T is for Tires and Treats

     When I started writing my "T" post today, I thought that it was going to go in an entirely different direction. Actually, I had a completely different post written. Then, I got in the van to head to gymnastics.

     If you've never driven on a farm to market road in Texas, let me give you a visual. It's a two lane road (one lane going each direction), most of the road has a thin shoulder but there are parts where the shoulder is about the width of one car. Also, there are a lot of curves.

     So, I'm driving along coming up on a curve when I see that there is a car in my lane, coming towards me. Someone thought that it would be a good idea to pass a work truck on this curve (in a no passing zone). So, I had two options; 1. have a head on collision or 2. swerve onto the shoulder and miss hitting the genius in my lane. Of course, I went with option 2. There was a light hiccup in this plan though. There was a shredded tire on the shoulder that I had no choice but to run over. We drove a few more feet and nothing happened, I thought that we were going to be fine. Then, I heard a pop and my tire pressure gauge came on. As I started pulling over, I heard the thump, thump, thump of a flat tire.

     Now, my mom was big on women being able to do thing for themselves. I know how to change a tire. I've actually done it before. However, I had never changed a tire on my van before and I couldn't even begin to guess where to put the jack. Plus, as soon as I stepped out of the van, I was attacked my mosquitoes that were the size of small birds. I swear, if just a few more had shown up, they could have carried me away. *Side note - do you know what an inch long mosquito looks like when it's full of your blood...gross.* So, I did what any normal, sane woman in my position would do. I got back in the car, shut the door and called my dad.

     He came quickly, but it turns out that he didn't know where to put the jack either. I looked, without luck, for the owner's manual. When I couldn't find it, I used my phone and downloaded it. After that, it only took a few minutes to get the flat tire off and the spare tire on. Needless to say, after all of that, we didn't go to gymnastics. Instead, we went to the tire center to see about getting a new tire.

     After we left there, the kids were tired of being in the car. And a little disappointed that they missed gymnastics. So, when we got home, we each had an popsicle and we just relaxed. It was more excitement than we had planned, but at least it was just a tire and not a wreck.