SO I HAD A FLAT TIRE YESTERDAY. I hit a pothole and it literally tore the sidewall. Naturally I had to change it on the hottest day of the year, and although it took only about 15 minutes, I was roasting since the pavement must have been 120 degrees. (Happily, I had thought to put a large rubber mallet in with the spare tire, as even after the lug nuts were off it took a bit of “persuasion” to remove the wheel.)

This is my second flat tire in over 20 years, and my last one was about a year ago. Both were from normal road hazards — the one last year was literaly from a sharp rock. My tires are Continental Sport Contact SUV tires and they handle well in all conditions, but I’m thinking they’re a bit fragile.

Because of the heat, I was tempted to leave it to AAA, but when I called them I had to sit through — literally* — five minutes of recorded announcements, mostly on coronavirus precautions, before I got to the part where they told me that due to a high volume of calls (really?) it would be 20 minutes before anyone could answer, so I gave up. Kind of disappointing, but it wasn’t really any trouble to do it myself, except for feeling like a stoker on an old-fashioned steamship by the time I was done. I think having given blood on Thursday made me feel the heat more. Anyway, lesson: Keep a “persuasion tool” in the trunk.

*In the comments I am accused of the unpardonable sin of using the word “literally” figuratively. In fact, it was literally five minutes, by the call timer on my phone. It just went on and on, though to be fair I cursed loudly at one point, which may have reset something.