it was heavy and I had to try to line up the holes with the metal and do it while I was pulling the tire up from the top and try to look to the side. Please note that during this process, I am also trying watch Carter who was ripping branches off of someone's bushes, putting all of the tools in the mud, jumping in the big puddle right behind me, splashing me everytime. It was quite fun. I got the tire on, sat down next to it so that I could push it on directly, and put on all of the lug nuts, hand tightening them in the requisite "star" pattern. Then I knelt next to the tire and used the tire iron to tighten the lug nuts a bit more, again in a star pattern, and making sure that the tire was all the way on strait. I then stood and tightened one more time by using my own might, but NOT by standing on it this time (the owners manual reminds us not to try to tighten them too much, I figured I wasn't strong enough to do it "too much.") Then, I packed up the old tire, the tools and one really muddy boy into the car and we were off. We got home about an hour from the time we had discovered the tire, so I don't think I did that bad of a job, considering that I had to do all of that and watch a 3 year old in that time... Good thing the baby slept through most of it...

PS - When I got home and called my husband and told him I had a flat he said, "Did you drive home on it?"
Me- "No, I told you, it was flat all the way to the rim, that would have really ruined it."
Him- "So, where is your car now?"
Me- "In the garage."
Him- "I thought you said you couldn't drive on it."
Me- "I didn't."
Him- "Then how did you get the car home?"
Me- "I changed the tire."
Him- "Humm, okay, take the other one in somewhere and get it fixed."

See, he didn't even think of me changing the tire by myself as an option. It was OPTION 6. Then, he didn't even say, "Wow! Good job! You're amazing!" He just went to his next thought, well, if you can change a flat, certainly you can take that big, heavy, dirty tire in somewhere to be fixed all by yourself. No, I can't take it in, because it's big, heavy, and dirty. I did the hard part of this, he can take it in to be fixed. :)

PPS- As soon as we got home, I had one more thing to change that was heavy and dirty, that would be the baby's diaper.