well, what should have been a straightforward day, albeit one with another parenting milestone at the centre, has turned into quite a disaster of note! well, perhaps not really - i am sat here writing about it, after all.
today was the day that William needed to go for, believe it or not, his 18 month injections. blimey, how time has flown! anyway, i arranged for a half day at verk so that i could take him along for them. no problem thus far with planning, then. it was just that implementation was somewhat more complicated.
it is our winter now, and winter here is usually marked with very cold, dry weather. it was unseasonal, to say the least, for us to have had one of the biggest storms in the history of the place today, then. and i do mean a ferocious rainstorm, coupled with some outrageous sized hailstones.
the fact that it was so incredibly wet today makes one of the major problems of the day all the more interesting. somehow, despite enough rain to bring Noah out of retirement, a truck carrying new cars managed to catch on fire and thus brought about the closure of not only one of the busiest highways on the whole contient, but also the one that i needed to take to get William and take him to the clinic. bugger.
by mid-day, when i needed to go, it looked like it had cleared up a bit and the road was open. so off i went. i must admit the drive was going very well indeed, right until i got to the entry point for the highway and discovered that the police had re-closed the onramp to the highway. they were nonetheless helpful in directing me as i reversed, oh, half a mile or so down one highway and then guided me on to another one!
the highway i was directed on to was one that in theory could get me where i needed to be. in practice, however, it is one that i had seldom travelled on and certainly not one that i had been on alone. mindful of my need to get the boys and my concern about not being quite sure where i was going, i was somewhat nervous.
the nerves were, however, replaced with the need to stop somewhere not far into my journey on this unfamiliar road and replace a tyre! as far as i can work out, for it was still wedged in that bit where the tyres are on a car, i had hit a chunk of wood with several nails exposed on it.
here, for your viewing pleasure, is the daage done to the tyre
and, for your further viewing pleasure, here is a close up (of sorts) of the damage
doesn't look particularly good, does it?
it is rather handy that i have no problem with changing a car tyre, really. i managed to get to the side of the road, and just about far enough away from the highway itself to not get smacked by trucks speeding by, although one very nearly did clip me. "oh dear" i said (or something close to that) as it came by, but fortunately it turned away and went past me.
an essential, and indeed excellent part of changing a tyre is a jack, and here is mine
and here is a close up of the bit where the windy handle thing goes to allow you to jack the car up and then lower it down.
and for the life of me i could not find the windy handle thing. oh dear. i had assumed that it was in the nifty bag thing that the spanners for the wheels are kept it, but alas the bag was bereft of anything but spanners.
i then had to improvise somewhat, and to turn the windy thing around on the jack i used, with some brute force and with some damage caused to my hands, the screw on the thingy that keeps the spare tyre in place in the boot.
it took a good deal of time to do it, and if you look carefully i dare say you shall observe remnants of blood from my fingers on it, but the wheel got changed, by jove, and i shall wager it looks as smart and as class as any fitted spare wheel you have ever seen
by some miracle, and really someone up there clearly does like me, i managed to drive away and more or less get to the clinic with William and James on time for the all important injections. William, to bring in the most important part of this adventure, is fine and well - he is progressing nicely and they are very happy with him. he also did not cry or flinch when he had the injections, which is most impressive of the young man.
James was rather impressed, as well as a little bit scared, when he heard the tale of how i managed to get to him. the fear went away as he was clearly aware that i was OK, and he was rather impressed with the excellent way the damage on the tyre looks.
he was even more impressed when Mummy came home and showed Daddy exactly where the windy bit for the jack is kept.
oh, it's underneath the tyre cover. i did not think to look there, honestly and obviously.
well, hopefully there is not a next time, but if there is, then at least i have a rough idea where all the bits for the jack are!
i shall be off in the morning, then, to get a new tyre to replace the pictured rather badly damaged one. as for the remainder of this day, i believe i shall simply count several blessings and be very glad indeed that, for all that went wrong, everything turned out ok in the end.
i really hope your day has been somewhat better than mine!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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