Just to clarify: a friend asked over IM after my tale of woe with my flat tire: “Can’t you change a tire yourself?” Answer: Yes, and I have always found the Volkswagen jack and tire iron to be exceptionally intuitive to use (having had to change at least one tire in the line of fire on my old Golf).
However, the timing on Monday was the key part that I didn’t spell out. I got the flat at 7:40 am, about 3/4 of a mile from my office building, and I was supposed to be climbing aboard a shared ride to our sales and marketing meeting here in Stowe at 8 am. I can change a tire, but not in 20 minutes. In this case, the tow truck was definitely the better part of valor.
Do I sound defensive? I suppose I feel a little bad that I wasn’t able to resolve more of the problem myself. But I guess there comes a point where doing it yourself is less important than resolving it so you can move on to truly important things.