I lead a class at the Red Cross on Tuesday night. It is about 45 minutes from home. Class was over just after 8, earlier than predicted and I was heading home on Hwy 84 when I started hearing a strange noise. It got louder and louder...I realized it must be my car and so I headed over to the side and then it dawned on me that it must be a flat...so I pulled off the exit right ahead of me. I would have expected the car to be hard to drive and the tire to flop around, but it was just fine, except for the noise it was making. I found the flattest spot I could to pull over and call John. I was moved from being one who was teaching others to help to being THE ONE who needed help! I didn't like it at all! I didn't think John should come all the way in to help me, and knew that I could get it done be before State Farm sent somebody, so I just went for it. I opened the trunk, pulled the spare out...first time it has been out of the car, in fact...read the directions by the light of my headlights on how to use the jack and started cranking, all the while hoping somebody would take mercy and stop to help me...I managed to get the car all the way jacked up and was working on how to get the hubcap off to get to the lug nuts when finally help came!!! My hero was a Roto Rooter man on his way home from work. Jeff was his name. He even came equipped with fancy signs he put up in the road to get the cars to move over a lane! OK...so by looking at the picture, where would you have tried to get the hubcap off? I had been trying and trying right there by the tire...good thing Jeff my RR man stopped...the hubcap is that tiny little disk with the dots on it! He popped it off in seconds. I could have been there for hours and never gotten it off if I had continued where I was working. Oh well, maybe I would have figured it out. In just minutes Jeff had the lug nuts off, I gave him the spare and he replaced the lug nuts, tightening them all up, tossed the flat tire in the trunk and waited for me to pull away before he removed the signs he had set up for me. What a guy!

So next day, I head into Les Schwab to get new tires...I looked around for somebody who may have taken the Red Cross CPR class as I was handed a bill for almost $900 for 4 new tires and an alignment!!!