Little Miracles

I keep forgetting to post this, but better late than never I suppose.
One morning in early December our "low tire pressure" light came on.  Since it was a cold morning after a long string of warm weather we thought we just needed to fill the tires up.  No big deal.
It turned out that yes, we did need to fill them up, but were we also aware that we were in need of new tires?  Hmm.  No, we weren't. Rats.
We spent a few days price-checking and then decided to bite the bullet and get new tires before the snow and ice came along.  On a Thursday morning I brought the car in and bought new tires.  When I was checking out, I was asked if I wanted to purchase the certificate that guarantees that if they can't patch a hole, they'll replace the tire.  I called King.  He said no- I said yes.  Since he knows much more about cars than I do, we were going to deffer to his opinion.  That was until the man decided to offer a terrific coupon that made it almost impossible for me to resist.  Hey- a girl knows a bargain when she sees one.  It still took a mighty hefty swallow to swipe my credit card.  Who knew tires were so stinkin' expensive!

Fast forward two days. 

Yep. TWO.


King and the oldest two had taken a free front runner ride down south while I stopped off at a bridal shower before heading down to pick them up.  Their ride took two glorious hours of standing room only... but that's another story.
Heading south at the point of the mountain, there was a nice little jolt to my car.  I hadn't seen anything in the road!  I looked in my rearview mirror just in time to see a little square of... who knows! flying away.
My initial thought: "No big deal."
Three seconds later: "Big deal!"
My car was driving funny and the pesky "low tire pressure" light was on again.  Being in the carpool lane, I pulled to the left side of the road.  Millaker, thankfully, was sleeping soundly at this point.  I climbed out of the car into the FREEZING, blustery wind and commenced checking the tires.  Front drivers side? check.  Front passenger's side? check.  Back driver's side? check. Back passenger side... completely flat.
Now I'm not sure where my brain had gone, because my first response was to climb back in the car out of the freezing wind and call King.
ME:  Hey! I blew a tire! How am I going to get home?  I don't have to call 911 just to get a tow truck do I?
Told you my brain was gone.
KING:  Uh... we have a spare.
ME: Oh yeah!  And I know how to change it! Oh, wait! Someone is pulling over to help.
My guardian angels!
A nice family of four pulled ahead of me and backed up.  I explained the problem and the dad and his fifteen year old son climbed out of their car in nice, button-down shirts (no coats!) and proceeded to change my tire on the VERY cold, very dangerous freeway side.  I tried to give them money since, REALLY they were incredibly helpful- but they refused.  They said it was good practice for their son.  Before they drove away, the cautioned me to only drive 25 mph on the spare, and good luck.
I was going to need it.
Praying awfully hard, I manuvered my car to the OTHER side of the freeway and somehow managed NOT to get hit. Miracles still do happen.  Don't ever forget it.
Then I proceeded to limp down the freeway, hugging the side-line, with my hazard lights on.  All the while, King had found me the nearest tire store.  15 miles down the road I pulled off and find the well-hidden store.  Thanks to the certificates we very nearly didn't purchase,  the new tire and the labor were all free.  They were even kind enough to not make me purchase a NEW certificate for the new tire.
The significance of this story is this.

NO, its not great to fork over money for new tires.
NO, its not great to blow a tire on the freeway.

HOWEVER-

Had we not had new tires, the technician thought we would have rolled or at least crashed!  Whatever I hit had punctured a whole bigger than his hand and he could put his whole fist in our tire. There was no patching that tire!
Had we not purchased the certificate, we'd be out many, many more pretty pennies.
Had I had all three kids- I can GUARANTEE the whole episode would not have gone as smoothly.  I can still picture the possible mayhem in the car as I tried to help with a tire!
Had we not had kind, wonderful, generous people stop to help, I would have been on the side of a dangerous, freezing highway for a VERY long time changing my first tire by myself.  Not an ideal scenario.
I'm grateful for the little blessings- that come about in ways we don't expect, or imagine.  I'm grateful for the kindness of strangers and the unseen help from above which I can GUARANTEE helps and protects us more than we realize.

Have you checked your tires lately?