Yesterday's Brutal Battle For My Peace and Joy

So yesterday was quite the day. I'd describe it as the battle for my peace and joy. We were about a mile from the Mountain Home exit when something quickly destroyed the driver's side rear tire. It looked like a bullet had gone through our tire. No problem, time to put the spare on on the narrow shoulder of the freeway as vehicles whiz by at 75mph. We call Les Schwab but they're not in a place to send a truck so I try a can of Fix-A-Flat I have, but it doesn't work. I unload Katherine, David, Hannah and my Mom and empty everything from the full trunk to get the spare. I'm sure it looked like a yard sale on the side of the freeway. With the spare out I then got the jack. But now I can't find the lug nut wrench. Noooo! I don't have a lug nut wrench. But in my handy dandy emergency kit I grab my 4inch wrench with a socket that fits my lugs. I begin the process of crushing my fingers as I work the first four lug nuts off which are on tight. My fingers are toast and I can't get the last one off. After about 30 minutes a road construction vehicle finally stops to help us. They don't have what I need but they do have a big guy in the truck. Unfortunately he can't get it off either :(  So they tell us they will go get us a wrench and did return about 30 more minutes later. In that whole hour they were the only vehicle that stopped to help us in the heat on the side of the freeway. We were passed by hundreds of vehicles, an ITD truck as well as a State Trooper. Enough said. Finally the construction guys return and getting the last lug off was a breeze with the right tool :) So I put the spare on, we reload the trunk and we head into Les Schwab in Mountain Home. After an evaluation the consensus it that the tires are very worn and new ones are needed. We get a good deal and for $500 we have four new tires. While they put them on we enjoy a wonderful picnic lunch inside of Les Schwab with several of their other customers. They finish, we jump back into the car and I make one more stop at Walmart. There I purchase a lug nut wrench so I won't ever get caught again. Yes, today my fingers still hurt, I have a nice new set of tires, as well as a lug nut wrench. But what's important is that I won the battle for my peace and joy yesterday. Yes it went back and forth, but I won because I didn't allow my circumstances to rip them from me :) My peace and joy are too precious to surrender for anything!