adventures with my 1st car - ridiculous number of flats

I tried giving this car a name when I first got her - it - but it didn't stick.  I'm just not the car-naming type.  Perhaps that's why she got into a snit one fall and got 5 or 6 flat tires in 2-3 months.  Perhaps they were just bad tires.  Perhaps the universe was trying to teach me something (How to change a flat tire?  Really?).  My personal belief is that my younger cousin Jessica caused them all.

This is her, by the way.  The pic's about 20 years old, though.  If you want an updated one so that you can watch out for her, let me know.  Jessica was with me when the 1st flat happened - actually, it was a complete blowout.  We weren't far from home, so I called my dad to come change the tire (how?? no cell phone, I'm drawing a blank - oh well) and after Dad changed the tire I remembered I'd taken a "powder puff mechanics" class and I knew how to change it myself.  Oh well.  I thanked Dad and kept my mouth shut.  The 2nd flat Jessica was responsible for was about my 4th overall.  I'd gone to see her perform in a school program, and when we walked outside afterward, I saw the tire and said, "I have a flat tire."  Jess told me later she thought I knew about the tire before we came out of the school because I'd said it so calmly.  But no, flats were a part of my life at this point.  I think my uncle, Jessica's dad, changed that one, even though I said "I can do it myself," so I can't take credit for that one, either.  Oh well - all in all I eventually got to the point where I could change a tire in 2-3 minutes, which really came in handy one day when it was pouring rain.

I actually have photographic evidence of one episode.  Two friends and I were on our way to another friend's wedding out of town when a tire went flat.  We all pitched in and made the best of it. 

                              
We were out in the country somewhere, and the ground was so soft we couldn't turn the lugnuts without the wheel turning, so Melanie provided the necessary extra weight so that Jim could take off the flat, and I recorded it for posterity.  But I did some of the tire-changing, too, I swear, so I get to count this one.

Because of the delay with the flat and because of my poor planning, we arrived late to the wedding.  Actually, we missed the whole thing.  When we entered the church, this is what we saw:

Yes, that is an usher releasing the guests pew-by-pew.  But we did get to talk to the happy couple, and on the drive back we were in a goofy mood and had a great time, so I guess it was worth it.

The barrage of flats ended as mysteriously as it began (or I just finally used up all the bad tires), and I had no further problems until years later with car #2.  I was getting ready to go to a bridal or baby shower and walked out the door and saw the flat.  Guess whose shower it was?  Yup - Jessica's.  She haunts me still.