The Other Thing About Cars

Today we went out to the Car, intending to Drive down to our new apartment to sign a lease. As we approached the car, Cook said "Oh God" in a resigned voice, and after I stared at it a while ("What? Is that not the right car? Was it STOLEN?! Is there a broken window? Did someone dent it? Is it trapped in that parking place? What?") I realized that it was listing limply to one side - the tire was totally flat. As we have not owned a car in nearly 10 years, our collective tire-changing experience is um... minimal. I had no idea even how to begin to proceed. Happily, Cook somehow tapped into the primal Man Force and had the thing jacked up and the tire off before I could call the closest tire place ("Hi! Our tire broke!") and print out the instructions I found on the internet. So that all turned out remarkably well, thanks to Cook and his Man Force (and the fact that the spare was miraculously not flat), and then we drove very slowly and grimly to the tire place (anticipating having to pay a bundle for a new tire, and hoping the spare tire wouldn't fall off en route), where they gave us coffee and a warm place to sit and read about Britney Spears while they very quickly patched the tire for free. The company had done the installation of the tires in the first place, and apparently that includes free future fixing - we were awfully impressed. After we got back in the car, Cook and I spontaneously conducted the kind of conversation you see on local TV commercials - "Gosh, that was fast! And they did it for free! And they were so nice!" "Yeah, and they gave me this coffee, too! We love you, Les Schwab!"

This experience reminded us about the dark side of car-ownership (besides the whole plundering-the-planet thing) - maintenance! Unexpected expenses! Reading about Britney Spears!