Well, this morning, due to my problematic flat tire, my editor picked me up and took me to work. I called my long-time tire dealer not long before 8 a.m., but he said he was really swamped and wouldn’t be able to get someone over to my apartment until after lunch.

Meanwhile, a co-worker went to cover the B-17 media flight in Smyrna. He enjoyed it thoroughly and got some great color shots for the paper.

About 2 this afternoon, I called the tire place to see if they’d had a chance to look at my lug nut yet. One of the employees answered, said the owner had left for the day, and that he hadn’t mentioned anything about me or my car. He confirmed what the owner told me about them being swamped, and said no one could leave the premises with the owner gone.

One of my co-workers said her stepfather — who had already been doing a shade-tree-mechanic favor for someone else that day — would probably be willing to take a look at the tire for me, maybe at least get the lug nut off so that I could change to the temporary spare tire.

Well, he had no better luck with the lug nut than anyone else has. He did, however, bring an air tank, and he filled the tire. It’s apparently a slow leak; the tire held air, which surprised me for some reason. He suggested that I take the car immediately to his favorite tire dealer and get them to cut the lug nut off for me.

Two problems: it was, at that moment, about 4:50. I didn’t know whether any tire places would be open by the time I got the car there. Secondly, even though I feel mistreated today, I don’t really want to change tire dealers. My current vendor has been good to me, and they’ll generally do little plug jobs and what have you for free if it’s a tire they sold.

I also decided that it made little sense to go to a tire place at this time of day just for the purpose of switching to the temp spare.

But, now that I know the tire will hold air, at least temporarily, I was able to drive to AutoZone and buy a can of Fix-A-Flat. In the morning, if the tire has gone flat again, I will use the Fix-A-Flat and be able to at least drive the car to the tire dealer.