Road Hazard

So there I was, driving home from work, singing along to Jukebox Hero on the radio, and planning out my evening in my head. I was going to go home and clean up the kitchen, make a nice simple dinner for the sick husbeast, and then sew the night away. The plan was a good one, but you know what they say about making plans.

All of a sudden out of nowhere there is this noise. I can't even describe what the noise was. All I know is suddenly something was wrong. The warning light on my dashboard came on and bells started going off. The steering wheel began to jerk and things started getting rough.

I quickly limped into the nearest parking lot and parked. As I got out and started circling the car I was afraid of what I might find. A flat tire was what I was hoping to find. Not that a flat tire is good, but it is an easy fix and not to terribly expensive. In theory it could be a really cheap patch job at vest.

Yea, so I am not really lucky. I was not prepared for what I found.

That is my rear passenger tire, and that is a large piece of debris jutting out from the side. What the hell?!

Yea I was not expecting to see a large spike of wood imbedded in my tire. How the hell does that even happen? I mean aren't tires supposed to be tough enough that a piece of wood, even a giant piece of wood, can not penetrate them? At least that is what I always though. Judging by my tire, I am sorely misinformed.

Now I am struck with the problem of the situation. I get off of work an hour before the husbeast does. I also can't actually change a tire, not that I have a spare tire to use. Now I know you are freaking out thinking how can I not know how to change a tire.

Lets get things clear, I know how to change a tire, I simply can not actually do it. I have a bad back and on the list of things my doctor has told me never to do includes changing tires. There is a level of physical exertion I can't achieve anymore. When I was younger it wasn't a problem for me, now it is.

It took about half an hour for the husbeast to get out of work and to me. He was shocked by the sight of my tire. We both agreed that I don't do anything half-assed.  This spike is huge!

We managed to get the tire off after the husbeast fought with my crappy jack. Then we drove as fast as we could to the nearest Discount Tire. You see my car as on a jack in a slightly shady parking lot and the sun was going down. That and Discount Tire closes at 6pm.

We made a very dangerous turn from the middle lane and I practically jumped out of the moving car and ran at the front door. The guy literally locked the door behind me while the husbeast was still in the parking lot pulling the tire out of the car. We were really lucky tonight, in the past we have had to drive around for over an hour to find an open tire shop.

The entire process ended up taking about two hours. We managed to get the new tire on the car without having the car fall off the jack, which was impressive considering we traded out jacks twice. Yea nothing simple in my world.

This was not the way I wanted to spend my evening. In the end I am down $150, I got no cleaning done, we ate leftovers, and I got no sewing done. I suppose it could be worse though, I mean this thing could have done a lot more damage I am sure.

Roll of paper towel for size comparison.