Spent the evening trying to change a tire on the shoulder of a side street just off of Hwy 252. Not the way I had envisioned spending the evening. it's amazing how everything has a tendency go wrong in the worst possible way when it's ten below.
Really late, I was driving home from work - well after dark. The temp was a cool and refreshing 10 below, I think. I had just been feeling really good about having gotten a problem fixed with my storefront - so that now hypnosis-storefront.com was working again - (but that's another story). And that's when i heard my left front tire go bang - followed by thump thump thump.....
I limped off the freeway and onto a sidestreet, then onto a side-sidestreet. I found a roadside, just off the Main Street (80th Ave, off of Humboldt Ave N) that looked out of the way enough. Turned out that just about everybody else had the same idea. I think I had about ten cars behind me as I slowed down and looked for a spot to pull to the side.
I pulled off in front of a house there and was about to get out of the car. It turned out that the place I had pulled off was actually pretty heavily travelled. And that was going around a curve so I was quite a bit less visible than I had hoped. I wasn't going to find anything better so I just hoped I wouldn't get hit as I got out to change my tire. Lots of blue language could be heard as I got my fill of dark and 10 below. It's amazing how these things never seem to happen in the warm and the light.
I pulled off in front of a house there and was about to get out of the car. It turned out that the place I had pulled off was actually pretty heavily travelled. And that was going around a curve so I was quite a bit less visible than I had hoped. I wasn't going to find anything better so I just hoped I wouldn't get hit as I got out to change my tire. Lots of blue language could be heard as I got my fill of dark and 10 below. It's amazing how these things never seem to happen in the warm and the light.
I got the crap out of the back end of my wagon - all that stuff that had seemed so useful at some time in the past - and excavated the spare tire, jack, etc. I started winching away and felt the front lift up just fine. It quickly got to where I could start to remove the wheel. And that was when I discovered that my lug nuts wouldn't budge.
I found the lug nuts solidly frozen in place. They weren't going to move, not with the tire wrench I had, no way jose.
I found the lug nuts solidly frozen in place. They weren't going to move, not with the tire wrench I had, no way jose.
I didn't want to screw around with this so as soon as I realized that this wasn't going to be a simple tire change (are things like that ever simple?), I got on the phone with AAA emergency. After about twenty minutes of listening to beautiful music (in the ten below), the operator/dispatcher came on. I told her my situation and she said a truck would be there - sometime in the next two hours.
Since my car was up on my jack, it wasn't a good idea for me to get back into it - so I was starting to get reeeeealy cold.
Then I called Gwyn. At that time I was shivering and beginning to feel really chilled. Just as I was doing that, another person pulled over to help, an electrical contractor, probably on his way home from a job. He asked if he could help and I said that if I could just get in and warm up for a few moments I'd be OK.
A short time later, Gwyn got there with a better flashlight and a cup of warm soup (bless her heart). It looked like I'd be OK, so she went back home and the guy in the electrical truck headed on his way - with many thanks from me. My car was running just fine. So once i got the car back down off the tire jack, I just sat in there and waited for help to show up.
Since my car was up on my jack, it wasn't a good idea for me to get back into it - so I was starting to get reeeeealy cold.
Then I called Gwyn. At that time I was shivering and beginning to feel really chilled. Just as I was doing that, another person pulled over to help, an electrical contractor, probably on his way home from a job. He asked if he could help and I said that if I could just get in and warm up for a few moments I'd be OK.
A short time later, Gwyn got there with a better flashlight and a cup of warm soup (bless her heart). It looked like I'd be OK, so she went back home and the guy in the electrical truck headed on his way - with many thanks from me. My car was running just fine. So once i got the car back down off the tire jack, I just sat in there and waited for help to show up.
AAA was actually there pretty quickly. The guy managed to get the lug nuts off and the tire changed in only a couple of minutes - what would have taken me over an hour in the 10 below. I'm amazed as how someone who knows what the hell they're doing, and has tools with the horsepower to do it, can get something like that done in moments. Me, it would have taken - well, I don't want to think about it... :-)
The spare was one of those "balloons" that is only good for about 50 miles or so - at 50 or less miles per hour. And at that, the spare tire looked low. So I drove a few blocks (on the freeway at about 50 MPH with my flashers going) to the Holiday station on 85th and 252.
Guess what. Their air pump wasn't working.
I asked the guy there if there was another gas station around. He said he had no idea. He lived in south Minneapolis.Great...
He thought there was one several miles away on Humboldt (the one a couple of blocks from my house, it turns out). So I just limped home with a low spare and my real tire blown out - or something like that.
So tomorrow morning, instead of going to work, it will be time to go get a tire fixed or replaced. More fun in the twenty below - more wonderful winter moments.
