For some reason, my car is fine until my parents visit. Especially my tires. The last time both parents were here, I blew out a tire about four blocks from home. I managed to get my car into my garage but was driving on the rims by then. Dad put the spare on for me and I went up to Big-O. I ended up buying two new tires. That was about eighteen months ago.

Yesterday, Dad noticed that my tire was low (same one I blew out before, coincidentally - front passenger side) so he drove my car to the Maverick and filled it. He drove it up to my grandpa's condo, which was maybe six blocks at most, and then I drove it home, which was another six or eight blocks. It sat in my garage all night. I pulled out of the garage this morning to go to work and could tell something was wrong, so I pulled over and got out and lo and behold, the tire was completely flat.

I tried to call Dad but his phone was off. It was 7:30, so he was possibly still asleep. So then I called work to tell them I'd be late but would definitely be there, and started to try to change the tire myself. Some guy I have never seen before was out jogging, and stopped to help me change it. I am so grateful. I miss steps when I try to do car things - last time, I didn't get the hubcap off before trying to remove the lug nuts. This time, I was jacking the car up before loosening the nuts. That sort of thing. And the guy ended up literally jumping on the wrench to get the nuts loosened, too, so I probably could not have done it myself at all. But we got the spare on and I got to work.

Dad called me after a couple of hours and I told him what had happened. He said, "I wonder if the valve shaft (I think that's what he said, anyway) is broken. That's really strange." A couple hours more and Mom called. She and Dad ended up coming to get my keys and take my car to Big-O for me while I was at work. So instead of spending hours sitting at Big-O after a full shift at work, it was fixed just in time for Dad to pick it up and bring it to me at the end of my shift.

Whatever valve thingie he thought was broken was broken. And he had them replace some something belts (I am awesomely informed about cars, clearly) because they were cracking and if they had broken, my car would not run. And they told him my battery isn't holding a full charge any more. Which, it's seven years old, so I am not surprised. But it's yet another thing that wouldn't have occurred to me until the car was dead. Now I can replace it in the next few weeks before it's a problem.

These are the times I hate being so far away from my dad. Because I never think about these sorts of things in advance. But I have so far been very lucky, and things have only gone wrong when he was here to help me fix them.