17 January 2017

Okay, THAT Happened

So Younger Daughter, my wife, and I all arrived home at about the same time, but in that order. I wasn't far behind them, but apparently that made all the difference.

Daughter was cruising happily home, enjoying the sunshine, blue skies, and snow-covered everything except the highway. It's the first good driving day in nearly a week ... except.

Except for Sumdood in his beater of a pickup, scattering random debris and parts along the road. One piece of which she ran over, and promptly heard pop, hisssssss.....

When she pulled in the drive, the rear passenger tire was half-flat. She saw that, called me over, and within another minute or two, it was truly and sincerely flat.

My wife, of course, advised her to drive on the round part. Daughter wasn't amused, but I digress.

Since their plan was to run the snowblower in the driveway, I went inside to take care of some needful things. When I came back out, the area in front of the garage was cleaned. Well, as clean as it gets this time of year, meaning all the loose snow was removed. What remains awaits only a Zamboni in order for a hockey game to break out.

So I changed the tire, there in the gathering gloom and subzero temps. Seriously, it's -7° already. At 5:30 in the blessed p.m.

Did I mention that the wheel was frozen to the hub? I had to use a four-pound hammer and a crowbar to get it off, so that the temporary spare could go on.

But, this being small-town Alaska, the tire shops keep long hours, and there's a good one just a 1.5 miles away, over the ridge and down the other side. So Daughter and Wife are sitting in a waiting room, trying to warm up, and I?

I'm in my flannel PJs, typing this post. But did I mention I changed a tire? Oh, right. Anywho ...

That's all I have for now - and trust me, it's enough.

8 comments:

Old NFO said...

That's gotta be a tad chilly... Glad you were able to actually GET it done!

drjim said...

You're a good husband and Dad!

LindaG said...

Haha. *hugs*
Stay inside and get warm. :)

Rev. Paul said...

NFO, I was beginning to doubt it would be possible, but a bigger hammer always works ... right? It's the Navy way!

Jim, thank you. I do my best.

Linda, thanks. We're finally warm again, after running the fireplace all evening. I suspect we'll need it for the next couple of nights, too.

Chickenmom said...

You are one heck of a very special Dad! :o)

Rev. Paul said...

Thank you, Chickenmom. I won't deny there was a fair amount of fussing at the cold, and how everything took twice as long as it should. But we got 'er done.

Sandy Livesay said...

Rev. Paul,

You did good Dad with changing your daughter's tire.....time to thaw out!!!! When you least expect it is when things like this happen. Good thing you had the tools to remove the frozen tire :-)
Hugs to you and your family.
Sandy

Rev. Paul said...

Sandy, we're ever-so-grateful that she didn't stop on the side of the highway to check out what happened. The flat would have occurred there, instead of here in the driveway.