So this morning I figured I would fix the GFCI DIY leak detector while the cleaning girl is here. I "carefully" crawled partially under the tank and installed a new Home made leak detector and pump shut off. That only takes 10 minutes as it is made out of a film container and a couple of stainless steel screws. (Film is like Scotch Tape but pictures stick to it) So that is working and I had to hurry up because I had a funeral to go to upstate about an hour away. So I go to the funeral and it was a short ceremony at the gravesite, I say my good bye's and head home. It was a beautiful day so I had my windows open and Frankie Valley of the Four Seasons was entertaining me on the radio. A car passes me and I hear that he is getting a flat tire. You know that thump, thump of the tire going flat. I am thinking to myself, poor guy, lousy place to get a flat because we are just about on the Whitestone Bridge between Queens and the Bronx. The guy pulls ahead, and I still hear the thump, thump and my car starts to swerve. Oh Great. It's me. And all my tires are fairly new, like a year old. I pull off onto the swampy weeds and put on my emergency blinkers. I was a mechanic way before I was an electrician so I have changed plenty of tires. But I am always prepared for emergencies and I have a can of that flat fix stuff that I bought about 20 years ago and never used. I keep it for my wife. I screw it on to the tire and figure I will be back on the road in 5 minutes. I push the button and this sticky white gunk squirts out all over the place. Every where but in the tire. The tube on the thing is broken and very little of the gunk is going in the tire which is flat as a Supermodels belly. This foamy stuff is all over the can and the rest of it is on me. Skanky stuff. I also found out another fact today. Wasps really like flat fixer stuff. I am already covered in weeds, cars are whizzing by 6" from me at 70 miles an hour and every wasp in the Bronx smells this tire stuff and is heading for me. But when they land on it, they stick to it. I think they liked it better where it was on me than the tire, I guess I smell better. I don't want to scrape this stuff off of me with my clean hand because it is nasty stuff and the dying wasps imbedded in with their stingers facing straight up didn't make it look any more appetizing. I also didn't want them to sting my clean hand. So I get some weeds and scrape it off on them. I look in my car and find a rag. I got it and try to clean my hands of wasps which keep flying over to investigate. Now that the flat fixer didn't work, I need to find the jack.
The jack was never used, as a matter of fact I don't remember ever using the jack that comes with the car because I have a large mechanic jack in my garage and for some reason, every time I had to remove the tire, I am near my garage. So I am thinking, this jack that came with the car is never going to work. Jacks never work that come with cars. So I stick it under the car and try to jack it up. The jack works very well and is very easy to use but I am in dirt and the jack is just squishing into the ground. I tromp through the weeds looking for a board to put under the jack and I must have found a dozen discarded tires so I don't feel to bad and I am not the only one that got a flat. I find a board and stick it under the jack and raise the car. I remove the tire and have to crawl under the car to get out the spare tire that is one of those silly donuts and is mounted under the car. That tire is worn bald so the guy who had the car before me must have had a lot of flats. But I put it on the car in the midst of all the wasps eyeing me for lunch and I lower the car.
All done. I get in the car turn up the radio,and wait for a clearing to get back on the highway.
I see an opening and I gun the engine. I am in dirt so the car squeels as it tries to get back on the road. I look in the mirror to see a car coming up on me very fast. I can't get the car up to speed and it is squeeling and swirving.
Wasps hitting the window and Frankie Valley yelling "Big Girls Don't Cry".
I just about manage to get the car off the road again, just as the oncoming car veers off into the next lane. I Think I have another flat. Great, I again put the emergency flashers on and try to put on the emergency brake. But to my surprise, it is already on. That is why I couldn't get the car back on the road. I left the emergency brake on, Stupid wasps. Like Duh. So I take off the emergency brake, wave good bye to the wasps, Fankie Valley is singing "My Eyes Adore you" and I get back on the road. I take the car to a Firestone dealer because I have Firestone tires and I have the guarantee for roadside hazards. So 3 hours later I got a free tire because of the guarantee that cost me $50.00. Their definition of free is a little different than my definition. But the good news is that the Firestone Dealer is right around the corner from my favorite LFS and I went in and got a new female mandarin because the other one jumped out. She was very pregnant and my male is a wimp so she was pregnant to long and became egg bound. If I could have caught her, I would have done a cesarean as I have performed a few times before and never lost a patient, I am just not sure if Obamacare covers the procedure. :dance: