People are always dying to hear Gary stories. For those of you who don't know, Gary is my father. For a man of so few words, there are so many words that can be used to describe him (some of them inappropriate to share publicly) and he plays the staring role in some of the funniest stories I have to share.
Last week my father very generously allowed me to borrow his truck to drive to Tahoe. I recently purchased a new SUV myself, however felt it was unnecessary to spend $2,000 extra dollars on four wheel drive. Essentially I have an SUV that can not be used as an SUV. I digress. So last Thursday morning I woke up at 6am and drove down to San Jose before work ... dropped off my dog, traded cars, and went back to SF for work. Fun! When I got there to pick up the car he let's me know that I need to make sure to check the oil (he apparently has not had time to do so) as it may need more. Fine ... I can handle that. However, around 1pm my loving and wonderful father called me to let me know that he forgot to tell me that there was a nail in one of the tires ... he got it there about 2 months ago ... he couldn't remember which one, but I should probably have it fixed before I drive to Tahoe. Several things run through my head here.
- Dad, what have you been doing for the past two months? My father is partially retired. He starts his day with golden tee - has lunch around noon with friends - naps at 3 - and then waits for my mother to come home and make him dinner. How is that he didn't have the time to fix the tire?
- Where in the heck am I going to go to get a tire fixed after work in San Francisco? I am leaving at 7am the next morning ... I still need to go to costco, cost plus, trader joes and stop by KC's all before 7:30pm.
The drive up to Tahoe is painless. We exit the 89 and are so excited to have a cold glass of beer with our lunch that we have been talking about for the last hour of the drive. Then I run over a rock. I'd like to call it a small boulder. An exclamation point on the dash lights up and so does the front right tire on the dash. Great! So we stop at the gas station, fill up ... argue with the cashier on whether or not my car is a truck or an SUV ... and then have the now flat tire looked at.
The tire is toast. Rock punctured the side wall (I have no idea what this means) and it can not be replaced. I asked them if we could order another. They tell me yes ... but it will take several days, maybe a week. They tell me that these are high performance tires and they are not kept stocked in many places. Think back to my father's daily routine ... does he really need the damn high performance tires. NO. Willow Glen is not that rough! He likes them because they are shiny. He is 64 and he is rolling on dubs. It's ridiculous. People in Tahoe move and think very slow. They weren't offering me any solutions. If you know me, you can imagine how happy I was at the progress we were making. I can't even put the spare on the tire because the spare is smaller than the tires and it will throw off the alignment of the car. So my father has a spare that is useless. Excellent. Allison, Allie and I have to go to an auto parts store (after we add air to the tire for the 4th time) buy some sort of glue, and apply it. Allison gladly accepted this chore.
Brady was in Sacramento at about this time. His car of boys called around places in Sacramento and was fortunately able to find a tire that they can pick up and bring to me. Phew! That night, Brady wanted to put the spare on the car so that we could drive it back to the gas station in the morning. It took approximately 6 guys and 45 minutes outside in the snow to determine that they could not take the lug nuts off of these high performance tires. So we decide we'll just call AAA in the morning.
AAA is called. When they get there the driver laughs. There is nothing he can do with this car and it's high performance tires either. Wonderful! They have a policy not to tow cars with these tires. If we wanted it towed TWO miles, it would cost $160.00. WHAT?! He could, however, put air in the tire and follow us to the gas station ... which in the end worked. We stood in 32 degree weather for 30 minutes as they changed the tire and all was well again.
24 hours and $250 later the car was ready to go. When I tell all this to my father and let him know how difficult his tires are to fix he simply replies "Well, maybe you shouldn't have run over the rock."
I leave you with those wise words of advice.
