Land of Oz

Spares

No, not bowling. Today I had a flat tire. I was at my desk when someone came over and said my car had a flat. I went out to check and sure enough it was going down. The first thing I saw was a nail in the sidewall and thought someone must be screwing with me.

I went into the trunk and pulled out the spare and toolkit and got to work. I even checked the manual to make sure I remembered where to put the jack. I kept a piece of pipe in the car that fit the lug nut wrench to make it easier to remove the tight nuts.

It didn't more than a few minutes to pull the tire and replace it with the spare - I do check the spare tire pressure by the way. The surprising thing was that there were a total of three nails in the tire. Two in the tread and one in the sidewall. That made me a little less apt to suspect fowl play (yes, rampant chickens could have done it).

I drove over to the tire store where I bought the Goodyear tires - Northwest Tire & Services on Tittabawassee in Saginaw - and they took care of it all in about 45 minutes. I had the extra warranty so the tire was replaced for free and after $35 for sundry labor fees and parts I was on my way. I finally have something good to say about a tire dealer.

The funny part is that when I told my tale of woe at work, everyone wondered how I made it to the tire store. No one even seems to think about putting on a spare anymore. One person asked if I called AAA and another wondered who took my flat to the tire store. I told them that I was actually able to change to the spare all by my lonesome - I may be getting up in age, but I'm not quite totally decrepit yet.

Labels: driving