The Day I Asked for Tires for Christmas

I love to shop. I love good deals. I love using a coupon for something that is already on sale and that has a rebate or some other promotional discount. Those are happy purchasing moments. But there are some things that just are not fun to buy, no matter how good the deal is... like toilet paper, dishwasher detergent, tires, etc. Don't get me wrong... I appreciate all those things and am certainly glad we have them. But I in no way enjoy paying money for them... especially full price and particularly when a less expensive option is within sight but is just out of reach... you can see where this is going can't you...

So last night I got home from a meeting and as I was walking in the house I heard this terrible hissing noise. I thought I was either about to be brutally attacked by a Cobra or that our van had a tire with a hole. I don't like snakes at all but I was still not excited about it being a hole in the tire. Kyle came out and looked at it, confirmed that there was not a giant snake about to get me and then helped me devise a plan to get the tire fixed and still be able to get everywhere we needed to today.

That plan involved dropping the van off before the tire shop opened. Which involved waking both kids up long before they should have been and multiple car seat transfers so that we could execute our seemingly flawless plan. We knew that getting the van to the tire shop wouldn't be a problem, because despite the hole, the van has "run-flat" tires, which means you can drive on them in order to get your car somewhere to be fixed without a problem. So, we got the van there, dropped it off, Kyle took us home and went to work. As soon as the tire shop opened, I called to go over the details with them and was pleased when the technician told me that they would have it ready in an hour. That was at 7:05 a.m.

I received a call back about 9:00 a.m. They told me that the tire was beyond repair and that we would also need to replace the other front tire because it was damaged from driving on a flat tire for a long period of time. A long period of time? I was confused. The manual says the "run-flats" are good for up to 100 miles... we only drove a little over one mile. That's when I learned some need to know information about run-flats. Just like their name says, they run flat. Therefore unless you are in the habit of checking your tire pressure every time you get in and out of your car, you likely won't know they are flat until it is way too late. I am going to teach Katelyn and Brooke how to check the pressure - that will be there new job from now on. So we were left with two options: Option one - buy two new "run-flat" tires for the front or option two - buy four regular tires. I was all for the four tire option - we could get them at Costco (which I love) and they would cost less than 2 of the run-flats. Plus, if we were to stick with run-flats, he told us that the two rear tires would need to be replaced in about 5,000 miles because they last about half as long as a regular tire. That's awesome. They cost twice as much and last half as long.

So I was working out the details of the Costco plan when the other shoe dropped. The technician told us that our van does not have a spare because of the run-flats. OK, so now we are buying 5 tires. Oh well. But there was more... he said that the all-wheel drive Sienna does not have a place for a spare tire to mount. How could that be? Well, the back row of seats folds flat into the floor, so the only place for the spare would be in the back rolling around. You know me and you know that would make me crazy in about 1 second. But I was still on board with the Costco tire option because I thought we could just throw the spare in when we are go on road trips. That wasn't as irrational as it sounds... seriously, what are the odds that I would actually change a tire if I was within a 30 mile radius of Kyle. And if I am outside of that radius in a car, we are on a road trip so of course we'd put the spare in the back. Seemed like a perfect solution. Fortunately, Kyle recognized that not having a spare was not a viable option. But even better is that he realized that having a loose spare tire bouncing around in the back of the van wasn't an option either. So, we have two new run-flats now. They weren't on sale and they didn't come from Costco - a double whammy. I actually kicked kicked one of the tires when I picked up the van. Stupid thing had so much air in it that it hurt my foot. Maybe I can get the two rear tires for my birthday in January :)