The day started out relaxing...

I got up this morning and checked in at work to see if I had a load out of the city today heading south. Apparently someone down there thought it would be a great idea to send 3 southern drivers up here for Monday morning. So there was no way they were going to find 5 trailers and 5 loads out of here this morning. So the other driver and myself that live up here got to stay home today. Hopefully tomorrow they will have freight for us.

So I called my buddy John. Usually when I am stuck at home on a Monday, we get together and hang out, play some video games like little kids, do errands, whatever comes to mind. He was up for it, of course, and told me he would be up here in about an hour.

Phone rings.

"Hello?"

*Huffing and puffing, cars going by, wind noise*... "I need you to come rescue me!"

"Where are you?!?"

*More noise, a slamming sound, rain, a tractor-trailer truck goes by* "I just got my tire back, it fell of my Jeep, while I was going down the highway. I'm on the side of the road..."

Well as you can imagine I was out the door and in the car before he finished the sentence. Poor John has 2 Jeeps. One is new, one is very old and beat up. He had the old one, and was going up the road on a 6 lane highway when the thing stated to make noise, then shake badly. He pulled over and as he did so, the front left steer tire and rim took off down the road without him, leaving him scraping along the side of the road with only 3 wheels. In the freezing rain, he got the Jeep stopped, ran down the middle of the busy highway to get his tire and rim back, while calling me to come rescue him.

Turns out someone someone stopped and helped him get the old tire back on the Jeep before I got there. He was a mechanic and said it wasn't that bad, but he needed a new tire and rim. I got there, we ran to his place, he had a spare, came back, swapped the tire on the side of the road in the rain (**!! what fun !!**) and I followed him back to his mechanics shop.

When he went to back into a parking space, the wheel wouldn't roll backwards. The mechanic thinks it's a busted CV joint. Frustration and worry ensues. See, John does not have a lot of money, and since its the holidays and the economy is in the toilet, its even worse for him. He's upset, but we talk to the guy at the shop and he is a friend of John's and promises to take care of him.

I bring him up to my house to hang out and try and calm down about the Jeep. He is upset and rightly so, but I manage to get him somewhat cheerful. Then the phone rings a few hours later and we get the news.

$6.48 ~!

That is all it cost to fix the Jeep. Apparently when he broke the wheel off the thing, one lug stud snapped, and when John tried to back up, it came loose and fell in the wheel, hanging it up. The other lug nuts we scavenged from the road, they were fine and John had some spares handy in the glove box. The labor was free since the guy was a friend of John's. So he only charged for the replacement lug stud. Just under 7 bucks.

John was so relieved, as was I. Sometimes life works out okay. Not always, but sometimes.