Taiya ga panku shita

For those of you who don't know Japanese, or a little bit of it like I do, that means "A tire went flat." That is an understatement. I was on my way to work tonight, a whole three block drive, but it was raining, so I decided to wuss out and use the car. As I was turning my last turn, I heard a wet thump noise, and my front left corner continued with a thump-thump noise as I drove the last 100 yards. I had just inflated my tires to the correct amount over the weekend, so I knew that it wasn't that. I parked and went in to work, intending to change it afterwards at around 3am. Work came and went, it was kind of busy, but not as busy as it was back last year. Brad "Herc" gave me a hand with the tire. I get the donut and the jack, along with three other weird bits of metal, out of the trunk of my car, the baby 93 Eagle Talon. I jack it up, but must have moved it fractionally as I lifted it up, because as soon as he tried to loosen the first lug nut, the jack tipped. Crap. So, he loosens 4 of the lug nuts, forgets the 5th even though I ask him (hey, he's only human, we all make mistakes) and I jack it up again. This time we get them all off and try to pull the tire off. No dice there, either. It is really jammed on, and we are afraid to kick it in case there is a center bolt holding it and because the jack might fall again. I call AAA. The guys helping me say "Why didn't you do that in the first place?!" to which my response is, "I honestly thought that we could get this done ourselves." The towing guy shows up and replaces my jack with a sturdy-as-hell Monster Jack and proceeds to kick the crap out of my tire. I think "Oh, great, this is what I pay for AAA for. Some guy walloping my tire!" But even as those thoughts form in my mind, the cranky tire falls off and he puts the temporary donut on. Moral of the post today, kiddies: Call AAA when something happens, and, if all else fails, kick it.

Of Easter Eggs and Eating...

Man, oh, man. Easter weekend hurt me badly. To say that I ate too much would be a vast understatement. I ate too much for a high school football team. Let me explain: I ate dinner over at my papa's (grandfather's) house first at around 4 in the afternoon. We had ham, macaroni salad, baked beans, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes - - the works. Then, at 6, I was eating another meal over at my fiancee's parent's house where we had two pot roasts, mashed potatoes, green beans, homemade bread, Mexican rice, and macaroni and cheese. For dessert, we had Jell-O. Thankfully it was Jell-O because I would not have been able to handle it if it were anything else. You know the saying, "There's always room for Jell-O." Well, there almost wasn't room for it this time. I also jumped off a 10 foot high balcony when I was bored. Christina didn't like that, and I feel kinda bad for doing it now, because she was worried that I got hurt. I don't want to make her feel like that. It was fun, though.