Flat Tire Adventure

On a beautiful spring afternoon I left work. I had my roommate's (Kristin) car and was going to pick her up from school on my way home. Well, I got in the car, began backing up, and the car started acting really strange. I thought it was out of gas. But then I got out of the car to take a look and saw that the driver's side tire was totally flat. So I gave Kristin a call, told her the good news, and then slowly drove to the gas station just down the street to see if I could fill the tire with air. Needless to say, that didn't work. The tire was shredded! I had never changed a tire on my own before. I actually got a bit excited as I realized that I would be able to brag that I could change a tire. Well....it didn't quite work out that way......

First off, Kristin walked over from the school and we got everything out of the trunk. We couldn't figure out how to use the jack, so we created our own way of using it and were actually being quite successful in getting the car off the ground.Next, Brandon, a salesman of some sorts, was kind enough to offer some help. He also couldn't quite figure out the jack, but did his best. Of course, he did have to get out his blue Ikea bag to kneel on before he could actually do anything. While Brandon was jacking up the car, I was loosening the bolts on the tire. We pulled the tire off, and then THE CAR SLID OFF THE JACK! Yes! You heard it right. THE CAR SLID OFF THE JACK! It happened in slow motion. It slowly slid backwards off the jack, while we all helplessly watched.We were kind of at a loss of what to do after that. We were parked at a Sinclair gas station, and right across the street was another Sinclair station that just happened that change tires. So Kristin went across the street and came back with Cole, a Sinclair worker, and a huge jack!


Cole got the car back up in the air and then went back across the street to find us a tire. We sat outside on the curb and made friends with Warren, and another guy, who both worked at the Sinclair. They were standing by the dumpster having a little smoke break and kept us company while we waited.
Overall, we spent three hours at the Sinclair. It was quite a long process, but in the end, Kristin got a new tire and we made a lot of new friends while we sat on the curb. Sinclair has a new customer for life!
The lesson learned: Rule number one for changing a tire is to set the emergency break. If only we knew that before we had started....