I've said for a long time that my life is interesting. I guess most of that is due to its complicatedness (word?). Yesterday is a good example:
My car tire had been slowly losing air over the past month. Since I didn't have the dough to fix it, I just let it go flat. Yesterday, I got some dough. So, I went out to my car to put on the donut, in hopes of simply dropping it off at a nearby tire place to get fixed. While kicking my tire iron to get the last lug nut off, I actually busted the stud in half.
Shit. $15 tire change turns into a major ordeal. First of all, I could only find 3 places that would fix it. The first place had a reasonable price, but couldn't get me in for 2 more days. The second place gave me an AMAZING quote, so I ran out the door to get there before they forgot about how AMAZING the quote was they just gave me. By the time I got there, they put it together that the AMAZING quote was just for fixing the flat. No stud included. Damn you.
I returned to my car to call the 3rd place. Kim Jong-il answered the phone (or at least the South Park equivalent). His quote was even better than the first guy's, so I drove straight over there. I didn't want to deal with it anymore, so I just gave him my keys and left. I ran downtown to meet Annie for lunch. When I got back 90 minutes later, everything was fixed. Plus, he charged me half what the second place quoted as a 'base price' (which we all know that's 1/2 what a mechanic will actually charge you).
So, a simple leaky tire turned into a day-long tribulation. At least that keeps things interesting.
I saw a few interesting things in Oakland throughout this whole thing. First of all, look up Michael Mischer Chocolates in Oakland. Zoom into it on Maps until you can see what's directly next door. Unfair, right? The street view helps, but it's hard to read the chocolate sign.
Similarly, you should check out street view at 1940 Broadway, in Oakland.
Undershirts have helped my nipples, but then I get too hot,
~RoB
Rob,
ReplyDeleteI've had to fix 2 broken/stripped lug studs so far on different cars. I will say this, whatever you paid, it was a good deal.
The first time I had to change it, I broke 2 wrenches and had to use a 4 foot long "cheater bar". The second time involved a torch and large hammer.