so the flat tire situation has been an absolute farce. i could see right away that there was a nail in the tire, so putting more air in would have been iffy at best since the pressure had dropped dramatically since I left work less than a mile from where I pulled over. parents came to help me last night only to find out that, though the jack is where it’s supposed to be, the tools that go with my jack are missing (i stg i thought they were there). we pull the tools out of my mom’s car, only to find that her lug wrench doesn’t fit the nuts on my tires. at this point we give up on trying to get it changed that night, put some extra air in the tire and drive it back to where I work.
this morning my mom drives me to autozone to get a lugwrench that would fit. woo. she then takes me to work (it’s about an hour before we open) to change the tire. lug wrench fits, but the nuts are completely frozen. i also notice a second nail in the same tire.
at this time, an older gentleman, obviously just coming from church, has pulled over to see if we need help. as soon as he sees that the tire is not completely flat he stops trying to help and starts getting in my way and telling me that i should be taking it to a shop instead of trying to change it myself. he spends the next 10 minutes arguing with me about this. it’s sunday afternoon. nothing’s open, i don’t feel safe trying to drive it home (halfway across town) with 2 NAILS in the tire and I have to go in to work in less than half an hour at this point. my mom is with me, but she doesn’t feel comfortable driving my car in the best of conditions (it’s too big) and it’s currently wet and raining and one of the tires HAS 2 NAILS IN IT. but no, he’d been a police officer for 40 years and was the best at assesing situations (he repeated this 3-4 times) nevermind the fact that i had already considered all of those options and concluded that easily the most convient thing would be if i could actually get the tire changed before work, so i was damned well going to try. if i hadn’t been literally at my place of work, where it is crucial that i not offend people in the community, i would have told him off for being a condecending prick who spent far more time being obstructive than actually being at all helpful.