Blessings

I've written before about how amazing God is, and how He works in our lives in such small (and big!) ways. Friday, I was reminded again.

Friday evening was the last of the whirlwind to get LM ready to go to Pittsburgh. He needed to get his bike tires pumped, but otherwise, he was nearly ready to go when his dad arrived at 6:30. He pumped up his tires, carefully reading the pressure amounts, complaining all the while about what hard work it was on his arms. I reminded him of all the times I have pumped his tires for him and he was far more appreciative now for all that work.

Five minutes after he finished, before he even got the pump put away, a loud bang sounded and I thought I had been shot in the head. Turns out, the back tire blew. (It wasn't his fault, I think the gauge on our pump is wrong somehow, but I didn't know that then.) Luckily, a long time ago when his front tire had issues, I had bought a new inner tube but then had to take it to be fixed at a bike shop. I had saved the inner tube however, and sent LM out to the car to retrieve it from the trunk (it was only still in the trunk because I have been far too lazy to bring it into the house all this time).

LM came running back into the house out of breath and all worked up. "MOM!! Your (breathe) back (breathe) tire is going (breathe) flat!!! I can hear (breathe) it hissing and I can see (breathe) a rock stuck!!" I ran out to look and sure enough, my back passenger tire was going flat at an alarming speed. I ran inside, grabbed my pocketbook, keys and shoes and we jumped in the car. (I know, most people would stop, pull out the jack and put on the spare. Me? I've never changed a tire before, so I thought if I could make it to the tire shop, that was the best solution!)

We were headed to PepBoys, but realized at the first stop sign that we didn't have that much tims. We remembered that our Walmart has a tire center, so we drove there, not 2 miles from our house. I realized during the drive that my two back tires are the poor-er quality tires that probably need to be replaced, but I really didn't want to have to replace them that day.

Walmart initially said it would be an hour and a half before they could get to it, but when I pleaded, he said he would see what he could do. 40 minutes later we had a patched tire. Total cost? $10. The what if? If Jacob hadn't blown his bike tire and had to go out to my car when he did, I probably wouldn't have even known I had a flat until Sunday morning, and not until I was driving on it (since it was on the back passenger side).

Praise God that things happened the way they did, and that it was a $10 fix!

P.S. I did get his bike tire mostly fixed. The tube wasn't quite the right size, but it's rideable, and for now, that's what matters!

Comments

Jules said…
I must respectfully insist that you learn to change a tire immediately. All women should know how to change a tire so that they are not at the mercy of some stranger that might happen to pull over to help them. It's just the safe thing to do. Besides, I felt so proud of myself the first time I changed a tire by myself. I didn't get that panicky feeling inside like, "Oh, no! I'm stranded!" Nope, I just pulled over and changed that sucker! :)
Jennifer said…
First, God is so awesome :)

Second, I'm with Jules. My dad didn't let us take our driver's test until we had successfully changed a tire, on our own, and also knew how to check the oil and other fluids underneath the hood. I can't say that I've ever had to change a tire since that time, but I think that if I were stuck in the middle of no-where, I could handle the task :)

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