MR MIAGI AND A BROKEDOWN MELODY (2/2)

[tom traubert's blues by tom waits]

so apparently if you run over something in the road it has a chance to flatten both tires on the right side of your vehicle. luckily, it only flattened one of mine, and only made an impact bulge in the other. and then to add some icing to the proverbial cake, my spare tire apparatus under the backside of the van decided it was time to break. so at 6 pm on friday nite i would have been found laying under my van trying to figure out how to either 1) get the apparatus working or 2) get the spare tire off any way i could figure out.

the first hour was filled with wiggling, pulling, pushing, cursing, praying, and walking 2 blocks to the (as i was soon to find out, closed) bridgestone tires store. on the 2 block walk back from a shot-down dream i happened upon AUTO PARTS & SERVICE, hopefully looking into the store-front window for a sign of life. what i found was more so a sign of life than i expected.

as i knocked on the window and saw an asian gentelman not looking up, shaking his head "no". i noticed the refrigerator, the counter top, table & chairs, and what appeared to be a little family seemingly making dinner. so i walk down to the locked front door and try knocking again. as i wait the door cracks open... and that's when mr. miagi peeked his head out and asked if he could help me.

the next hour was spent trying to cut with wire cutters (not bolt cutters that i asked for but couldn't receive) the metal cord that held my spare tire dangling in a neverland of help, not low enough to get off -only inches from being able to allow me to drive out of town, as mr. miagi complained about how cold it was. after convincing me to drive with the flat back to his shop by offering the spare that he had on an identical chrysler t&c lxi; cranking down what should have been the spare only turned out to be thin air.

"whoops. i guess there no spare. sorry."

eventually we worked the tire low enough to get an air-powered tiny hand-held circular saw of sorts between the tire and the bottom of the van to cut the cord and free my spare.

not accepting any money, mr. miagi welcomed my thank you's and sent me on my way. 2 hours behind (not really much of) a schedule, i finally left denver and arrived in boulder in record time to meet ander and brain for a homemade alaskan moose meat and mashed potatoes dinner. and finished up the evening meeting the rest of the nite's crew over at robin's apartment for drinks and shots before going down to pearl street for more drinks and a long, much needed nite of dancing and letting loose.

so i'm sitting here in Big O' Tires in boulder, co waiting on what's grown from 2 new tires into a new air cooler compressor kit or something, new rear brakes and rotors, serpentine belt(& belts), and what-do-you-know, they'll throw in a new air filter for free, along with whatever else they can apparently think of that i undoubtedly feel like i need to insure i get back to wherever safely!

after all of this i totally forgot about having to think over whether or not to get a warranty on what would have been 2 seemingly inexpensive little tires. if i were still thinking about this decision my thought would be that lightening doesn't strike twice in the same place. i would say that at least that's what i've heard, but more importantly, that's what i believe.

so apparently this time "something you run over in the road" and being able to leave with "peace of mind" only costs upwards of 1000 dollars. kind of like the south park episode where kyle and cartman find out with magic johnson that the cure for AIDS is a vaccine of cash injected directly into the blood stream.

at least my breaks didn't lock up after having my air compressor (that runs everything with the engine) go out, after my serpentine belt breaks and having another flat tire all the while, and get stranded somewhere in the middle of the desert on my way to who-knows-what's-next... which as i check my roadtrip funds, is enough to drive back east to kentucky and hopefully sell my car:



the shark