Brother, can you spare a tire?

I got up in the morning today and got myself ready to attend a District event- it was STEM day.  I had signed up for several sessions, and the first one was scheduled to start at 8:30 am over at Skyline High School.  When I was ready to leave the house at about 8:15, I knew I would definitely miss the first session.  I hadn't particularly rushed or anything, either.  I wanted to hit the keynote speaker's session and a few of the other classes.

Here was the keynote speech:

The day was overall pretty useful.  I wasn't super excited about any of it, but there was some good content.  I decided to skip my last session of the day so I could get home earlier, and with that. I headed for the car so I could start the trip home.

As I walked up to the car, I could clearly see the flat tire.  Crap.  So, I opened up the trunk and started to get out the spare.  It was getting very cloudy and the air was thick with humidity.  I could feel my hair getting damp.  With that, I put the jack under the car and took off the flat tire.  The flat one went into the trunk and I placed the spare tire onto the car.  It turns out that the spare was a little low on air, as well.  Crap.

I decided that the smart thing to do would be to drive at a totally reasonable speed to the closest reputable place that may repair a flat.

While I was down at eye level with the flat, a series of three cars drove past me.  Every one was driven by a man.  Every one slowed to take a look at me, and every one went on its way without stopping, checking to see if I was okay or even cracking the window to wish me luck.

Thanks a pant load, fellas.

I wouldn't have accepted the help, anyway, but still, it's pretty crappy that nobody even stopped to check.  The whole thing felt like the premise to a joke.  A blonde was in a parking lot changing a flat tire...  I just need the punchline.

No punchline, I'm afraid.

It turns out, though, that Pep Boys is awesome.  Apparently, they will repair a flat for free if you are a member of their rewards program, and as a bonus, membership is also free.  As much as I hated the whole experience, I was happy for the no-cost fix.

After that, I was in a bit of a sour mood, so I came home and took a nap.  That helped a little.  Then, Cas came over to take me to dinner.  That helped a lot.  We went to Rockfish and shared a great dinner, then we came back to my house and watched an episode of Archer on Netflix.

He sure does cheer me up when I am in danger of becoming a real grinch.

Tomorrow is the super bowl, by the way, so it is my super-opportunity to display my extreme apathy about sports.  Woo-hoo.  At least my car has four full tires and a recently inflated spare.