My day so far By Brandon Bergren, 35 So I got up to take my rats to the vet so one of them could have his staples taken out, and plan on grabbing breakfast at Arby's. As soon as I pull out of my driveway, I get a flat tire. So I slowly make my way to the gas station. Someone is parked in front of the air hose, so I have to park the next spot over. I start getting out the equipment to change it, and realize I don't have any gloves on me. It's really cold. So I go in and buy a pair of gloves. I'm still super cold mind you, because I'm out in the -20 windchill with a hoodie. I wish I had my greatcoat on. I spend a few minutes outside working on the tire, and then rush back into the car to warm back up. The damn jack isn't working right because the grease is frozen. So I stick the jack on the dashboard to warm up. I call my grandparents to tell them that I'm having trouble, and it turns out they have a funeral to go to later so they can't take me and the rats in. I continue working on the tire for another several minutes, then I get back in the car and call my grandparents again to ask if they can go fetch my greatcoat from the house. As it's ringing, I suddenly realize that I had my greatcoat in the back seat the whole time, as I'd forgotten to take it back in from a previous trip. So we laugh about it instead. Grandma says that Grandpa is on his way over to help. So after bundling up properly, and with Grandpa available to drive me around, I get back to work. I get the car up on the jack fine and I get the lugnuts off easily. But the rim is stuck and won't come off! It was rusted to the hub! So after taking me home to drop the rats back off so they can be safe and warm in their home, Grandpa takes me to the mechanic. They hand me a 5# plastic hammer and say that the rim will take a lot of abuse from it just fine. So we go back and I spend several minutes whaling on the rim with the hammer. The rim finally comes off of the hub. As the tire comes off, it's obvious from the damage on the backside that the tire has had it. I put the comically small compact spare on. Never been used, it has the little rubber bits on it still. I leave the car up on the jack and Grandpa and I go to return the hammer and drop the wheel off for repair. They don't have any of my size in stock. Whatever, I have a spare. They order a new tire for delivery tomorrow and say they'll probably have it ready by the same time tomorrow. So Grandpa takes me back and drops me off at the gas station. I take the jack back down and note that the spare seems a bit low on pressure. No problem, I was going to pump it up anyway. I prepare to back out and move to the air hose spot... and someone pulls into it again. I ask them if they're getting air, and they say no and move spots. I pull into the air hose spot and get out my gauge to start checking tire pressures. The spare is only at 9 psi, it is supposed to be at 60. I pull out the hose and start to fill it. Just kidding. No air comes out. My spare is now at 7.5 psi. I go inside and ask if the compressor is working. They say it's frozen, and that the out of order sign keeps coming off. I shrug and go back out, turn on my hazards, and drive to the farm & home store at about 3mph. Surely they will have one of those portable air pumps for sale, the kind that you can just plug into your cigarette lighter socket. They do! I buy it and go outside to start pumping up my tires. That's when I remember that my cigarette lighter socket doesn't work. No matter, I have jumper cables and a smart phone. Center pin positive, eh? OK, no sweat. I pop my hood and clamp my jumper cables to the plug and to the secondary terminals on my battery. The compressor works! I get the compact spare pumped up to spec, and I pump up the front driver side a bit too. I go home and write down what happened.