Tires, Thieves, and Tea

European Café has excellent green tea. It makes me wonder what I’m turning into, really, because I never would have described any tea in the world as excellent six months ago. Credit two weeks of inundation on my trip to Tokyo for my change of heart, I guess. That and some reading up on all of the crazy health benefits of this stuff. Antioxidants, etc. If you know me well, you might know that I’m better at avoiding bad-for-you things than I am at going after good-for-you things. I do try to keep healthy, though, and reasonably active, so the health benefits of green tea are a draw for me.
I’m sitting in European Café (with ‘E-Pro’ by Beck playing in the background) because Tim is not at Goodyear until two, which is also the time they’ll be able to pull my car in. Here’s the story.
Some time over Saturday night, someone went into my car, which I am 99% sure was locked, and took some things, one of which was my car kit out of the trunk. You know, the black zippered thing you never actually use. Jumper cables, jack, probably a flare or two, a piece of junk flashlight. All of that stuff. Well, I don’t know if it was just coincidence or whether it was related or what, but on Sunday afternoon, I came out to see that my left rear tire (the stern port, or port stern, or port bow, or whatever it would be; somebody help me out here?) was flat. Yeah. Wack is right. I’d driven to church and back on it that morning, so I’m not sure how slowly it leaked, when it was punctured, etc. But because my jack had been –ahem- jacked (sorry), it was a bit of an ordeal putting on the spare. In the process, my roommate –and I blame nothing but his hulking strength; no hard feelings- sheared one of the bolts right off the, um, round metal thing. Rotor? So one of the lugs had a chunk of bolt in it. I went to Goodyear and got both of these things fixed yesterday. They patched the tire and put on a new bolt, and the manager, Tim, who I know from having served several times at Outback, gave me a good deal on the whole process. Tim is 100% quality. Very good guy.
Fast forward several hours. I went to dinner with a couple of my students after classes yesterday evening, and when I came out, my tire was flat again. To make a long story short, I ended up having a couple of friends help me with a jack after some phone calls, some waiting, and some fortunate turns of events. In the process, we discovered that the two lugs that Goodyear put on with their air ratchet thing were stripped out. So right now, I have three lugs on three of my wheels, instead of four, and hopefully I’ll be able to get the whole thing straightened out without paying any more money. We’ll see. The iPod’s gone, though, as are the CD’s. Boo.
Buffalo Wild Wings opened and is blowing minds left right and center.
I got to tell my students, and myself, “Welcome to October!” It’s such a nice time of the year. Changing leaves, cooler weather, hookups galore, lowest power bills of the year… Glorious. Also tells me that ski season is on the way.
It’s creeping in toward two o’ clock. My tea is now cold. The Beck CD is skipping. I get the message. Take care, and I’ll write to you again soon.