Treading on nothing..
...it's kind of a trend..
tuesdays are supposed to be my good days, what happened?
it's a little after five o'clock and my training seminar downtown has just let out...the three ladies who are training with me have already bolted for the door, but i am slow to leave - the trainer had a ghost story to tell me, and you all know how i definitely have time for ghost stories. So after the anti-climatic story i headed on out to the streets of downtown...there's a slight sprinkle of rain coming down so i pop up my hood..there's also a chill in the air as the temperature has dropped to the lower forty's, making the rain, though slight, even worse...
but there's tomorrow to look forward to i think to myself as i scurry the sidewalk along my mile long hike to where i parked my car...the temperature is supposed to get in the 80's by friday so this is here to make us appreciate what's to come....ahhh, who am i kidding...even with the sweet, the sour will always be hated.
i finally make it to my car - i consider this my cardio for the day - and i notice my front passenger tire is low, cooooooool. Well the thing with that is yes it is low, yes i made a comment to myself on the drive to work today that it was going to need air again, but i just filled it up with air a couple of days ago....and the thing about that is...it didn't start this problem of loosing air until i checked and filled my tires when i got gas two weeks ago...and it wasn't really low then...maybe down by a couple pounds....but ever since that air filling it's been leaking like a sieve...
i gave it a peek to see how low it was...it wasn't looking good at all...so i walked around my car and opened the backdoor, and then stood there, peering in...where's my air pump? No seriously, where's my- and then in some dramatic fashion my minds clears and the camera shot raises up from me looking down aerial view, flies south across the city, pauses at our apartment complex, duh, closer in on our apartment building, duh, zooms in on our apartment, duh, then the patio closer still, duh, and then freeze frame on the airpump as it sits next to gary's bike on the patio DUH DUH!
oh, and cue the rain to start pouring down at this point..
"Ahhhh, fuck my life..well", i said trying to salvage the moment, "let's see if she can make me to the nearest gas station" - the nearest gas station that may, MAY have an airpump is another mile down the road, and of course i am willing to risk it, when else is there for me to do...well, good thing i wasn't playing russian roulette, that's all i'll say...
i get out of the parking lot and it's not even to the corner i can hear thump thump thump thump...and no, i was not carpooling with a fucking rabbit...the car, lucille, is handling horribly so i know it's all over...i pull over at the nearest, an only spot i can, another parking lot...i coast into a spot and throw it in park. 'Gee i don't remember it being that low' as i turn the corner of my car to see smoke coming from all around what used to be a tire..and rim...
now, problem...if you all remember my plight of tire problems from December of last year, you'll remember i no longer have a spare....and for those of you just joining us, i blew my spare only moments after putting it on and getting back on the road back in mid-december..
so what to do...well, let's take the wheel off, i still have high hopes, hopes that i can still inflate the tire and put it back on, just checking it every day...i don't see any rips or holes..yet..so i'm good.....i try to hold an umbrella and jack up the car at the same time...kinda hard..the car goes up, wheel comes off......looks like we are on plan C...oh, we didn't have a Plan C..because we weren't planning on the inner-side of the wheel to be shredded like wheat, coool...
Gary was actually texting me while i was attempting to remove the tire, he tells me he is downtown working and to use his car to get my tire fixed, or a new one, or something....the time is a little after 6..which means a lot of places are gonna be closed by now...but i make my mark back towards downtown using the handy-dandy iphone to locate and call tire places...
i reach the car and drive it back down to my car to pick up the tire...but where to go..i still haven't found an open tire place, well one that didn't have the cheapest, new tire for under $140...ughhhh, i remember a time when i first owned lucille i couldn't spend under $200 a tire on her...imagine trying to by a set of tires and it costing you a grand...on a retail salary..that..that's like one week of working straight...that's horrible...but back then i was 19 and a workhorse and i could do it...now it would take me half the time, but i wouldn't want to...
so i sit and make more calls, not knowing in which direction to head off to because who knows what will happen...but 7pm is approaching, and anything that wasn't closed before will be shortly soon...
i get ahold of a place, they have a new tire but suggest their other location for a cheap, used tire...the man gives me the number...and in my overzealous, please dear god state, i write it down wrong...first try no go...second try no go...wait...did he say three zeros..es you see see eee es es, that's the way you spell success...well, at least the number..they carry the new tire, 120, but he's got to check in back for a used one...i'm on hold..this is really my last chance...i don't want to spend 120 on a tire for a car i plan on driving off a cliff in the next month, i don't have time (money) for that...
he comes back and tells me he's got two in stock, i almost pee myself...i ask him for his location, his exact address so i can plug it into my iphone for directions...then i ask him til what time is he open, 7pm...i called it...and the time currently, 654..the location, the southside..the time it would take to get there...13 minutes...i pleaded with him to stay open for me, he obliged if i could make it in ten minutes or so....
i drove that little cavalier as fast as i could...i was familiar with the area, but my iphone directions actually were accurate and came in handy for once..i pulled into the lot at 7:02, don't ask me how i did it, i just did...the man whom i spoke to was really polite and beyond courteous...the whole process took roughly seven minutes and i was out the door, well, not without me giving the guy a tip - hey, i come from a tipped industry, you better believe i'll tip others who do deserve it...
it was funny, as the guy rolled the wheel out to me i dug in my right pocket for some money, as i was doing so the guy of course started to turn it down..i pulled out what i thought to be the bill i put in there earlier, but it was not..it was just a single -"oh no, that's not right...that's not enough" and i started to jumble through my other pockets to find the correct bill - to which he was very pleased with...
so back to my car, taking my time on this drive - but you think the journey is over...ohh no, not quite yet...things can't go that smoothly...just as in movies and video games...the bad guy never dies just once...
so i return to Lucille, whom i left jacked up in the air while i was away, and attempt to put the tire back on...and here we go..here's the final battle.
sooo, another sidenote....my car pulls...i was told many a moon ago by someone who did my oil change that i needed to get, oh i don't remember, checked out/replaces/something...obviously i care...tie rod?
regardless i know what the problem is i just can't name it...so the deal with the car now is, the tire won't go on the mounts...it's not high enough....so i check the jack and it's almost at it's breaking point...it's as high as it can go...i need something else to raise the suspension/wheel part higher...now normally you wouldn't have to ever do this...but when you got a car like mine...you do...is this healthy, no...could it break off while i'm driving, yes....do i really care...see the first answer...
so i try to think of how to jack the suspension up...gary's car doesn't have a jack, the spare is too small to fit underneath...and i can only hold it for so long..so through some wicked macgyver like brilliance and manipulating i was able to lift up on the rotor and mounts while kicking the tire into place...it actually didn't take me that long...i had too much adrenaline on winning the race from earlier...
so with the tire back on and the lugnuts secured i was on my way home...it was 8pm...three hours later i would return home..what a day...
...it's kind of a trend..
tuesdays are supposed to be my good days, what happened?
it's a little after five o'clock and my training seminar downtown has just let out...the three ladies who are training with me have already bolted for the door, but i am slow to leave - the trainer had a ghost story to tell me, and you all know how i definitely have time for ghost stories. So after the anti-climatic story i headed on out to the streets of downtown...there's a slight sprinkle of rain coming down so i pop up my hood..there's also a chill in the air as the temperature has dropped to the lower forty's, making the rain, though slight, even worse...
but there's tomorrow to look forward to i think to myself as i scurry the sidewalk along my mile long hike to where i parked my car...the temperature is supposed to get in the 80's by friday so this is here to make us appreciate what's to come....ahhh, who am i kidding...even with the sweet, the sour will always be hated.
i finally make it to my car - i consider this my cardio for the day - and i notice my front passenger tire is low, cooooooool. Well the thing with that is yes it is low, yes i made a comment to myself on the drive to work today that it was going to need air again, but i just filled it up with air a couple of days ago....and the thing about that is...it didn't start this problem of loosing air until i checked and filled my tires when i got gas two weeks ago...and it wasn't really low then...maybe down by a couple pounds....but ever since that air filling it's been leaking like a sieve...
i gave it a peek to see how low it was...it wasn't looking good at all...so i walked around my car and opened the backdoor, and then stood there, peering in...where's my air pump? No seriously, where's my- and then in some dramatic fashion my minds clears and the camera shot raises up from me looking down aerial view, flies south across the city, pauses at our apartment complex, duh, closer in on our apartment building, duh, zooms in on our apartment, duh, then the patio closer still, duh, and then freeze frame on the airpump as it sits next to gary's bike on the patio DUH DUH!
oh, and cue the rain to start pouring down at this point..
"Ahhhh, fuck my life..well", i said trying to salvage the moment, "let's see if she can make me to the nearest gas station" - the nearest gas station that may, MAY have an airpump is another mile down the road, and of course i am willing to risk it, when else is there for me to do...well, good thing i wasn't playing russian roulette, that's all i'll say...
i get out of the parking lot and it's not even to the corner i can hear thump thump thump thump...and no, i was not carpooling with a fucking rabbit...the car, lucille, is handling horribly so i know it's all over...i pull over at the nearest, an only spot i can, another parking lot...i coast into a spot and throw it in park. 'Gee i don't remember it being that low' as i turn the corner of my car to see smoke coming from all around what used to be a tire..and rim...
now, problem...if you all remember my plight of tire problems from December of last year, you'll remember i no longer have a spare....and for those of you just joining us, i blew my spare only moments after putting it on and getting back on the road back in mid-december..
so what to do...well, let's take the wheel off, i still have high hopes, hopes that i can still inflate the tire and put it back on, just checking it every day...i don't see any rips or holes..yet..so i'm good.....i try to hold an umbrella and jack up the car at the same time...kinda hard..the car goes up, wheel comes off......looks like we are on plan C...oh, we didn't have a Plan C..because we weren't planning on the inner-side of the wheel to be shredded like wheat, coool...
Gary was actually texting me while i was attempting to remove the tire, he tells me he is downtown working and to use his car to get my tire fixed, or a new one, or something....the time is a little after 6..which means a lot of places are gonna be closed by now...but i make my mark back towards downtown using the handy-dandy iphone to locate and call tire places...
i reach the car and drive it back down to my car to pick up the tire...but where to go..i still haven't found an open tire place, well one that didn't have the cheapest, new tire for under $140...ughhhh, i remember a time when i first owned lucille i couldn't spend under $200 a tire on her...imagine trying to by a set of tires and it costing you a grand...on a retail salary..that..that's like one week of working straight...that's horrible...but back then i was 19 and a workhorse and i could do it...now it would take me half the time, but i wouldn't want to...
so i sit and make more calls, not knowing in which direction to head off to because who knows what will happen...but 7pm is approaching, and anything that wasn't closed before will be shortly soon...
i get ahold of a place, they have a new tire but suggest their other location for a cheap, used tire...the man gives me the number...and in my overzealous, please dear god state, i write it down wrong...first try no go...second try no go...wait...did he say three zeros..es you see see eee es es, that's the way you spell success...well, at least the number..they carry the new tire, 120, but he's got to check in back for a used one...i'm on hold..this is really my last chance...i don't want to spend 120 on a tire for a car i plan on driving off a cliff in the next month, i don't have time (money) for that...
he comes back and tells me he's got two in stock, i almost pee myself...i ask him for his location, his exact address so i can plug it into my iphone for directions...then i ask him til what time is he open, 7pm...i called it...and the time currently, 654..the location, the southside..the time it would take to get there...13 minutes...i pleaded with him to stay open for me, he obliged if i could make it in ten minutes or so....
i drove that little cavalier as fast as i could...i was familiar with the area, but my iphone directions actually were accurate and came in handy for once..i pulled into the lot at 7:02, don't ask me how i did it, i just did...the man whom i spoke to was really polite and beyond courteous...the whole process took roughly seven minutes and i was out the door, well, not without me giving the guy a tip - hey, i come from a tipped industry, you better believe i'll tip others who do deserve it...
it was funny, as the guy rolled the wheel out to me i dug in my right pocket for some money, as i was doing so the guy of course started to turn it down..i pulled out what i thought to be the bill i put in there earlier, but it was not..it was just a single -"oh no, that's not right...that's not enough" and i started to jumble through my other pockets to find the correct bill - to which he was very pleased with...
so back to my car, taking my time on this drive - but you think the journey is over...ohh no, not quite yet...things can't go that smoothly...just as in movies and video games...the bad guy never dies just once...
so i return to Lucille, whom i left jacked up in the air while i was away, and attempt to put the tire back on...and here we go..here's the final battle.
sooo, another sidenote....my car pulls...i was told many a moon ago by someone who did my oil change that i needed to get, oh i don't remember, checked out/replaces/something...obviously i care...tie rod?
regardless i know what the problem is i just can't name it...so the deal with the car now is, the tire won't go on the mounts...it's not high enough....so i check the jack and it's almost at it's breaking point...it's as high as it can go...i need something else to raise the suspension/wheel part higher...now normally you wouldn't have to ever do this...but when you got a car like mine...you do...is this healthy, no...could it break off while i'm driving, yes....do i really care...see the first answer...
so i try to think of how to jack the suspension up...gary's car doesn't have a jack, the spare is too small to fit underneath...and i can only hold it for so long..so through some wicked macgyver like brilliance and manipulating i was able to lift up on the rotor and mounts while kicking the tire into place...it actually didn't take me that long...i had too much adrenaline on winning the race from earlier...
so with the tire back on and the lugnuts secured i was on my way home...it was 8pm...three hours later i would return home..what a day...
"i guess it wouldn't be any more poetic to have something bad happen on my day of tues to make me blue"
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