Why Are Some Men So Clumsy?
I once read somewhere that men were made to work and woman were made to love but I’m not so sure about some of my fellow men.
On Sunday, coming from my sister, some fella flagged me down along the way. It was in a very abandoned stretch of road but as he was dressed in suit and tie and the back of his car was jacked up sky high, I stopped. He had a flat tire, he explained.
So what is the problem, I asked. He said that he cannot get the wheel off. I looked under the car and found that the jack was precariously balanced on a round stone. He had the jack under the body of the car. Under heavy protest from him, I lowered the jack. He got quiet when I asked him if he wanted me to help him or not. I removed the trimming from the wheel and loosened the wheel nuts.
Then I took the spare wheel out the boot. Can you believe it? It was still secured in the boot.
When I tossed his round stone into the bush where it belonged, he almost croaked but when I looked at him he shut his trap. Then I moved the jack to under the axle and jacked it a few inches the get the wheel high enough off the ground so the spare would go on without problems. I removed the wheel nuts, pulled off the wheel, slipped the spare on, replaced the nuts and tightened the nuts just enough to seat the rim properly.
After lowering the car, I tightened the nuts properly and when I did the second nut across from the first he told me I skipped a nut. At first I wanted to ask him why he did not do the job himself but then I stood up and explained why the nuts should be tightened crosswise. Not that it made any impression on him.
Anyway, I tightened the nuts, replaced the wheel trimming and stowed the wheel, jack and spanner back in his boot. Seven minutes flat and if he was not talking so much shit, I could have done it in five.
And then he had to insult me by giving me R100.00 which, after a moment’s hesitation, I took for the insult; where a simple thank you would have been enough. Can it really be that he had never had to replace a flat wheel?
Both my daughters can replace a wheel in under ten minutes. I made sure they could do it long before they were 18.
Have a great day and don't get flat today.
Comments (52)
If you can change and fix a bicycle tire then you have enough savvy.
While my blog is not exactly a tutorial on how to change a car wheel, you won't go wrong if you do it in the sequence as I explained in the blog and if you add the safety measures as described by Fastasyou in his earlier comment.
You are so lucky to call yourself. I can never remember my own number when somebody ask for it. I have to think abpout it for a while and then some people think I lie. I cannot help; I never call myself.
I haven't done a lot of these type of things for years and it would be hard to get back into it - I also wouldn't turn anyone away for most of the heavier lifting at this stage.
In general I can say I am happy that I know how to help myself in a lot of situations and find people with "2 left hands" fairly annoying.
Sick animals is not a field of my expertness. I have spent many weekends on my uncles farm but he had a strange MO. He only doctored animals if the were not very sick. If the were anything more than slightly ill, he sold them.
I did hear that there are no sick sheep though - they're either healthy or dead.
KN
No, I'm kidding now. I don't think he would have been so mean. I did not bother much with the farm animals. I saw them as food on my plate . I usually spent my time there hunting partridge and guinea fowl. My two cousins were much older than I and by the time I went to high school they have left the house so I had a treat when I went there week ends.
I don't like sheep - dead or alive.
I'm a beef eater. I seldom buy any meat other than beef. Poultry and pork are vegetables on my plate. My ex-wife liked mutton and lamb and I often asked her where the meat is when she cooked anything other than beef. And as all men are pigs, I'm immune against mad cow's disease.
It sounds like the man was not properly taught on how to change a tire. Good thing you were there to show him the proper steps. A jack on a rock? That sounds like a making for somebody to get hurt.
We all have an expertness and while not every woman can knit or crochet (we cannot expect that) we do expect woman too to have certain basic skills. I do not expect every woman to me able to change a car tire but I would expect a woman to be able to fry an egg. I cannot not expect her to be an accomplished needle worker but would expect that she can sew on a button or put a hem in a new pair of trousers.