I went back to my car, mapped out the location to my customers house which was about 13 minutes away and began to back out of my parking space. Immediately I could tell one of the tires was flat. I pulled into a new space to check it out. Yes, the front passenger side was flat and a bit shredded. I thought it was the back passenger that was the problem before then I remembered I had the tires rotated when I had the patch put on. I sure am lucky to have this go flat in a parking lot and not while going down the highway.
I'm not a mechanic but I have changed a tire before on my old Sonoma pickup truck when I was living in Salt Lake City. I thought it would be a lot easier this time since I had shoes on instead of slippers. I have been cursing the day I bought this car from my uncle but to his credit there was a full sized inflated spare in the trunk along with a functional jack. I also received a little help from my "bonus dad" as he likes to be called. He likes to buy us boys a flashlight every year for Christmas so I also had a nice flexible flashlight in the trunk. That was helpful since it was dark out. I could have probably figured it out with the ambient light from the Chick-Fil-A but this was much easier.
I pulled everything out of the trunk and started fooling with the jack. I couldn't figure out how the handle was supposed to fit into the jack. For a while I thought it was missing a part. A guy came up and asked me if I needed a hand. I showed him my predicament. He showed me how to put the handle properly into the jack. He told me he would give me a hand while his wife was inside ordering chicken. We took turns jacking up the car and taking off the lug nuts. With the two of us it only took about 10 minutes. He said his name was Moses. I thanked him for his help and gave him my card. I told him if he ever needed a hand with something to give me a call.
By this time the milk shakes had melted. I asked my favor handler what to do with the food but he just told me to eat the food or throw it away. They had already assigned another runner to that delivery. I ended up taking it home and feasting on Mini chicken sandwiches and delicious Chick-Fil-A sauce. I put the shakes into the refrigerator and they were pretty good after an hour. Through some oversight in the system I ended up getting paid for that run even though I never completed the order. Score.
The next morning I went to go look for a new tire. I had canceled an appointment with the discount tire down the road and left them a bad review for trying to get me to buy a new tire instead of patching the old one. The thought of having to talk to the same salesman only a few weeks after this incident was not appealing. Instead I started driving over to the Walmart auto care center near my house. I took the back way to avoid the highway if I happened to get another flat. On the way I saw this sign.
There was an older gentleman sitting under a tent in the back. I explained to him that I needed a used tire. He took one look at my spare and said, "do you know that your lug nuts are on backwards?" Clearly he was a pretty sharp mechanic. I told him I was no mechanic and he laughed. I pulled my tire out of the trunk and he went though his inventory to look for a matching size. After a few minutes he told me that he didn't have an exact match but he had one that would work but it was just a bit narrower than my current tire. I asked him if it would fit and be safe to drive. He said it would be fine on there so I told him to go ahead and rig it up. After a bit of calculation he told me it would cost $45 for the tire and instillation. He needed cash since his credit card machine was either broken or non-existent. I drove over to Chase to pick up the cash and when I got back he had the tire mounted on the old rim. This guy must have worked on a pit crew as a younger man. He had those tires swapped in about a minute. Really a master tire craftsman. Hopefully this tire will last long enough for me to drive this car to the junk yard after I obtain a loan for a new one.
Did I come out ahead by getting the tire patched in the first place? I would say no. I spent $25 to get the tire patched and then another $45 for a used tire. I could have likely bought a brand new tire for less than $100. Then there was the time, hassle and inconvenience to have to drop a delivery. This could have happened on the way to a trivia show which would have been a major problem. The stress of not knowing if it will continue to break down is wearing on me. The emotional and financial cost to maintain this vehicle is just too high. I'd like to think this is how a person gains wisdom but maybe wisdom in this case is just not trying to cut corners all the time. Apparently wisdom means really means expensive lesson.
