Frankly, you didn't miss much. Last time I had to change a tire it was with the little baby jack that came with the car, which meant I had to turn the handle rather than pump it, and I barely had enough clearance to get the thing around each time (if I turned it to the side when I got to the bottom. ) Plus I had metal showing through so I cut my hand up a bit on the old tire. All of this I had to do, of course, at work so I could drive home so I could sleep and then return. If it wouldn't have meant a half hour less sleep I'd have called AAA.

Speaking of which, ya'll MUST have some kind of equivalent motorist assistance organization, and you might want to think about joining if it's not too expensive. You could just as easily have had a flat on an icy mountain pass in the middle of the night and, over here at least, with the right package four service calls per year are free once you pay your membership fee. I've called them numerous times to jump/charge a battery, bring me 40L of gas, tow a car from my house to the shop (on my plan they'll tow anything up to 100 miles for free, and prorate anything beyond 100 miles) and a few times even change a truck tire (actually that was my mom 'cos she didn't want me doing it. )

Glad it worked out OK in the end, and hope you didn't drive too far on a totally flat tire, because you can bend your rims up pretty badly doing that.