I hate to say it but you gotta get this down, what are you gonna do when you are out there alone, far from home and out of cell phone range. I use park tool plastic tire levers. Yeh, I try to put the tire back on without a lever, but sometimes I use a lever to help get it closed (you just kind of reverse the movement you made to get it off with). I am careful though that I have already checked the seating of the tube to know its not gonna get cauught in any way when I do that. You would have been better off if the fella at the LBS showed you what you could do, rather than doing it for you!