The following is a true story that happened to me this morning. All events are real.

I leave for work at 6:20 am every morning, but noticed last night that one of my tires looked a tad low, so I thought I'd leave 5 minutes early, stop by the filling station and put a bit of air in it. I get in my truck, start the engine, start to back out and notice that something doesn't feel right. I stop the motor and immediately realize the tire has gone flat. Sure enough, I look at my rear passenger side and it's as flat as can be. No problem, I think to myself, I will call my boss, who is very understanding about this stuff, change my tire and put on the "donut" spare for it, and drive to Wal Mart (where we bought the tires from originally and where the warranty is honored). So I go in, change clothes, come back out and change the tire (I have to lay on the ground to get the spare from under the bed of the truck), and 15 minutes later, I'm changing back into my work clothes and headed to Wal Mart to get the flat fixed. I check the spare tire pressure one more time, and pull out.

1/2 mile down the road, the rear end of the truck starts wobbling again. "I know I tightened the bolts, I remember specifically doing that. What the hell is going on?" I pull into the bike lane as the undulations are getting more and more severe and walk around the back of my truck. The spare tire has gone flat. "#$%^%^@$%#$%%$" I say, giving the woman in the Grand Voyager next to me quite a lip-reading lesson. I get in and slowly pull into the apartment complex just around the corner from our apartment complex and park in two parking spaces. I get out again, survey the situation, consider calling a tow truck, and then decide, "It's a half mile, I can walk back home." So I do, and start laughing at the absurdity of the situation. "This is a funny story" I say to myself. "I wish I had a digital camera so I could take a picture of both the flat in the bed of the truck and the flat on the wheel, that would be such a great shot!" Upon returning home, I change into my "tire changing" clothes again, and get ready to use my wife's car to haul the first flat to Wal Mart so that they can patch it and I can come back to put it on my truck and go to work.

We get to Wal Mart, (Janel decided to come along), and wait in line for a few minutes. It's funny, the sign outside the door says the tire and lube center opens at 7, but I realize that it's past 7:30 and the garage is just being opened up. We finally get to the counter, are told there is a 1.5 to 2 hour wait (to fix one flat tire not on a vehicle), and would we like them to call when it's ready. So we go home and anticipate that by 930 we should be on our way.

We call at 930, and are told that it will be "one more hour" on the tire. So at that point, we decide, I will drop Janel off at work and go to my job, because a half-day is better than taking a whole day off for a stupid tire, and will come back to pick her up at 230, and the tire will be ready, she can drop me at my truck with the tire, I can put it on, take the spare off and throw it in the bed and look for somewhere to get it fixed after Thanksgiving.

Upon calling at noon for a status on the tire, I was told it would be "on the rack next." Now, I know there is a rush because of Thanksgiving, but I was third in line behind two "four-tire jobs." And they didn't have to do anything besides a patch job, or, at worst, a remount on the rim.

The adventure will continue later tonight, I'm sure... Tune in tomorrow for the (hopefully not) exciting conclusion to this tale...