As the first real post for this blog, I wanted to touch on something that would be reflective of what you will find as a reader of this site.  I hope you enjoy.

  Back in May 2005, shortly after my mother passed away, my then Fiancee, Sister,  her boyfriend  and I packed up and drove up to Burbank for the difficult task of packing up all of mom’s things so we could prepare her house for the market.

As always money was tight, but we were in luck my sister’s boyfriends job at the time gave him access to a large truck with an electric loading ramp, he offered to bring the truck to save us the costs of renting one.  We discussed this along the trip but he was facing termination without question should his boss find out he used the company truck for personal use, over 150 miles away, but as 20 somethings this doesn’t really come to mind as the truck solves the immediate problem, true there’s a risk, but come on, that stuff never happens.

So Sunday at approximately 3 pm, we finished loading the truck and start the 2.5 hour drive back to San Diego, having worked 14 hours a day the past 2 days, dividing stuff into piles we couldn’t live without and piles we threw out.   We were tired, still a little emotional over just being there in the first place, but never-the-less we are on our way home… when not even 2 miles from Mom’s house we encountered our first bump in the road.

The commandeered moving truck has hit a snag.  The truck is similar to size and shape of that you would typically rent from U-haul, and as luck would have it we were passing a U-haul store just as the outside rear passenger tire burst.

We pull into the U-haul parking lot to inspect the situation and re-group.  It’s definitely a flat tire.  Its one of those trucks that have 4 tires in the back, one axle with 2 tires on either side of the truck, the outside tire is flat but the other 3 are holding up.  Having changed 100s of tires before, I figured all we needed was a jack and some elbow grease and we would be on our way.  Unfortunately a large truck such as this is a commercial truck, companies that have commercial trucks for their business use, have a service you would call in just such a situation, but since we were not using the truck for business we couldn’t call the service listed in the truck for fear Sister’s Boyfriend would be fired on the spot and truck reported stolen.  So we try AAA  a very nice operator explained to me that since this was a commercial truck she could not help us either.  Meanwhile in conversations about the situation with the U-haul folks, the U-haul manager offers us a new tire, mounted on a rim of the exact size and specifications we need for free.  Amazingly nice man.  

So we have a tire, but no jack, and we are running out of time.  AAA and the company service plan are out while my sister starts calling towing companies I walk down the block to Kragen to see if I can buy a lift jack, but all they have is 3 ton jack, things are starting to get scary.

7 towing companies later we find a towing service, who has a 10 ton jack, capable of lifting the massive truck, laden with all of mom’s worldly possessions, but he can’t get to us for 1.5 hours.  At least help is on the way even if it was going to cost $299.99 for the commercial service.  

As we wait, nervous about the situation, we decide to rent a U-haul truck to distribute the weight, assuming the towing company will require the truck to be empty before repairing the tire.  All the while we are just hoping that we can get this fixed, and the truck home because saving $100 bucks on a rental truck is looking really foolish compared to getting one of us fired, and potentially being liable for damages for this truck.

Finally the tow truck driver shows up, in a truck capable of towing a tractor trailer rig.  Out pops this cool character, glasses on and a cigarette in his mouth.  He asks us about the truck, we show him the tire, terrified he’ll tell us he can’t help us.  He nods his head and walks back to his truck, paperwork….  I sign and offer my credit card and think at least I’ll get 1% back with my Discover card… anyway he puts the clip board back in the cab and comes back with a 4×4 piece of wood about 1 foot in length, he walks over the the back of the truck next to the still stable tire on the passenger side, puts the board down in front of the tire and asks Sister’s Boyfriend to pull the truck forward.   The truck inched forward up on top of that 4×4 and bam… ready to change the tire.

A small piece of wood was all we needed,  we could have even used a brick or  two pieces of smaller wood, what’s more we probably had something that could have done the trick in the back of the truck already!   

The lesson is, sometimes the simplest option maybe your best.  You don’t always need a new program, consultant or gadget, sometimes you just need to challenge your assumptions about your problem and think simple.  The answer could be starting you in the face.

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