Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Driveway Circus

My daughter received a call Saturday morning from a friend. This "fifty something" year old woman needed help changing a flat tire. Her car was in the driveway so she wasn't in traffic. Since she live in a secluded area of condo's...no one could see she needed help. After several attempts to reach her home teachers and some other men in her neighborhood, she called Les.
I'm not stating that Les can't change a tire...in fact, she did once several years ago.
Nan called to talk to Les and found out what she was up to. When I was made aware of the fact that Les was changing a tire, I knew she was imminent danger and asked directions so I could help. I also told her to make sure she put something under the other tires so the car wouldn't roll off the jack.
Fifteen minutes later I pulled up to the driveway behind flat tire car. By this time, two other men had also found their way there. One had a small floor jack that he used to replace Les' Jack...she couldn't find the one in flat tire car so she used her own.
Les had loosened the lug nuts and jacked the car up. This man stated that he used to rotate his own tires, so the floor jack was easy to use. He also had a four way lug wrench so he didn't need the one from flat tire car.
I figured I should do something useful since I was already on the scene. I pulled the donut spare out of the trunk and thought it felt kinda soft. I gave it to floor jack man who put it on the car, released the floor jack and watched the rim settle to the concrete driveway.
Everyone stood there looking at each other. Les pulled the spare from her car and said, here use mine...unfortunately it didn't fit. I suggested we take the donut tire to the gas station a block away and fill it up. They removed the donut, I took it to the station and filled it, took it back, it was placed on the car so the woman could drive to the tire store to repair her flat. I told her the tire store would put it back on the car for her.
All the tools gathered up...no one could find flat tire cars lug wrench. It was at this time that they decided to gather up the things they put behind the tires to keep the car from rolling. I'm still laughing at what they used. On the one side they had placed a black bag containing a bowling ball an bowling shoes. On the other side they has placed a twelve pack of soda. (who knows, perhaps they might have slowed it down had flat tire car started to roll.)
All said and done, we decided to follow Les to her house. At the first corner where she had to stop, we watches something slide off the front of her car...It was the missing lug wrench. It was black and had been placed on the hood of her black car.
What's that saying...something about the blind leading the blind?

No comments:

Post a Comment