Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Milestone
Yesterday I reached an important milestone in my life. One that I will be able to look back on with a sense of pride and accomplishment. Granted, for most people, this feat might seem small or insignificant. But for me, it was an undertaking I went into with a little trepidation and uneasiness.
Yesterday, around 12:45 in the afternoon, I changed a flat tire.
I certainly didn't set any speed records, and I won't be submitting my resume for an Indy pit crew anytime soon. But I was successful. And that's all that matters. To me, anyway. I will say that I'm not entirely sure how they expect you to get the wheel bolts off with the puny little tool provided in the trunk of the car. Maybe it's about time I invest in a more heavy-duty lug wrench to make the task a little easier. But I'm not sure if I can picture myself walking into an auto parts store and purchasing anything. I guess I'll stick to Best Buy and Williams-Sonoma. Those stores are more my style.
Yesterday, around 12:45 in the afternoon, I changed a flat tire.
I certainly didn't set any speed records, and I won't be submitting my resume for an Indy pit crew anytime soon. But I was successful. And that's all that matters. To me, anyway. I will say that I'm not entirely sure how they expect you to get the wheel bolts off with the puny little tool provided in the trunk of the car. Maybe it's about time I invest in a more heavy-duty lug wrench to make the task a little easier. But I'm not sure if I can picture myself walking into an auto parts store and purchasing anything. I guess I'll stick to Best Buy and Williams-Sonoma. Those stores are more my style.
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Welcome to the club. It is amazing how much easier it gets to change a tire after you do it once.
The key thing to remember, for any of you tire-change virgins left out there, is to loosen the lugnuts a bit BEFORE you jack up the car.
Then, after changing the tire tighten them both before you set the car down and again afterwards.
You have the exact same tools I changed 6-7 blowouts with on my old car, and I sympathize. But I got to where I could do it in 10 minutes.
Now, your next step is changing your own oil. Believe it or not, it's no more difficult than changing a tire (although it can be messier if you don't do it right).
You save money, you get to choose your own brand/quality of oil and filter, you do a better job than the morons at Jiffy Lube and you get the satisfaction of working on your own car.
Anyway, every heterosexual American male should feel as comfortable in an AutoZone as in Williams-Sonoma. We need to work on that. On the plus side, not many men feel as comfortable the other way around, so you've got that going for you.
The key thing to remember, for any of you tire-change virgins left out there, is to loosen the lugnuts a bit BEFORE you jack up the car.
Then, after changing the tire tighten them both before you set the car down and again afterwards.
You have the exact same tools I changed 6-7 blowouts with on my old car, and I sympathize. But I got to where I could do it in 10 minutes.
Now, your next step is changing your own oil. Believe it or not, it's no more difficult than changing a tire (although it can be messier if you don't do it right).
You save money, you get to choose your own brand/quality of oil and filter, you do a better job than the morons at Jiffy Lube and you get the satisfaction of working on your own car.
Anyway, every heterosexual American male should feel as comfortable in an AutoZone as in Williams-Sonoma. We need to work on that. On the plus side, not many men feel as comfortable the other way around, so you've got that going for you.
Doesn't this just go to show that while an accomplishment may seem insignificant to others that it can be very fulfilling to you? My dad would have laughed through this whole post, just like Buck would laugh at me being proud to finish a 10K, but it's still pretty cool.
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