come, have a laugh with me at my expense
Before we get too far into this, I need to say, I am NOT inept at changing tires. I have done so plenty of times.
This morning it was raining, and my daughter was staying home from school with a cold. Which means we now have the problem of how to get my son to school, dry and on time. No problem, we hop in the car. The car has a flat.
No time to change it, I'll do that at lunch.
Fast forward to lunch time.
It's raining HARD. I know if I don't change it now, my son will get SOAKED coming home from school.
So I begin the process of changing a tire on a 4x4 in the rain and mud.
Challenge 1: the jack was too short/too tall depending on where you put it. Finally using a series of blocks of wood, and jacking, lowering, jacking again, I get the tire off.
Challenge 2: my car has no parking brake. It rolled forward, the wheel went into the mud. NOT the tire, the wheel. I use blocks of wood, jack it up for the fifth time, and clean the wheel and brake after putting blocks of wood in place around the tires. Yes it was in gear. It was more the muddy ground that gave way than it was the gearbox.
Challenge 3: as I'm laying in the mud, and soaked to the bone, I feel sharp stings on my waist and belly. Oh.. they are black ants. Ouch. Only a few got me, that's good, keep working.
Black ant bites aren't as bad as red ants, but it's been over an hour and it's still pulsating sting. The stings come in waves so you feel like you keep getting bit every few minutes. Anyway, it's a nuisance only, but my first black ant bite here.
Challenge 4: the spare tire won't go on.. it's 1/2" too tall, I can't raise the jack any more. SO.. ironically I begin digging away the gravel and stone that jsut THIS LAST SATURDAY I had spent half a day shoveling and spreading into place to avoid ... MUD which I was now lying in.
All of this is going on and I look up and see 5 or so little Papua New Guinean kids standing ten feet away, watching me. I had an audience. I thought in anger "why are they staring at me? this isn't a show!" I wanted to holler, "GO AWAY!!!!"
but I didn't, I have come to realize whatever I do is like television to these kids, and they watch me all the time (envision Mr. Incredible at home with the kid on the big wheel staring at him).
So I didn't, my temper was up because of the difficulties and I wasn't really upset with the kids.
But then, he stepped forward and quietly said in accented english, "Can I help you?"
A ten year old boy, offering me help.
I laughed and said "no thank you" and realized, I must have looked the 3 ring circus I felt at that particular moment, enough to have this young boy feel I needed assistance.
Well, I got cleaned up and back to work on time. At this particular moment I feel like beginning an educational campaign around this place informing people of
"Why throwing nails on the road is BAD".
But I haven't, instead I decided to let you use your imaginations and have a laugh at my expense. I'm already laughing about it.
