Managed to have a bit of a day yesterday. I had to drive out to Beltsville, MD first thing in the morning to pick up some hardware for an installation that was coming up. That all went very well….it was only after I got everything and i was back on 95 that i realized that something wasn’t quite right. My car felt kind of …odd. The next thing i knew it felt like i was driving on the rim of the passenger side front tire…so i managed to pull over and find a safe spot to stop.
Sure enough, after getting out of my car, my tire was flatter than flat and even had a nice big hole in the side of the rubber. AWESOME! Luckily, thanks to my father, i am well practiced in many car-related arts including (but not limited to) changing tires, bleeding brakes, checking oil, fixing windshield wipers and yelling loud obscene things when nothing else seems to work. So i set to getting out my spare tire and the jack and thats when the police showed up to make sure i was ok.
At that point i was pretty sure that i was fine and after assuring this gentleman that i knew how to change a tire, he hopped back in his car and was on his merry way. I went back to the boot of my car to grab the tool kit….and it was missing. I have one (very educated and highly likely) guess as to where it ended up, but thats neither here nor there anymore. Needless to say, i had NO tools to be able to remove any of the lug nuts from my tire and i had just sent my helper on his way.
Ugh.
While i was on the phone with my boss explaining my woes to her, a second car pulled up and out hopped two awesome gentlemen who managed to find a tool in the back of their truck and then proceeded to assist me in changing my tire. I wish i had been quicker on the count and managed to get their contact details so that I could send them a thank you, but i was still a little shaken up and just completely blanked on the whole episode. Not so smart 
After living here for a while I have gotten used to the ‘head down ignore the surroundings’ thing that a lot of DC-ers do….so when a stranger actually stops to help….especially with something like a flat tire that isn’t just going to be a 2 second delay in your day….it makes me smile.
This is going to be a great day.
