Driving home on Friday night, going up the hill in the dark, I suddenly heard a very loud and scary bang. Funnily enough, I could better relate the so-called “five stages of grief” to my thought processes then, than I can to the bigger things going on in my life.
- denial – it was only a loud and scary bang. Everything will be fine.
- anger – I bet I hit something that fell off that landrover which has just pulled to the side ahead of me. How dare he be so careless!
- bargaining – come on little car, we’re less than half a mile from the house. Please get me home and I promise that I’ll phone the garage straight away to get you fixed
- depression – It’s a flat tyre. That will be expensive. Haven’t I got enough to deal with, without a puncture too?
- acceptance – no one was hurt. It won’t be that much money and I can afford it. I got the car home safely and the garage will be able to sort it out on Monday.
Some minis have run-flat tyres, but mine doesn’t – instead there is a space-saving spare. I’ve never changed a wheel before (that was always Christopher’s job) so I thought I’d better ask for some help/tuition. So I phoned my neighbour, Maggie, and said that I needed a husband – could I please borrow hers for an hour on Saturday morning?! Tim was really helpful, and showed me how to change the wheel – though I am not confident that I would actually have the strength needed to loosen the nuts if I ever had to do it on my own. But he also pointed out the damage that I’d done to the wheel. I’d clearly hit something metal in the road – possibly a bit of angle iron or similar – and had bent the wheel rim so badly that it had deflated the tyre. It wasn’t going to be a simple case of replacing the tyre; I’d need a whole new wheel.
The car and I limped to the garage on Monday morning on the space-saving spare, and the handling felt very different. However, it snowed overnight and the spare wheel which the garage ordered for me on Saturday morning still (as of Tuesday afternoon) hasn’t arrived. It’s on a lorry somewhere that has been delayed by all the snow. And there is no way that I’m going to drive the car back home up the steep hill through the snow on three good wheels and one skimpy one, so the mini is staying at the garage until the wheel arrives. I do hope that’s tomorrow, but more snow is forecast for overnight, so I’m not holding my breath.
{ 1 } Comments
Oh, you have my sympathy! We’ve had flat tires a couple of times, but never a bent wheel. And I don’t blame you AT ALL for not wanting to drive in the snow, spare tire or otherwise!