The Column
Motto: I’d make another wheel-based pun, but I won’t because I’m 3/4ths tired.
Over the weekend Melissa and I drove to Nebraska to see our family, learn about the town in which my sister lives, and watch niece get baptized. We drove through St. Joseph, Lincoln, and a few other cities while listening to iTunes Radio Top 50 songs that Aaron wants to never hear again. We took a tour of the new athletic facility at my sister’s University (she is assistant volleyball coach). We chilled out in a hotel lobby and ate pizza. We went to church and I made a joke to my wife about the baptismal font being “Helvetica”. She said it wasn’t my best effort.
It was a good time and we are very glad we went.
The real story happened on the way home, though. To get to home from where we were is a 5 hour trip. Just as we entered hour 4, our driver’s side rear tire did this:
To put it in a less entertaining way, our tire did this:
What transpired next was essentially just an hour and a half of phone calls, waiting, and walking around an off ramp at 2 in the morning. I’d never had to use my AAA membership before, nor had I ever got my car towed.
Why didn’t you just change over to your spare tire?
Something something hybrid car blah blah no spare yadda yadda I’m going to get one.
That transpired Friday night (or, technically, very early Sunday morning). What happened all day Sunday was basically the pinnacle of friends and family helping you out when you’re in a jam. I was personally chauffeured like Mrs. Daisy by a friend while a spare vehicle was delivered to Kansas City by family. Truth be told, getting so much help when we’re in a tight spot makes me a little emotional. I’m not capable of handling such gratefulness. Same thing happened during and after the wedding.
I like being self-sufficient. I take pride in my ability to be prepared for, know how to handle, or generally get out of any bad situation I find myself in… but really none of that compares to having people there for you.
By the way, I took the wheel off and put it back on myself. I’m not sure why that’s supposed to be challenging. “Do you know how to change a flat?” If you have a spare, it seems pretty obvious. Maybe I was just raised right.
Top 5: Homemade ASCII Art Edition
5. (*_*) 4. | 3. ----- 2. | 1. /\
Quote:
“I’m out of Pop Tarts. Back to the low-carb diet.”
- Josh -