subject: Staying In Tune With Your Car [print this page] If it is one thing that I am only too obsessed with when it comes to driving, that is the issue surrounding my tires. When I was a freshman in college, I had a brand new Nissan Altima. Through the course of the first year that I owned that car, I had at least three to four flat tires that I ended up having to change in none-too desirable conditions. I was only too happy that my father had made me learn how to change a tire on my own before he sent me off to college because boy, did that come in handy! On one of the occasions where I had a flat tire, it was the middle of winter during my fall semester of classes and I was exiting my apartment early in the morning for a class. When I got to my car, I conducted the usual once-over of my vehicle (including my tires). That's when I saw that one of my rear tires was completely flat. There I was with a stack of books and a knapsack in my hand, staring at this tire. I sighed, opened the door to my car, threw my stuff in and then retrieved my tire kit from under one of the back seats. It took me approximately ten minutes to take off the flat tire, put it in the trunk of my car and put on the donut.
Because it was early in the morning, I drove down to the mechanic's shop, which was located right across from campus and dropped my car off. I then walked twenty minutes to my first class. By the time class was over, I walked back to the mechanic's shop and paid the $8 that it cost to have my tire plugged and put back on the car. The culprit? A nail.
As a bit of advice to college kids (as well as anyone who is new to an area), one of the first things that you should do is drive around yourself to see where things are located in proximity to where you live or where you know that you are going to be working/going to school, etc. For instance, the first thing that I did when I got to college was that I drove around. I located the mechanic's shop that I wound up using the morning that I realized I had a flat tire. I knew how far it was from my dorm room, when the hours were as well as who owned the shop and what he looked like. Knowing little pieces of information like this can come in really handy when you find yourself in a bind!
