Personal Rant

Why is whenever I get a flat tire it is always while on my way to work. And there is always ONE lug nut that is too tight for me to get off!!

As you can guess, that is exactly what happened this morning on my way to work. I was on the bypass, driving about 65 mph. I say about, because that is posted speed limit and I wouldn't want to incriminate myself by admitting to anything over and above that. By the way, hot smokey flat tire rubber really stinks. So anyway, I pull over to the shoulder of the road; you know the routine from there. Pop the trunk, Hazard lights on, get the spare/jack out. Realize you have to back for the lug wrench. Hunker down and try to find the perfect spot for the little scissor type jack. Give the jack a few experimental turns each way to try to figure out which way makes it go up and which goes down. All the while silently repeating "Righty tighty, Lefty loosey." Only your too rattled by all the cars/vans/semi's zooming past and shaking the car to realize which way is right and which is left. Once the jack is in place, but before you raise the tire off the ground, you loosen the lugs right. So you try the top one. It's the top one, so that is the logical place to start right? Won't budge. Okay, get sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. Figure your just feeling a little weak, let's try the rest. While making little grunting noises, you manage to get the next 4 loose. Sinking feeling abates. Realized you didn't put enough effort in trying to get the #1 lug nut off. Go back to it. Nope, nada, nothing. No matter how much grunting, and cursing by this time, Lug nut #1 refuses to give up.

Thank god for cell phones and the fact I wasn't too far from work. I called the maintenance guy and asked for help. While I was waiting for him to show up, I tried twice more to loosen that damn lug nut without success. But the good news it that the Maintenance Guy had trouble loosening it too. So I at least I knew it wasn't just me being a wimp. Dennis kind enough to mention that I could have picked a nicer day to get a flat. But you know it wasn't raining when I got the flat. It only started while I was waiting for him to get there. So if he had driven a little faster, we both would have stayed dry.