How One Screw Can Ruin Your Week

A screw. Not a hump, but a fastener. Carelessly left on a street. That's what ruined my week. My boss was letting me borrow his 1970 Triumph motorcycle for the weekend and on Monday, Labor Day, I went to Colma to get some oil to do an oil change for him. It was a beautiful day. A beautiful day to get a flat. I hit a screw, pulled over, and started walking back. About 4 miles. Of course I forgot my phone.

I decided to give hitch hiking a shot. I'd never done it before. I stuck my thumb in the air and kept walking. After a mile someone picked me up and dropped me off about a mile from home. I kept walking.

I saved a worm crawling on the sidewalk in the hot day. I put him in some cool shade and hopefully he crawled back in the earth. Good thing I wasn't fishing.

I made it home, drank some Hawaiian Punch, got my truck, and Lori helped me pick it up and bring it home.

Tuesday night, after getting a new tube, I took off the rear tire, which was a pain in the ol keister. But unfortunately I could not break the seal on the tire.

Wednesday I brought the tire in to get changed at a shop. $20. Worth my suffering if you ask me. I get a phone call later saying the wheel uses a specialized tube with a thicker valve stem. And of course they didn't have one. I had to call around and found ONE in Redwood City. I had to leave work in my Desoto and travel 15 miles south, get it, and come back. Last night I got everything back together just as it got dark. That is the most painful flat I've ever had to deal with, and the whole thing cost me about $75 in gas, tube, shop and 10 hours of my time.

What made all this really bad is the pressure that I had to get it back to my boss by today, Thursday, because insurance people are inspecting it. But I made it by the skin of my teeth. And I can borrow it ANYTIME I want. Tubular!