A Day....

School was great today!  I had five students away (most of them were my superstars) so it was pretty quiet in my room.  We got through many things and the students were engaged and excited.  It was an inside day, as the temperature hit -34 with windchill.  I was organized and the kids were ready to go home on time (a first in a couple of weeks) and I even got through a bit more of the novel that I'm reading them.  We'd planned to stay late tonight to get some work done, but I had an errand to run in town so we decided to leave at 4 like usual.  I was ready to go by the time the clock struck 4.  I was DONE.  We bundle up, go outside into the very windy winter afternoon to find.... yes a flat tire!
Chris was mildly irritated (read:pissed right off and used bad language) but got out the jack and the spare and started the process of changing the tire.  My vote was to call BCAA, as we've been paying for it for years and have never used it.  Also it was -34 and windy.  I was frozen in the couple of minutes it took to get all the stuff out of the back of the Subaru.  Two collegues came along to give their advice and when they thought we could handle it, left. 

Chris fought with the jack and then the lug nuts while I supervised for a while.  When I couldn't really feel my fingers any more, I relented and went into the staffroom to wait.  He got the lug nuts off, but the tire wouldn't budge. (That was even after he took his frustrations out on it)   I went out to inspect the situation and we just couldn't get it off, so we went back inside to call for help.  As Chris was dialing the phone, I heard some noise by the back door and saw Ken our wonderful janitor going out with a chunk of 2x4 and a hammer.  He must have seen us from one of the classrooms, and he beat the crap out of the tire and got it to loosen.  Thank goodness for him. 

Chris got the spare on and off we "flew" into town.  I have to say I was a little nervous travelling with the spare, which next to our winter tire looked fairly wimpy.  We had to make it through the Coolies and that was a little nerve-wracking as well.  I trust Chris' driving, it's the road that makes me nervous.  The first tire place couldn't help us, they were too busy to get to it tonight.  It was 5:15.  They sent us to another place that helped us right away and for $40, they filled all our tires and fixed the hole.  Apparently it was from a small stone.  3 1/2 years up here and only the one flat-not bad I guess.  It just was not a great way to end the day.