A new experience!!

You'd think at my age I couldn't have any new experiences.  But it happened to me.  Here's the story:

Monday I had to take Emily to the Clinique in Rouen for an appointment that we had for her.  We had made the appointment but didn't know where the clinique was. So we left a little early.   We were about 3 kilometers from the clinique when a man knocked at the window of the car (scared us half to death :)) when we were stopped at a red light.  He said that we had a FLAT TIRE.  And he said that if I kept going on it for very much longer it was probably going to come off of the rim.  Well, I pulled across three lanes of traffic to the side of the road and got out.  No doubt about it, it was flat!!

In some ways I wasn't surprised.  On the way down the hill I had heard a noise like a "swooshing" but thought that the hatch on the car wasn't closed tight.  In fact when the man knocked at the window I thought that is what he was going to tell me.

So there we are at the side of the road.  NOW what do we do?  I got the spare out, the jack out and the instruction book.  Now, don't laugh!!!   Like I said this is a new experience for me!!!  I got the hub cap off and then the trouble started.  You see, knowing that we would be putting lots of kilometers on the car, we had four new tires put on in June.  And therein lies the problem.  When they put on new tires in a garage they use an air gun to put the lug nuts on.  I tried and tried to get those things loosened and couldn't get them to budge.

I tried calling Mike.  But then thought that wouldn't do any good anyway since I had the car!!  I kept working and working.  FINALLY the first one gave way under my weight (there are times that I need those 45 pounds back).  I sat down, hard, on the curb.  OUCH!!   But I felt like I was getting somewhere.  Then the second one gave way and the thrid.  ONE more to go. . . no matter what I tried it wouldn't move.  I really didn't know what to do.  I called the clinique and cancelled Emily's appointment.  The whole time she is just watching from the sidewalk.

In the meantime, the cars kept whizzing by and looking at us but no "Good Samaritain" to help me.  I saw a man walking on the other side of the street (this is seven lanes of traffic).  I waved to him and he came over.  He turned out to be an older man that I thought.  Probably about our age or early 60's.  Okaaay!  So now he starts working on the last lug nut.  He ended up standing and jumping on the thing that takes off the lug nuts (still can't remember what it is called in English).   Finally it gave way.

Back to the instruction book for how to position the jack under the car.  Got that working and in no time at all "we"  had the tire changed and Emily and I were on our way.

Praise the Lord for a helping hand.  AND a good spare tire.  It got us home today.  It was brand new, still had the lines on it.  Mike is at the garage right now to see if they will replace it.  I rather doubt it.  They will find some reason to say that it was our fault; nail, curb etc.  But at least we can get it fixed and back on the car.

Sorry, no pictures.  I didn't have  my camera and even if I had it I don't think I would have thought about taking pictures.

P.S.  Mike just got back.  It was a nail.  They took it out and fixed the hole.  Praise the Lord we didn't have to buy a new tire.