A funny little story....

On Friday night, we had lots of fun at our annual "Not So Newlywed Party". We have been getting together with long time friends for about 7 years to do this party, and it is always a blast. We have lots of good food, and everyone brings a basket of fun stuff. The winner of the game gets to pick the first basket. It seems to me that every year we spend more time talking and less time playing the game, but it is so fun!

Anyway, these nights always run into the wee hours, and so it was not unusual for us to be leaving at 1am.

What greeted us on a very cold early morning hour was, however, unusual.

Unusual, frustrating, irritating, you get the idea.

We had a very flat tire. It was like 12 degrees, we were in a quiet neighborhood, and it was 1am.

Yeah.

Jason and I proceeded to try to change the tire. After some looking, it was determined that we had a jack, but no arm for the jack. We had a tire iron, but it proved to be very flimsy. We had a spare, but coudn't get it on.

I walked back to our friends house (luckily we hadn't got very far before I noticed the van felt funny) and asked for some help and a more hefty tire iron and an arm for our jack.

Our friend, bless his heart, couldn't find his tire changing items right away either, which made me grateful for two things.

One: We are not the only ones who are unprepared.

Two: Next time they have a flat, they will know where all there stuff is due to our unpreparedness.

Anyway, after about 20 minutes of looking, he found his things and we walked back up to the van.

Brian, our dear friend, and I were met with an interesting sight. Two police cars surrounding our van and Jason handing over his liscense and registration.

It seemed that a thoughtful neighbor saw Jason standing outside the van, with all the doors open, holding a (wimpy) tire iron and me running away from him down the street.

I was running because it was cold, but it looked to the neighbor like a domestic dispute.

I can see that.

We were probably also making a lot of noise, which didn't help things. So we get there, and the police are very nice, and try to help us. They did give me a very close look to determine probably a couple of things: was I drunk, and did I need help. No, and no, thank you.

Well, after trying with our tire iron, Brian's tire iron, and the police's tire iron, that last lug nut just wasn't coming off. Someone really put that one on good.

So, our van just sat there until today, when Commercial Tire could come help us. We are getting 4 brand new shiny tires to make sure this doesn't happen again any time soon.

The best part of the story? As Brian and I walk up the the scene, I notice that Jason has on the red shiny plastic heart necklace that was part of our evening, and it is clearly showing because his coat isn't done up. I start laughing and point this out to him, and the police officer said "Yeah, I enjoyed that when I walked up to him". I can't imagine what that police officer must have thought. He handed me Jason's ID and I put it in my back pocket.

We got home at 2am, and had to get up at 7 because the girls had dance pictures at 9. Joy.

Oh, and also, I forgot Jason's ID card was in my back pocket. Our washer doesn't like ID's. It eats them up pretty good.

I am still thankful that we found out our tires were shot this way, and not in an accident on the interstate. Find the silver lining, people.