Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Got me some handy skills

School has started! Here is the mandatory picture of the first day of school. I threw Ethan in there even though kindergarteners don't start for another week.
See how happy they are? Now, nearly a week later, their faces would show a little less enthusiasm but that is why we don't show pictures captioned '7th day of school' etc.



Ike and Mitch have graduated to riding their bikes to school. This is especially important on early-out day (for those not in the loop, this means one day a week getting out 45 minutes early for teacher prep). How I would curse when I had to wake up nappers just to drive the five minutes to school to pick up kids. Throw on the aggressive driving from mommies in the pickup zone and you would find me in a less-than-sweet mood.

So imagine my distress when Ike came home with a flat tire. I quickly reviewed our schedule and knew we were going to be hard pressed to find time for Hub to fix it. Never fear. I'm home all day doin' nothing but eatin' bonbons and watching soaps. I think I can fix a tire and only give up one day of driving the kids to school.

Holy cow. I should have paid attention to Hub all those times he did it. Or maybe I could have called him for instructions. But asking for help is for wussies. So I pulled out from my memory bank the times I watched my dad fix the tires on my purple Fancy Free bike with the cute basket on front. The tools I remember him using were a screwdriver and a bucket of water and the patch stuff. The screwdriver was for pulling the tire away from the inner tube. At least it worked that way for my dad. It wasn't working for me. I made lots and lots of guttural noises and muttered some oaths and Ethan started saying, "Maybe we should just wait for dad to come home...." and I kept on yelling, "No, I can do this!"and I was on the grass wrestling with that freakin' tire and finally I gave up and googled a video on how to change it. Did you know there is an actual tool you can use to pull the tire away from the rim? And it's not a screwdriver?? And Hub had one in his handy little bike kit in the garage? That Ethan had to tell me about? Fast forward hours later and I have successfully discovered there was not even a hole in the tire and we should have just tried pumping it in the first place. And the best part was that I had to drive to school to pick up the boys and left the nut/bolty things on the van bumper and forgot about them. Somehow I was blessed (because I didn't use very many bad words?) and the nuts stayed on the bumper the whole trip. This was a grand experience and I hope to repeat it very soon. But it's early out day tomorrow and we have two functioning bikes so I ain't complaining.


11 comments:

stephanie said...

you should get the slime for the tires. I have it for my joggers and it has been a great investment.

I know what you mean about waking kids up to pick one up from school I have had to do that 2 days in a row now. Stinks!!

cold cocoa said...

Was I the only one that actually fixed my tires myself? It seemed like it was about once a month, because of all the sharp thistles in the dirt and stuff.

You should have called me- I'd figure it out for you. I do think the inner tubes these days are better?

Michelle said...

My stroller goes flat every other day. Good thing for bike pumps that I forget to use. Good for your perseverance.

LC said...

I'm feeling way better about investing in solid rubber bike tires on the bikes and strollers--hee hee (you can get them at Pearson tire stores and they will even put them on for you)

Good for you though--I'm not to patient with those kinds of tasks.

LC said...

What a tribute to Di's skills that the reunion shirt is cool enough to wear on the first day of school.

The Allreds said...

I wish you would have included a photo of your wrestling match with the bike, would have made me laugh even harder than I am right now after reading your description...wow girl, you GOT talent! Why is it that husbands have all the fixing skills? I have to write notes and follow instruction books...they just have a knap. Shout out to all those short haired dudes! Can you tell I've been smelling too much paint lately!?!?

The Allreds said...

I mean KNACK...not knap, I'm needing one of those too!

TisforTonya said...

I think I'm loving the bus more and more each day... well, except that ONE day when M convinced the other two that I was going to pick them up. Turned out she was right - they just forgot to inform ME until the "missed bus" phone call home!

hOLLIANN said...

Wussies...ha ha ha!

hOLLIANN said...

Maybe you should have told Ike that only wussies ride their bikes without flat tires...for next time I guess.

T Daley said...

I am with you Megan...I would have no idea how to fix a flat. Good thing I have my 7 year old little girl to show me how :)