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.

Ugh, Part 2

So yesterday afternoon, during the afternoon drive time, "low tire pressure" indicator lights came on, in both our vehicles.

I intended to check my wife's tires, after they'd cooled down, but forgot about it during the course of the evening. So neither vehicle got checked.

So this morning, she reminded me. At the crack of 05:50, I was out in the driveway, kneeling in the remaining snow with a flashlight and a tire gauge.

I discovered that the right front was four pounds low. Drove the thing to the gas station that's three blocks away, pushed the Start button on the parking lot compressor, and slapped the hose on the valve. That's when I discovered that the compressor was making the right noise, but there was no air coming out of the hose. What it did was allow the offending tire to lose another four pounds of pressure.

I drove back home, grabbed the portable compressor from the garage, and aired the tire up. The low pressure light went out. Easy peasy.

I put everything away, and still neglected to check mine. After all, I'd checked the tires on Saturday, and they were fine. It's all good, right?

Yeah, right. I backed out, went down the hill, and around the first corner. But the low, rumbling growling sound didn't stop, so I got out and looked, under a streetlight.

Sure enough, the right rear tire was down to less than 10 pounds. Sigh.

Back home, grabbed the compressor again, and aired the thing back up to 35 pounds. Drove to work without further incident.

But I just looked out at the lot, and that tire looks suspiciously less round than the front one does. Hmm. I guess I'll be stopping off at a garage on the way home.

And just in time to get the tires changed over for the winter, too. At yet another garage.

All in all, I was only 30 minutes late for work. I suppose it could have been worse; I wasn't looking forward to changing a tire today, anyway.

Oh well ... onward and upward. Isn't that what they say?  :)