Hero for the Day!

It was one of those days.... you know, when nothing is going right! It had been a crazy morning at home. I had gotten to work at 7:30 only to have five phone messages and several emails just awaiting a response. I knew right away it was going to be a long day. End of quarter always makes for a busy day.... filled with much stress and anxiety. For one reason or another, I was really feeling the stress of life and sitting at my desk, staring at my computer, I could feel my anxiety catching up to me.... and getting the best of me. I couldn't wait for lunch time! It was going to be great to take a break, leave the office, and enjoy the beautiful weather outside. Noon time came around and I practically ran outside. I jumped into my car and began to drive. I hadn't gotten very far at all when a guy started honking his horn and waving his arms. He was trying to get my attention. It was then I read his lips, "YOUR BACK TIRE IS FLAT!" Ugh!
I pulled over to the side of the road, and sure enough, the tire was extremely flat. It was very apparent it had been flat for a while, probably from the night before, and I had driven over 25 miles with a flat tire, causing the tire to be completely worn. I knew I wouldn't get far and I also knew I would have to go back to work because as my day would have it, I had left my cell phone at home.
I went back to work. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. I am not the greatest tire changer, especially on an SUV. I knew a few basics, but I also knew I would need some help. I looked over my cube and saw Rick was sitting as his desk. Rick is my brother-in-law, Brooke's husband. I knew he would probably help me. Sure enough, when I asked for his help, he didn't even hesitate.
Once we got to my Trailblazer we began to search around for all the tire changing parts. As was my day was going I shouldn't have been surprise that I was missing the lug wrench. We also realized the spare tire was stuck underneath the car and would not come ajar. Rick had all ready cut his finger trying to get the jack out and was bleeding some. We were attracting some attention and found Devon, a girl I work with who had a similar car as mine. She was super nice and said we could use her lug wrench and her spare tire. WOW! So, Rick went right to work. Moving tires here and there, fixing things. After a long battle, he figured out how to get my spare unhooked from underneath... this of course was after we had all ready gotten Devon's tire off her car. So, he put that one back on her car and attempt to fix mine. He took off the hub cap and we found another issue. The lug wrench was too big to take off the tire lug nuts. We asked a few other people if they had a lug wrench we could borrow, but alas, none of them fit. By this time we had picked up another friendly helper, a Systems Engineer by the name of Dave. He barely knows me, yet he stopped to help. We decided to go buy the lug wrench at a dealership close by. Both guys had been working hard.... laying down on the dirty ground and had becomne VERY dirty. That didn't bother them, they were on a mission.... to fix my tire.
Of course when we got to the dealership, they didn't have the part, so we had to drive another 20 miles or so to the other dealership. Thankfully the second dealership had the part and we were headed back to the very flat tire. It was a piece of cake from there. The spare tire got put on, the flat one got taken off. It only took a little over 2 hours and I was back in business.
As I think back now, I wonder what would have happened had I been alone or not had Rick there with me. He had plenty of work to return to when we were all done, but not once did he ever complain. Not once did he want to give up!! And not once did he even get frustrated. Even though I am sure he would have loved to go home, take a shower and relax, he had to go back inside the building to finish up his work. He kept his cool and even better.... he kept me from losing it! I am so grateful for his help! What a hero!!