i was about a 40 minute drive from my house, flying down Hwy 70, and i hear a "thud" - like i had hit a small pot hole. i know i didnt see anything in the street before hand or i would have swerved, and when i checked my rear
view mirror, i didnt see anything there quickly zooming away into the distance. so i knew it wasn't a pot hole.
it was a little weird, and i thought "what if that was my tire?" the car was driving fine still, so i never gave it a thought after that.
a few minutes later, my car started shaking... a bad shake. like a horribly fucked up alignment shake, or a "oh shit something's fucked with my engine" shake.
i was on the highway, and there was a shit load of ice and snow on the shoulder, so i couldn't pull over... so i had to find the next off ramp, and even after getting off the highway, i still had to find someplace to pull to since there was no shoulder room. the entire time, i was freaked out, thinking that my INVINCIBLE Kia was falling apart or something. i started to think then "i wonder if this has to do with that thud i heard earlier? maybe i have a flat tire."
i ended up pulling into the parking lot of a hospital, shut the car off and got out. sure enough, my rear driver side tire was flat.
i only had a paper-thin wind breaker on (i didnt expect to be out of my car more than 2 minutes), and the temperature was like 17 degrees F, and the wind was blowing. so basically it was fucking COLD.
i bust out my jack and lugnut-tool-thing, and proceed to struggle with the lugnuts for the next 15 minutes, trying to get them loose. the tool was so small, i didnt have any leverage to hit it or step on it to loosen anything up. i found the best method was to fucking pull as hard as i could - which almost lifted the car up. the wind was really blowing, and it was making my skin STING because of how cold it was. this was the first time i ever had to change a flat tire - and it just happened to be far away from my home, on a super fucking cold day.