Payback's a .....

Once a month the girls from my work get together at the country club near school.  The last two months I've brought the babies because it's a relatively germ free zone and we've got a private room.  This month I ventured out again, all 3 babies in tow (all by myself).  It's been pretty snowy & icy & gross around here lately and I noticed a big patch of ice behind my van when I was leaving.

While I was backing up, the traction felt funny.  I thought it was the ice and called Dave on my BlueTooth.  Then while I was driving through the parking lot, I remarked to Dave again that the parking lot was icy.  He got off the phone quickly because he was having a "Guy's Night" with Eli (aka playing Rock Band).  I kept driving out of the parking lot and onto Main St.  (This isn't the norm, I usually take a short cut.  At night though, I take Main St. because there are street lights and I can see better.)  After less than a block I decided it was time to pull over because it wasn't ice, there was something wrong with the van.

I pulled into the defunct Rite Aid parking lot and parked right under the light.  I got out to see...a flat tire.  Not just a little bit out of air...totally flat...pancake flat.  That explains the traction issues. 

Did I mention is was 19 degrees with a wind chill of -25?  (maybe an exaggeration on the wind chill, but it was really cold). 

I called Dave again and scared the padoodles out of him.  He thought I had been in an accident because of all the ice.  He tossed Eli in the truck and headed out to rescue me.  I knew I'd been waiting at least 20 minutes so I decided to get all the equipment ready for him so he could just change the tire & we could get going. 

I started reading my owner's manual to figure out where the jack & tire are and got out of the van.  (remember the cold & wind???  It was impossible to read a book out there).  I managed to get the jack dislodged & upon further reading discover I have to fold down the rear seat to take out the spare tire.  Ummm...I have 2 babies in the rear seat.  It's too cold to take them out of the car.  What am I supposed to do?  We did the carseat Hokey Pokey.  I put Nate in the front seat, Ben on Eli's booster seat in the 2nd row, & Sam was on the 2nd row carseat base.  I didn't want to take out the bases from the back row because that would have been horrible.  I squeezed myself into the spare tire slot and tried as hard as I could, but I couldn't bust the wing nut off the tire.

I got back in the van and had to wait for my knight & mini knight in shining armor.  While waiting the babies started crying...all of them.  I started to panic.  I racked my brain to think of who to call.  I called a school friend, Joanne.  She lives nearby and is familiar with my "issues".  Not to mention, she has a warm house, more than 1 vehicle, and a husband who (I'm assuming) knows how to change a tire in case things didn't go so well.

Dave arrived shortly thereafter.  Joanne arrived right after him.  Eli and I waited in Joanne's car.  Dave changed the tire lickety-split.  We thanked Joanne profusely and headed home.  All in all it was more traumatic and inconvient than anything.  We're very thankful that it was an easy fix and we all survived.  Except for the mini-panic-attack I was calm and thought things through.  Whew!!!  Let's not have that happen again please.

Was this payback for me going out and having a good time with friends???  I hope not...