roadside bitterness

Dear reader,

Have I ever mentioned that I am not mechanically inclined in any way?  No?  Well let me tell you about last Thursday night.

I had recently opened an account with BECU and needed to make a deposit to the account so it wouldn't be closed right away.  Armed with a check I headed to an ATM on the way home with was a mile past my house. Not two blocks from the ATM I hit an enormous pot hole and begin hearing a hissing sound.  At first I was like "it's raining out, why is someone using a sprinkler?"  And then it dawned on me shortly after the grinding sound began to occur that my tire was flat. 

I rolled into the parking lot of a 7-eleven and looked at what I did.

I never changed a tire on a car and really wished my first time wasn't in the rain, but whatever, I'll give it my best shot.  I took off the hub cap and loosened the tire before raising it... all as my user manual told me to do (yes, I'm that useless when it comes to cars).

I began raising the car with the jack.  It was so hard it was taking all my effort to turn the crappy little jack's crank.  And then I heard a rip.   Yes, dear reader, I totally split my jeans wide open and my ass was hanging out for the world to see.  I wrapped a jacket around my waist and continued.

I took the tire off....  rolled the spare to the front of the car and began rolling the slat the back when heard a horrible noise clunk.

Yep, the jack broke and my car fell pinning the spare.  I told myself right then if the spare was punctured I'd scream and then probably cry.  Walking back it appeared to be fine but there was no way to be sure until I got the car up again.

I called Malcolm and asked if he could bring the jack from his car.   A bit later he shows up and I try lifting the car as hard as I could so that he could get the jack under the car.  Took a bit of work but we got it.

So Malcolm works on jacking the car up and gets it to the point where I can almost get the new tire on....when, of course, his jack bends in half and the car is back on the ground.  I guess it was too much of an angle.

And then, I wanted to cry.

After a few calls the tow guy shows up and uses several jacks to get my car off the ground and puts the tire on for me.

The lesson learned... if your not mechanically inclined then save your time, effort and pants and call the tow guy.

the end.