Fun With Tires

Flat tire on the way home from practice today. It was cold and dark - perfect conditions for tire-changing. Fortunately, Forrest had changed a tire on a 12-passenger van not too long ago, so he knew the drill - he and Ezra seized the moment and started assembling the tools and whatnot. I helped by standing around with a frown of manly concern on my face. The rest of the team huddled off to the side while Elissa taught them a bizarre dance involving hopping on one foot and giggling - at least they were staying warm. Kind of a strange scene - "a bunch of kids in spandex changing a tire," as one of our skiers put it. Fortunately, we have people with skills on our team, and the new tire was in place soon enough. Walt came through with some muscle in the clutch, loosening some nasty lug nuts that wouldn't budge - the man is huge. We made it home just a little behind schedule - not so bad. I was impressed by how little this incident bothered the team - no complaining, just people hanging out by the roadside enjoying each other's company. As I later told them, if we handle every tough situation this well, it's going to be a great season.