Bad Weekend for the Hondas

It was one of those weekends that you really just want to re-wind and start over again, but at the same time can have a good laugh at what happened :)

Don’t worry my car is fine…now, however my friend Jocy got it a little worse than me.

Let’s start at the beginning:

Saturday morning Jocy get’s her CRV bumped by some other car while she’s pumping her gas.  No damage, just an idiot who didn’t even realize he hit her car even though they were touching.

Fast forward a few hours, Jocy, Brian, and I are on the way to a friend’s BBQ out near Worcester (about 1 hr from me).

We are trying  to find the house, and perhaps that caused a little “frazzle” in the brain, but Jocy goes to pull up behind this other parked car on the side of the road.

Slowly moving up towards the other car, she goes to apply the brakes…

only she didn’t hit the brake pedal….woops.  The breaks are on the left, not the right.

Yeah.

SMASH!! Into the other parked car.  But as we all said that day…this is what insurance is for :)

Hehehe, looks pretty ghetto without the Honda “H”…sorry Joc!

Hissssssssssss.  That was the sound her car was making from hitting the radiator or the part that connects the AC.  Luckily that stopped and the car was still safe to drive.

After we (she) calmed down, we ended up enjoying our afternoon at the BBQ, and thankfully the owner of the other car was very understanding…plus there was almost zero damage to her car, the poor CRV took all the brunt on that one.

So enough fun for one weekend right??

Wrong.

I bring you to today.

Well, lets see, the events of today we’re actually fun and blog worthy…but let’s get to the damage.

After our day in the city, Jocy and I parted ways to go home.  Not 2 minutes later, I am turning right onto a side street with a what appeared to be a fairly new looking sidewalk with nice fresh sharp vertical granite curbing.

smash!

Yeah that would be me hitting the curb with my tire…good one Bridge. 

It was pretty loud, so I think 'you know maybe I should pull over and see if there was any damage”

Hissssssssssssssssssss

That would be my tire release air out of the nice gash in the side.

Awesome.

So I pull over (thankfully it was a quite street!), call Jocy, luckily she’s only 5-10 min away and we proceed to change our very first tire!!

Now, as I said this was a first for both of us and I was a bit nervous, but I got out the manual and got down to business.  Things I learned.

• ladies, you may need to apply your foot + entire body weight to the wrench to get those lug nuts loose!  But it worked!
• It’s always better to do this with a friend, with whom you are wearing a matching workout outfit as.  Makes for good comments from people who come to help.
• Hopefully a nice man, who happens to be a mechanic, will come assist.

Yes, we got help but I am POSITIVE we would of been fine on our own, however as I said he was a mechanic and did guide us and give us tips.  He didn’t just take over and do it, I really wanted to change my own tire and I did!  We had already begun jacking up the car when he came by.

Oh yes.  There’s me in my little Lululemon running skirt + hot pink top, jacking up the car.  Again, thank GOODNESS this wasn’t a busy road ;)

I look way too happy…in reality I was just sweating in the heat and laughing at how much of an idiot I was haha.

Things I learned from Bryan, the mechanic (not my Brian):

• always loosen and tighten the lug nuts in a star pattern.  Don’t go around in a circle.  Start at one, go across to another, then across again…and so on.
• This is important so that the entire tire loosens evenly.
• It’s even more important when tightening.  He said you do not want some lug nuts in one area a lot tighter than others because that can damage your rotor…which in turn will cause break issues, and that costs WAY more than a new tire!
• Make sure the jack is clicked in to its correct spot before starting to raise the car (we had that under control).
• If your on a hill, especially if removing a front tire, make sure the e-brake is on.
• HOWEVER, I was not on a hill and it was a rear tire so he told me to take the e-brake off and that gave us the ability to rotate the tire around while starting to tighten the lug nuts, so we didn’t have to deal with the wrench hitting the ground while trying to tighten the nut closest to the ground.  
• Tighten the lug nuts a little at a time, don’t go all out on one then do the next.  Do them all a little so they are snug, then lower the car back down, then tighten them all a bit more. 
• And then go back and tighten them all again with your foot again!!!
• You want them very tight as those spare tires can loosen up when you drive on them.

H.O.T.

Thankfully I went straight down the street to a tire place and was able to get a new one installed :)  No need to drive on the donut more than absolutely necessary.

PHEW!!!  What a weekend! 

Hopefully some of these tips will help one of you out someday too :)  I feel confident now that I could always change a tire in a jam.

Now, as to not have a completely bummer of a post…

This morning started out great!  Joc and I are running our first 10k!  We are doing the Tufts 10k for Women on Columbus Day!  So far, from everyone I’ve met that’s run this race in the past, they all LOVED it! 

We are somewhat following a training plan, and today was a 3.5 mile run!  We ran at one of my favorite spots, Castle Island.  This is also where we took our engagement pics!

(taken from an old post)

We did 3.5 miles, grabbed some iced coffees and headed to Flour Bakery in Fort Point for a little breakfast. 

We split a breakfast pizza :)

Brioche topped with: egg, roasted red pepper, goat cheese, and I believe parmesan (or similar).  I think that was it.

So flavorful, and the brioche “crust” was delicious!

We also shared an almond croissant, but sadly it wasn’t out favorite.  The filling was very good, however the pastry itself was pretty dense for a croissant in my opinion.  Still good, but I prefer delicate flaky croissant.

After some errands and a lot more walking around in the 90+ degree heat, we cooled down with Berryline.  Can’t believe this was my first Berryline all summer!!

I got mine with strawberries + mango+Oreo.  Perfectly refreshing on this hot day.

After the fro=yo was when things went awry (see above).

Not that I really want to go to work tomorrow, but I think it’s for the best that this weekend is OVER :)

Hope your weekend was a little less “eventful” than mine