January 1st, 2018 it’s -5 degrees and the wind is blowing 15 MPH at 12:30 am. Bronson and I are laying in the snow under his truck.  I feel bad because we’re all so cold, it felt like the wind was cutting right through you, and we were at my house after my new year’s party.

I looked at Bronson as he turns the jack and said: “At least it only flat on the bottom.”
He laughed which was good. Bronson had a flat tire that had to be changed so he could get home, and we had to help.
Everyone has left except for Jacob, Bronson, and I. The guys go out to start their trucks and let them warm up. They come back and after a while, they leave to go home.

Bronson comes back in the shed and says “we’ve got a problem… I found a nail.”
Jacob and I looked at each other and said “aww s#$t”,

We went out and looked at the tire, sure enough, it was flat, it was basically sitting on the rim there was no way he was going anywhere. We didn’t want to risk destroying the rim so we didn’t want to back his truck into my shed too put air in the tire either. We started by getting some blocks by set the jack on. I ran and got the blocks while Jacob got underneath the truck, and Bronson handed him the jack for him to place underneath the axle of the truck after Bronson broke loose the lug nuts. After finding some boards we placed them under the jack and Bronson cranked the jack up as far as he could go, and sure enough, it wasn’t enough to jack to get the spare tire on. We let the jack all the way back down and then I went and got more boards. Once I got back we did it all again. Jacob was freezing because he didn’t have gloves on so we told him to go warm up in his truck which had been running for about a half hour now so it was nice and warm. Rose was smart and went and pulled his pickup around to give us light. Bronson crawled under his truck and started to crank up the jack this time. Finally, we maxed out the jack and it was just enough to get the spare on. We took off the flat tire and put the spare on. We put his lug nuts on as tight as we could and told him to take it easy going home. Once we got everything picked up the guys left and Bronson made it home safely. This was not the only time that our friends were there for us when we need them to be.

Earlier in the year, Lexi had driven all the way to school with a flat tire. Lucky for her she didn’t destroy her tire somehow. She told us guys this when she got to school. During WINN we went out there and put on her spare tire. Jacob and I got her spare and her jack out of her truck. While Jacob was putting the jack under her car which was a lot harder than a truck because it sits so much lower I was taking off the hubcap and breaking loose the lug nuts. We got the car up in the air where we finished taking off the lug nuts. I remember it being so windy it was miserable. We all felt like rags in a tornado. Like we were going to blow away like a paper in the wind.

Once the lugs were off we got her spare out of her trunk and put it on the hub. We threaded her lug nuts back on as tight as we could with her little tire iron and said “you’re good for now.”
“Thank you guys
“No problem, bring it to Treyger’s shop and we can put a plug in the tire after school”
“Ok,” Lexi said.
When we were done standing around we all headed back to the school to warm up. When school was out I went home because I thought Treyger could take care of the plug himself. About an Hour after I got a phone call from Treyger “Hey I can’t get Lexis tire off the rim can you come help”
“I’ll be there in 10 minutes,” I said.

I headed out and went to Treyger’s shop right away. We worked on getting the tire off the rim for about an hour. We tried everything we used a tire machine but couldn’t get the bead to break, so we took pry bars to it and each stood on them but still no luck. Finally, we were tired of messing around because by now it was like 6:00. We called Theisens to see if they were still open and if they had time to put a plug in a tire. Lucky for us they were. We threw the tire in the back of my truck and went to DeWitt where they fixed the tire. When we left Dewitt we went back to the shop. Everything was going well the tire was fixed and holding air, but then we hit another speed bump. When putting the lug nuts back on her original tire we stripped the threads. We made our next trip, and off to O’rileys we went. We packed up into my truck again and went to Clinton, by this time it was 8:00. Lucky for us they had the exact lug nut we needed. We headed back to the shop and got back to work. I put the lugs back on and torqued them to spec. Then we let the jack down so the car was back on the ground. “You’re all ready to go now Lexi,”

“Thank you guys so much I wouldn’t have had a clue what to do”
“No problem drive home safe”
By this time it was like 10:00 when I got home, but the good thing is I was now an expert on how to change a tire.
January 30th, 2018 a Tuesday night that went bad fast. Our boys had just lost a big game to Camanche 71 – 47. As the crowds of people left the gym walking through the parking lot you could smell the exhaust of cars and hear them running along with the sounds of heckling of the fans. I found my truck and we went to take off then it happened. I felt the back passenger side of my truck bumping up and down. I knew exactly what it was. A tire had gone flat while at the game. I pulled over to the side of the parking lot where no one was at, and we got to work. I got my jack and tire wrench out of my truck. Then I saw my friends leaving the game so I flagged them down.

I said “You guys will never guess what happened… I have a flat tire”
Jacob and Bronson pulled over to my truck and helped. We let the girls sit in the warm trucks which were running and we got to work. Rose got my tire iron and jack out of my truck while I let down the spare tire. It took me a while to get the spare down because it was kind of rust and crusty but we got it down where we realized that the spare was also flat. “I’ll take it to the Kwik Star and put air in it,” Rose said.

Rose and Tyler left to go get air and Bronson and I started to jack the truck up.  Once the truck was up in the air we went to work on taking the rest of the lug nuts off because I had already broke them loose, so we took off my flat tire and threw it in the back of my pickup. By this time Rose and Tyler were back with my spare. We put the spare on the studs and put all the lug nuts on hand tight, and then I let the truck down. When the truck was on the ground Jacob put the lug nuts on tight. Once we put the flat tire and the jack away I said “Thanks everyone for your help.”

“No problem,” they all said.
We all stood around and just kind of slowed down and soaked at the whole situation for a moment now that it was done Bronson out of nowhere says, “at least it’s not -5 and blowing 20mph while lying in the snow like it was when we changed my tire.”

We all laughed thinking how right he was and how we were pretty lucky this time.

“It’s a good thing were tire changing experts by now,” I said
I looked at my phone not realizing it was 11:00 already “thanks again guys but we got to get going or moms going to yell at me for being home so late.”

We all said our goodbyes and on the way home all I could think of was how lucky I am to have friends that are always going to be there for me when I need them or are in a tight situation.