Three hours in a car-park

So I arrived back to the tesco’s car park (in finglas) to collect my car after work, only to find that I had a flat. Ahhh balls.

After smoking a wistful cigarette, I got stuck into the task at hand. It took me at least 25 minutes to get the car up on the jack (only later would I learn that I was failing to attach a quite useful bit to help with all the turning), and another 10 or 15 minutes to get the nuts off. (One was a security nut which had me all confounded, and the other four ultimately required the heel of my boot to get started).

Excellent, now to pop off the flat and pop on the spare. *honest*

Uhhhh. But oh noes, do you think I could get the feckin wheel off the car? Not a chance. I pulled, and I hauled, and I pulled some more. A passing motorist pulled over, gave it a go, rang his mechanic buddy, and suggested that I give it a couple of kicks. He headed off, whilst I started laying into the poor wheel with all my might. Still no joy.

A good hour had passed at this stage, and it started to rain. Oh great.

Finally I caved, and dug out my iphone to find the number for the roadside assistance crowd who come free with my car insurance. Within 20 minutes I had a call-back from a recovery dude who explained he was out in donnybrook about to give some guy a jump, but that he’d be straight out to me when he was done.

Now you see I’d been having visions. Thoughts of a hefty mechanic dude arriving out, taking one look at the wheel and yanking it off with a good strong pull, and thereby emasculating me forever. At least make it be somewhat tricky for him I thought. Just don’t have him smirk at me, muttering under his breath at what a feeble fool I was, I longed

An hour and 20 minutes, and a half pack of cigarettes later he arrived.

I relayed my little story to him and in return he graciously explained how the wheels (especially alloys) can get stuck on good and proper sometimes cos of the heat they get up to. He too insisted that brute force was the only option, but only when the car was securely jacked. He took out his man-jack and placed it under the car beside my little toy-jack. He even took a moment to deride the crappy jacks that come with cars as being good for nothing except for throwing through people’s windows when they annoy him.

Then he got himself a thick plank of wood, about a foot and half long, and 5 by 2 inches, and proceeded to lie down on the ground under the front of the car. He then starting to whack the back of the wheel with the plank, and sure enough after eight or ten thumps – off it popped.

The spare was on the car in 5 minutes after that, and I was motoring within 10.

Now you see there’s a moral to this little tale: Ya see it wasn’t about brute force, and as such I wasn’t made feel the little girl. It was however all about technique and of course having done it many times before. As such I couldn’t help but be reminded that with these things (like most) its usually not about what you can do, but rather what you know how to do. A little knowledge goes a long way.

Maybe next time I fix someone’s silly computer problem for em, I won’t be quite so quick to think “idiot” in the back of my mind.

Anyhoo, I’ve got a frozen hole, but at least I’m not in that stupid car park any more.