My Mom Will Be So Proud

I was walking to my car after work today when I noticed two young ladies standing by a car with a flat tire. One of them was talking on a cell phone.

I assumed that she was talking to AAA, but I decided after a moment's deliberation that I should extend a little courtesy anyway. I asked the other woman if they needed any help, fully expecting to be thanked and told that somebody was already en route to give assistance.

Nope, they needed some help.

The tire had a large nail in it and was 80 percent flat. The owner of the car was pregnant and a little frantic. I offered to change the tire, somehow still expecting to be told not to bother, and the next thing I know the owner is saying "don't worry, somebody is here to change the tire" into her phone and her friend is helping me locate the jack and lug wrench.

Well, here goes nothing, I thought to myself.

My great fear was that the lug nuts would be torqued on so tight that I wouldn't be able to loosen them, revealing me as the puny fraud that I am, but luckily this was not the case. All five lug nuts yielded quickly to my lug wrench technique, which of course included the standard invocation of "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey." Flush with this success, I had the spare mounted and the flat tire and jack stowed in the back of the car inside of 20 minutes.

So chalk me up for some good karma or less time in purgatory or whatever, because today I changed a pregnant woman's flat tire for her. WooT!