Adventures in car trouble

So I was driving home when all of a sudden, it felt like I was driving on gravel and the car began to slow down. As I pulled over to the shoulder, the car began to wobble and I heard that horrible sound of grinding metal on asphalt. Crap; this is going to cost me, I thought.

I exited the vehicle and surveyed the damage. Sure enough, my front driver-side tire had blown. Having found what looked like some good tire-changing instructions on the spare tire compartment cover, I thought I would venture to change my own tire. Hey, I write hearing aid user guides without knowing how they work for a living, so changing a tire should be no problem. Plus, the cars, trucks and 18-wheelers blowing past me at 90 KM/H would add a sense of adventure.

Okay, TV and movies have lied to me. They don't tell you about all the screws and knobs you have to twist to get the spare tire and its parts out of the trunk. Once I had gotten everything out of the trunk, I then consulted my giant instruction manual. The first step told me to take the wrench attached to the jack and remove the bolts from the hubcap. Great. I picked up the jack and proceeded to look for said attached wrench. Nope. Wasn't there. I couldn't find it. The car was previously owned by my father, but unfortunately I couldn't ask him where it was, having passed on and all. Although, I'm sure he traded it for some magic beans :).

So I piled all the assorted parts back into the trunk and called the local towing service. The tow truck driver was nice. He referred to everyone he met as "boss". The ride was a little awkward as the driver's girlfriend and the girlfriend's daughter were in the backseat. But anyway, I dropped off The Batmobile Jr. at the local car-fixing place and was quoted $100 to replace the tire. Phew.

The ironic part of this series of events was that I was just returning home from looking at new and used cars. Perhaps The Batmobile Jr. was jealous and this was his way of acting out. I'm sorry, TBJ, but you knew this day would come. You and I aren't getting any younger. Let's just remember all the good times we had.