i should be in bed sound asleep but instead i'm riled up. twiddle thumbs and i were at a meeting tonight that got out late. she asked me to drive right behind her on the way home. it's a good thing i did because she got a flat tire on the freeway. she pulled over to the shoulder and it's never a good idea to be on the side of the freeway like that. however, i could not suggest she driving off an exit as her tire was dead flat and i don't think she should drive that far on the rim. plus, it's not like we were in a good neighborhood. i think we were safer on the freeway than on a city street. she didn't have a spare tire(!) but i thought i could use mine and that'd be a lot faster than calling AAA. nevermind that i'm still in my work clothes and wearing sandals, i can do this! (can't you sense a lesson learned tonight? yes i'll get to it soon.)

twiddle thumbs was very close to the little wall of the freeway and i had trouble using the jack because there was no room to manuever the crank. i cut my knuckle a bit as it kept scraping the wall. as i was working on the car, i told twiddle thumbs to keep a look out and do not let anyone pull over to help us. (who knows what kind of sickos might prey on us.) eventually i got the car raised high enough that i took off the tire and then attempted to put on my spare--wrong size! great. for some reason, don't ask, twiddle thumbs has an extra tire for her car at my mom's house so we called my mom so she could bring it. hey, we have the car jacked up, might as well! my mom told me the tire doesn't have a rim so we can't use it. oh great, we do have to call AAA afterall. why did i bother? all this sweat and effort for nothing! when the tow truck driver got there, he scolded us a tiny bit for attempting to change a tire on the side of the freeway because it's too dangerous.

the lesson learned is this: don't start changing a tire unless you have all the parts necessary. the other lesson is to make sure your car has all the parts for emergencies (spare tire, jack, flashlight, etc.). it's hilarious how twiddle thumbs had some pieces for emergencies (jack) but was missing other critical pieces (tire, wrench). i'm sure there's others who have just a bad emergency setup in their car or worse. in fact, i know so because i've had to lend my jumper cable to others before. (men too so it's not a woman thing.) and yes, this is one of those laugh about it later moments. at midnight on the freeway in the hood with a flat and no spare, it's not funny. but one hour later when you're home and have washed up and changed clothes, it's funny as fuck.