Dog Walks & Flat Tires (#5MinuteBlog)
Dog Walks & Flat Tires (a 5-minute blog)
The dogs wanted to go for a walk today, before it got too hot. I agreed to take them, mostly because they are annoying, but also because I love them.
Once I announced the news, we spent the next five minutes attempting to calm down enough to slip a leash on. A daily struggle. Once that task was accomplished, we loaded up the car. The two dogs and me.
Upon backing out of the garage, the car was making a strange noise, one I hadn’t heard, luckily, in quite some time. Yes, I had a flat tire.
I parked the car and decided to continue with the plans. We took my wife’s Jeep to the location of our planned walk. But I knew I had some work ahead of me, at some point, when we returned.
To be honest, I planned on leaving the car in the garage overnight and dealing with the issue in the morning, considering we can’t go anywhere anyways. My wife had to bring it to my attention that I probably should not leave the car sitting on a completely flat front tire for an extended period of time. She was right. Once I made the (correct) decision, I was actually a little excited about the task at hand. Weird.
So I got to work. Changing a tire is not the most difficult thing in the world, but it is somewhat of a perishable skill. It took me longer than expected to figure out where exactly to place the jack. It has been ten years after all. Once I figured that out, it went fairly smoothly. I threw on the spare and plan on heading to the local car experts tomorrow, in hopes that they have a replacement for me.
It made me feel good. Again, not the hardest thing to do, but it still feels damn good. It’s the little things.
Sweat, dirt, accomplishment.
So my skills are refreshed. I feel good about myself. I am still sweating (I live in Texas). As long as this spare tire shuffles my car to the shop tomorrow, I consider this a success, even though we never want a flat tire.
I got lucky that this happened at my house. I got lucky that I had nowhere to be by a certain time. I am lucky that I can afford a new tire tomorrow. I know these things. But I can still appreciate the act. And I do.
It’s the little things.
-Houston Bailey (@BumpBailey)