We were driving home from Church #1 today on a really icky gravel road (I know… that describes soooo many roads around here) when we started fishtailing. I managed to get car not to end up in a ditch and once I got it straight, we started just bumping up and down. This was not normal and unnerved me so I stopped and had Jon see if all was OK. When he looked around the car he saw…

THE REAR LEFT TIRE HAD BLOWN OUT AND WAS COMPLETELY SHREDDED.

Upon finding out that we didn’t have a spare tire, my first thought was “let’sÂ? get the car back home and see if we can switch it out with someone”. Then my common sense kicked in (as well as memories of those high speed chases on cop shows where the rims are kicking up sparks along the road) and I started the car and got it to the side of the road. I thankfully (!!!!!!) had my Montana cell phone with me (the Minnesota ones are getting mailed back) and I called our organist at Church #2 and told her the sitch. I had my crocheting and Jon had a book so we just chilled until our organist’s husband (who is possibly the most wonderful person on the planet) showed up and gave us a ride to Church #2. By this point, my body is ding dong merrily on high with adrenaline and I decided to walk back to the parsonage from church (a grueling 50-100 foot walk) and drop my crocheting off and replace the checks in the checkbook. (I had run out of checks at Church #1 and since we do tithe, I wanted to get some more.) When I got back to the house, I was hit with the stunning realization that…

THE CHECKS WERE IN THE VOLVO.

As I was not a happy Jen and about to start screaming bloody murder, I decided to just sit in the back for the rest of the service and get calmed down. I also decided to skip Church #3’s service in favor of taking a nap and warding off a panic attack or whatever was going to hit me if I didn’t get home and get calmed down.

About 5 minutes after I’d gotten home and changed out of church clothes (i.e. switched out my khakis for my sweats), I got a call from our organist’s son-in-law saying that the guy at the co-op down the hill had taken the old tire off and the s-i-l would take me to put the new one on and get the car. Duuuuuuude… talk about a quick answer to prayer! We got everything switched over on the car, I drove home, ransacked the car and found the box of checks, and decided to lie down until Jon got home.

Well… I sort of noticed when Jon got home but I fell back asleep watching CourtTV (thus having dreams about solving murder cases) and slept for 5 hours. Methinks the Almighty knew I needed a nap?

We’re going to get the other rear tire replaced tomorrow (having different brands on can cause problems with the rear end of your car because the diameters are a little different) and at least the old passenger rear tire can be a spare.

So… I guess there is a lesson here: NEVER DRIVE OUT IN THE BOONDOCKS WITHOUT A SPARE TIRE AND A CELL PHONE.

Gonna go love up my baby valkyrie now… (Freya is the Queen of the Valkyries in The Nibelung Ring.)