Good Samaritan Day

No, it's not a national holiday today or anything; at least not that I know of. All I know is that it seemed that way to me today.

Well my last post had to do with the stress of that one tire in the back but being able to make it home safely. Well, today the normal carpool driver drove so I didn't have to worry about it. But I checked the tire before I left for work anyway. It was fine.

I asked Master to check on it half way through the day. He said it looked a little low but other than that fine. Well, it could look a little low depending on how the tire is sitting, but I still got a bit nervous. When I got home, that tire was flat as flat can be. Son. Of. A. Bitch. I'm quietly telling myself that maybe I can just air it up long enough to make it to the tire repair shop. I limp her to the closest gas station and plunk my dollar in quarters into the stupid air machine. (Paying for air... ugh.) Sure as shit the tire won't inflate. So I go inside and ask for help. This one really nice employee offers to help me. He's older and a really sweet guy. He grabs a can of Fix A Flat and doesn't charge me for it. (Master and I go to this gas station constantly. It's extremely close to home and we like the people that work there. Added bonus.)

So he starts putting the fix a flat in and the tire pukes it all back out, over the rim. That's so not a good thing. Putting the spare on my car is a pain the the ass, seriously. The spare tire isn't exactly easy to get to. It's held in this undercarriage right below the would be trunk. (It's a hatch back.) We finally wrestle the spare out and thankfully my car has it's own jack and everything inside it. I offer to help but the employee, John, tells me that he can do it. He wasn't rude or anything. He told me that he didn't want me getting hurt or anything. So he changes the whole thing. I throw the flat tire into the back of the car (slamming my finger cause I'm a damn klutz) and thank him. He tells me it's no problem, that he doesn't mind helping nice customers. I gave him a hug and thanked him again. He told me that his doctor would have killed him if he saw him doing that. I asked why and he told me that he has a bad heart. *insert the time where my eyebrows meet my hair line* I said he should have told me I would have done more. He waves that away as if it was no big deal. I got his full name and will be calling corporate saying how he went above and beyond.

That's good samaritan number one.

I then drive the car to the tire repair shop. The manager comes out and takes a look at the one that had just been pulled off. He said that if fix a flat didn't work, it wasn't repairable. Fuck. Well, from the last time I had all the tires repaired I have had this one full size tire, no rim, just sitting in my trunk because the mechanics put it there. I showed him that and he said it wasn't brand spanking new but it only had about 5,000 miles on it. No big deal. Then he tells me that their corporate policy is that they cannot put used tires on. So I start getting nervous cause I can't afford a new tire. I tell him that I know I'm supposed to put two new ones on and I just can't afford that. He said that if I have that tire I had put on it wouldn't matter much, and that I could just save up for at least two new tires. I point out that he told me they can't.

He said, "I can't charge you for it. But I'll do it free of charge."

Holy shit! I must have seemed like a damsel in distress today. Two really nice things out of two really nice people. He put the tire I had on the rim and put it on for me. He filled up the rest of my tires as well.

I can't call corporate for this guy cause it was against store policy, so I must have said thank you like one hundred times. He just smiled and said it wasn't a problem.

So the car is just fine now. I have price quotes on two new tires and one for four tires just in case. Now I just have to get the money scraped together.