We’re less than three weeks away from Christmas.
Every year, I tell myself that I am going to get the Christmas lights up early – mid-November, when the weather tends to be warmer and no snow present on the ground or in the air.
And it never happens.
This year, I had every intention of taking down the Halloween decorations and replacing them with the Christmas ones. Life got in the way at this point, with hockey ramping up, kids getting sick – followed by me getting sick – and before I knew it, it was mid-November.
On Nov. 12, I had every intention of using the nice weather to get the decorations up. Then my wife checked the weather forecast for the following days, and said, “Winter is coming.”
“What do you mean? It’s like 10 degrees outside!” I replied.
She showed me her phone, and sure enough, it was going to snow the following day.
“We need to get the winter tires on the cars,” she stated.
I couldn’t argue her statement; we had a drive to Seaforth the following day for a hockey game, and both vehicles are notoriously poor in winter weather without the snow tires.
So the box of Christmas decorations was back in the garage, and out came the tools to switch the tires.
The first vehicle, the newer of the two, saw everything go as expected. All of the tires came off without incident, and all of the winter tires went on swimmingly.
The second vehicle is about 10 years old and has been nothing but trouble since we bought it. Every season I know there is going to be something that causes me issues when it comes to switching the tires; that’s part of the reason I leave those tires for last.
This year was no exception.
Some of the nuts on that vehicle did not want to come off using the impact gun, and my disaster of a garage consumed my breaker bar (some will say I lost it, but I disagree).
After locating a breaker bar at my parents’ house, I set back to the task of changing the tires. I grabbed the socket to put it on the breaker bar, only to learn that I have the wrong size connector. Knowing I had an adapter in the garage, I went to the tool box to grab it, only to discover that it, too, had vanished.
Muttering under my breath, I sent my neighbour a text – he is a plumber and has all sorts of tools – to see if he had an adapter I could borrow. A few minutes later, the plumber was walking across the lawn with a slew of tools in hand as it started to rain.
After finding what we were looking for, he grabbed the adapter (1/2 inch to 3/8 inch) and his impact drill.
“This thing will cut through this like a hot knife through butter,” he said.
He went to loosen the first nut… nothing.
He tried the next one… nothing.
He tried the third one… and the adapter broke.
“Huh…” he said, staring at my vehicle like it was Superman’s kryptonite.
We rummaged through his tool bag to find the right socket to fit the connector on the breaker bar, and I was able to get some of the nuts off that were previously stuck.
As the rain kept coming down, the plumber turned to me and said, “Well, I don’t think I’m needed here anymore. Good luck.”
I got two of the tires off after that, then encountered the next problem. Two chrome-capped nuts that were no longer the correct shape.
I did some Google research, which told me that some car companies, in an effort to cut costs, placed chrome caps on the wheel nuts instead of providing a solid metal nut. (Side note: I also think they do this to force you to have the maintenance department at the dealership change your tires, but I digress.) Thankfully, where there’s a problem, there is a YouTube video with a solution.
I found a very helpful YouTube video, which was riddled with foul language from its creator about “cheap car companies cutting corners” and their use of “dollar store hardware to save a few bucks.” This video showed me how to remove the chrome cap using a screwdriver, thus exposing the solid metal nut.
Oh, and did I mention by this time it had gotten dark and was now snowing?
After successfully getting the two stubborn nuts off – and thankfully, I had two solid ones on hand to replace them – I got the remaining two tires changed.
This process, which if everything goes well – like it did with the first vehicle – should take about 30-40 minutes. This vehicle took about three hours.
I guess that’s the price you pay for procrastinating.
After getting everything cleaned up, I headed indoors to get warm and dry, where I received a hero’s welcome from everyone for getting the snow tires on before the first storm of the season hit.
Just kidding. I got inside, and my daughter looked at me and said, “What took you so long?”
Sigh.
To circle back to the beginning of this tale, I did finally get my Christmas decorations up… on Dec. 3.
Better later than never.
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Mike Wilson is the editor of Midwestern Newspapers. In addition to being stubborn about doing certain household tasks himself, he leaves some of those tasks to the last minute. Comments and feedback are welcome at mwilson@midwesternnewspapers.com.
