Wheels on the van go round.... and then they're flat and I'm repairing a flat in the rain.... twice.

I left for work this morning and started down the block when I could tell something felt funny. My engine started making noises that were unusual and so I rounded the block and headed back home. Keeping up beat, but knowing something was wrong. I got home checked the engine and saw that there was a lot of water splashed on just one side of the engine, I was thinking maybe something was making it lower than the other side and voila! It was a flat tire.

The flat and going through puddles got water on the serpentine belt making it squel as it slipped and tried to run. So I found my jack, and got it out, for the first time ever. Then I found the doughnut spare (underneath the minivan with a weird lowering cable thing to keep it in place. I lowered it down, turns out i had to crank it out about 5 feet before I could actually get it off of the wire holder thingy. I jacked up the car and removed the old tire and put on the doughnut and lower the car to find that the doughnut was flat too...

I move the car (with the flat doughnut) and put the old tire in the back of helen's car. She went up to get a new tire. I stayed home and warmed up. Oh have I mentioned that it's 4o degrees F and raining outside? It was wet and cold and I was wet and cold and moving a tire in that weather sucks ass.

Helen comes back with the new tire and I roll the van back into the drive way, jack it back up, Maggie comes out to help she's sick though, remove the doughnut, put the new tire back on, Maggie is coughing and sneezing while helping with this. The van gets a new tire and we decide to go to lunch. I have to fuss at maggie for screwing around while we're trying to get going. We eat chinese buffet and enjoy it. I'm feeling pretty tired and beat by now. My nose starts to run. I grab a tissue to blow it, and then look up at Maggie and say, "You did this to me!" She grins like an cat that ate a canary.

Off to work where we have to do something about lake O.