I drove to work as usual yesterday, and at the end of the day, I left my office right before the number of the digital clock on my desktop turned to 5:00PM. As most of us, I was eager to be home then. I pulled my car out of the garage, and soon I was on my way home.
Everything was normal for the first 10 minutes. Then, I started hearing a rattling noise, which was louder and louder. I was also able to feel that the running of the car was not smooth anymore, and it seemed something was wrong with the passenger side rear tire. The first thought came to me was I got a flat tire. Oh, my god! The thought scared me. I knew it was dangerous to keep driving on a flat tire. I needed to stop as soon as possible. I slowed down and slowly pulled the car off the way and stopped over the right shoulder. I carefully opened the door, got out of the car, and started checking all the four tires. There was nothing wrong with the two tires on the driver side. Then I walked around the car to check the other two on the passenger side. Oh, if I was blind, I could not see the rear tire was flat. How could that happen? I took a close look at the tire, and found that the tire got a puncture with a small piece of sharp metal. The metal piece was still on the tire. I took it off and threw it, not on the way, into my car. I would not like one more car got puncture.
I took a deep breath and let me calm down. I quickly searched every corner of my brain to find a solution. There were three possible options for me. First, I had a membership of AAA, an I could call them for road service. Also I knew it would take them at least one hour to be on the scene and towed my car to a nearest auto service station. But I had to pick up my daughter at summer camp before 6:00. It was already 5:15. I couldn’t wait. Second, I changed the flat tire with a spare tire by myself. I did have a spare tire in the trunk, but I didn’t have a jack, and most important, I was not strong enough to do that physical work. No way! The last choice, took risk, and kept driving on the flat tire. It seemed that was the only choice to me. Fortunately, it was not too far from here to an auto service station that I knew. After making my decision, I got in the car and drove to the service station. Usually I drive at 40 miles per hour on that way, but yesterday I had to slow down and drove at around 20 miles. In order to alert other drivers, I turned the emergency vehicle lights on. 30 minutes later, I arrived at the service station. I left the car with them after telling them what happened to it and also finishing some paperwork. I was told that the car would be ready for me the next morning.
The staffs at the service station were nice, and one of them called a cab for me. It was already 5:45PM then. But I was still safe. Usually, depending on the traffic it takes me 10-15 minutes to get to the summer camp from the station. The cab driver was a black gentleman at his 50s, who had a good sense of humor, and of course was nice too. He was also familiar with the traffic around. Only 10 minutes later, we were already at the front door of the building, where the summer camp was held. The jokes told by the taxi driver made my day!
After paid the cab fee and tips, I rushed into the building to get my daughter. The summer camp was pretty close to my house, so my daughter and I could walk home. Good chance to burn more calories!
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