Yesterday was a frigid Sunday afternoon in March, and we decided to take treats to a few families in our ward. We made up 4 plates of delicious goodies and bundled up. How many of these families were home? 0. How many rice krispie treats did I eat? 4 plates.
While leaving dejectedly from the the last house, (the Gold's, who are so cute), we accidentally backed into a big stupid Provo city curb and blew out our tire. Why would any city EVER make their gutters a foot deep? I don't know. They must be expecting a big rain one of these years.
Anyway, this didn't seem to be too big of a deal, until I woke up this morning to 3 inches of snow and 21 degree wind. I was pretty perturbed, and decided to deal with the car thing later.
well, now it's later and dealt with, and man am I glad it's over!
My dear old dad heard about our car and volunteered to come help me change the tire. I had WAY too much to do today, and was already pretty stressed out, so I welcomed the help. (ok, three other potential helpers turned me down, so I asked him to drive out from Springville and lend me a hand. He did.)
2:07- I called my dad and asked him to come out, he gladly obliged.
2:51- He called to tell me he was leaving his house. "really dad? because I thought you were leaving 44 minutes ago"
3:40- A knock at the the door. "dad's here" I think. Wrong. Salesman.
3:45- another knock at the door. Dad is here this time.
So we head outside. Temperature: 29 degrees.
I get out the jack. I know it's important where you put the jack, but I don't know why it's important and what to look for in proper jack placement. So I ask my dad. He crawls under the car and says, "oh yeah, that's where I would put it. but let me check a few more places." So he checks behind the tire, in front of the tire, to the side, in back again, and in front again. Then he tells me to crawl under there and give my opinion on where it should go. I tell him I don't have the foggiest idea where it should go, and me crawling on the wet, muddy ground isn't going to give me any hints. But he just stood there and looked at me, so I crawled under the car and looked around. "looks like a bunch of metal." I said, "but I still have no idea where it should go."
So before we jack up the car, he says we need to secure the tires so it won't roll. I tell him that I just put on the e brake, so we should be ok. He doesn't seem to hear me, so he asks if I have any 2X4's. "nope." I said. So he goes behind the mysterious storage shed next to our house that nobody seems to know who it belongs to and finds these HUGE metal poles that look like they were once pieces of a fence. He puts them in front of the tires, then says we need to secure those. "e brake." I say again. He goes for more poles.
After the tires are secured with poles, and the poles are secured with more poles, we begin the jacking. I jack it up, my fingers are seriously numb, and we take off the tire. I'm thinking well take the tire in my dad's car, get a new one, bring it back, put it on, and I'll get on with my day. But my dad and I weren't having the same thought process.
dad: "Where's the spare?"
me: "We don't need it, we can just take the tire in your car"
dad: "well we can't just leave the car jacked up"
me: "I'm sure it will be fine, let's go"
dad: "what if a little kid pushes the car off the jack?"
me: "the only little kid within three blocks of here can't hold his own head up."
dad: "what if a teenager pushes the car off the jack?"
me: "isn't that what the poles are for?"
dad: "where's the spare?"
I exasperatedly get the spare out of the trunk and put it on. He reaches for the hub cap to put it back on, and i about lose it. I take the hubcap, throw it in the trunk, and lock the car. We take the car off the jack and take the tire to my dad's car.
dad: "what if someone tries to drive on the spare?"
me: "that's what it's for. and I have the keys with me, and Keith is in class with the other set of keys, and no one's going to drive it."
I drive to the tire shop. good news here!! hooray! The rim that I though was ruined was fixable. He said he could pound it back into shape. there's a bunch of money saved! this days is looking up :)
But had no used tires, and no cheap tires, so I sprang for the $80 tire. (this was after going to multiple tire shops that I'd already called to ensure the best price. I don't really want to type about that whole experience.)
45 minutes later, the tire is back on the rim, it's paid for, and we're headed back to my house. We jack the car back up, take the spare off, put the new one on, and take it off the jack.
Well, it's been several hours now, and I no longer have time to take my test or to make the dinner for Keith I was planning on. So i head back to campus and go running instead. Keith and I have family night and grab some dinner. (he also took me to see Monsters vs. Aliens, which is pretty awesome, and bought me a milkshake.) We went to bed way too late, but all in all the day ended very happily. :) :)
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