Let Us Now Praise Not-Very-Famous Dudes at the Car Place Across the Street From My Office, Who Saved My Life Two Nights Ago

messages from friends
always turn out so gloomy
at this time of year

Diane pops her head into the office to say my front tire is flat. Like REALLY flat. I peer out the window into the darkness but it doesn't look so bad. Turns out she was talking about the other tire, which is just wasted. I knew my tires were bad but this is ridiculous.

Against everyone's counsel I drive the 100 feet across the street to the car place across from my office, and ask if I can get some air for my tire. They kind of laugh but are appalled: my tire has come completely off the rim. When dude #2 looks at the other side he says I'm down to the steel belt. Ouch. Manager guy helps dude #1, in the zero-degree Wisconsin weather, to put on my spare, all free of charge; just wants me to keep my business there. Man, forever!

Drive home on the donut, talk about it with my wife, head out to Tires Plus, where the guy looks at my back wheels too and says "You're driving on skis." Double, or should I say quadruple, ouch. All you people who are not getting Christmas presents this year: this post is for you.

I give the guy my cell number and walk through a frozen wasteland of a parking lot (at least there's no snow on the ground, we've gotten less than 1 inch this whole winter so far, lucky but wait until January) to the warm confines of Circuit City. This has the best Latin Music section of anyplace in the city, I am happy to spend an hour here. I don't have much cash, and have to decide whether or not to invest any of it in a clandestine purchase of weird obscure Mexican regional CDs, decide not to but now I have a whole lot of stuff to look up on the Internet.

Three hundred and some bucks later, I drive home and my car seems all BOUNCY! I feel bad for not giving the car place across the street any tire business, but that's the way love goes. I'll call the manager today and thank him again profusely. I know he was just doing his job but he did it in a very mensch-y way. And now I am not afraid to turn corners anymore, which is also a plus.

all these trivial
interactions in the cold:
that is December