Thump-Thump-THUMP!
At six o'clock pm, Abby and Rebecca's daycare provider starts charging a dollar for every minute we fail to pick our children up. It's their helpful way of reminding us that though they very much like our kids, they have lives outside of daycare. We have never picked them up after six.
It's 5:30 pm today. I am driving to pick them up after a long day of discovering new ways that computers can fail. A block away from work I begin to hear a slight noise from the back. Ignoring it, I drive onward, knowing that I need to to pick them up as soon as possible.
Thump-thump-thump.
What could that noise be? Am I having trouble with the break sticking? The car is slowing faster than it ought to and speeding up more slowly.
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!
Years ago, I had a Chevy Cavalier with a slightly misaligned rear right tire. Not knowing this, I went through 3 tires in 3 years, almost always having the tire break somewhere extremely inconvenient (like the freeway). I did learn, however, that the noise of a flat tire is surprisingly loud.
Back to today... I stop, walk back, check the tire, and discover that one of my mini-van's back tires is quite flat. Competely flat. Rolling on the rim flat.
Desperate to pick the kids up before outrageous charges begin, I decide to drive on. Unfortunately, the noise becomes unbearable, and I stop at a car repair shop that I happen to be passing. Could they possibly put air in my tire? They could, but I could hear the air hiss out as they did it. Could I use their phone? Absolutely.
I call Kristen. She is nearly 20 minutes away, having just parked in Meijer's parking lot. I explain the situation and she leaves. It is 5:40 pm.
Ironically, the reason I was picking the kids up was that Kristen had needed to buy new tires.
After that, I move the car around the side of the repair shop and begin to change the tire. I learn a few things. I've never tried to find out where the spare tire is, but, now have no choice but find out. It turns out that the tire hangs on the bottom of the minivan, held by a metal cord and a winch.
The jack and the jack screw are screwed into the side of the engine compartment. I only learn this through checking the owner's manual. It's not something I would have guessed.
Anything that can stick, sticks. The jack is hard to get out of the engine compartment. The end of the metal line has rusted stuck to the spare tire (battering it with the jack screw helps get it out). The screws stick to the wheel, moving only after I stand on the jack screw. It also helps when I turn the screws to the left rather than the right. To quote Mike Huisman (plumber), "Remember, lefty loosey, righty tightey."
Somehow, despite being winched tightly to the bottom of the minivan, grass and leaves have come to fill the middle of the spare tire.
I dump it out on the sidewalk.
By 7:00 pm, I manage to change the tire, replacing the normal tire with an obviously smaller spare.
Did I mention I hate changing tires in the dark? I'm not particularly wild about the neighborhood I was stuck in either.
In any case, things work out. Kristen manages to pick up the kids by 6:00 pm (or close to it, they have a 5 minute grace period). What's more, they get to eat McDonald's Happy Meals. All in all, a very good day for them.
As for myself, well... There are reasons that human languages contain profanity.