Thank God I didn't have a spare $50...

You know, it's a darn good thing I didn't have a spare $50 this week or I would have messed up a really cool thing.  Last weekend Tom noticed a bubble in the back tire of my son Thomas' car.  Now, this is very scary for us because just a few months ago Thomas had a blowout of his front tire in Turkey Creek Canyon on Highway 285.  If you are not familiar with Colorado roads, this is probably one of the worst places for a front tire blowout due to the curves in the road, no room to pull over, and the fact that it is a commuter highway.

This event in itself turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because a Spanish speaking man pulled over to help Thomas which was a great lesson in Karma for the whole family.  Tom is always stopping to help people at 4:30 in the morning on his way to work and it really scares me because I worry about his safety.  Although Papa and Tom were both on their way to help Thomas that day in the canyon, it was the unknown Spanish speaking man that helped him through the roughest part of the tire changing.  Thomas said it was also good practice for his Spanish class, just like his Mama to make the best of a bad situation!

Anyway, back to this week, Tom told the boys (Thomas and Austin) that they had to change the tires themselves.  What?  That's right, the car had come with a spare set of perfectly good tires and Tom told the boys that they had to use the old fashioned tire changing machine at Austin's dad's house and change the tires on the rims.  I thought it sounded a little hard for them, but I'm just a candy ass Mom, so I kept my mouth shut.  Then the boys started in on me.

They didn't want to ask Austin's Dad for help, and that was an awful lot of work, and didn't I have the fifty bucks?  I did what I thought I should, and explained to them how long it would take them to earn the $50, versus how long Tom told me it would take them to do the tires.  I also explained that Austins dad would not want them driving around in an unsafe vehicle either and had offered that tire machine to us multiple times.  The only offer I made was to smooth all of the men over (which I never had to do).  To talk with Dad and to give them more time, and to make sure that Austin's dad didn't give them a hard time about the tires.

They did the damaged tire first, and I was afraid that would be it.  Tom set the blown out tire directly behind Thomas' car the next day so that he could not go anywhere without seeing it, just a little reminder that he still had four to go (remember he still had the spare).  The timing couldn't have been any better because that night when the boys got home, tired, proud smiles on their faces both Tom and Uncle Scott were in the driveway having a beer.

Luckily I was there too.  Those seventeen year old men, yes men, had changed five tires and rims on an old fashioned tire machine.  And there were two old fashioned bikers in the driveway there to greet them and be amazed and proud of their work.  And do you know what the funniest thing of all was?  Neither of those old school bikers have ever done that kind of old school tire change!  I just laughed my way through my dinner preparations, I am sooo glad I didn't have that fifty bucks this week...