So this weekend I flew to Houston and went to Number’s with a friend. I wore this black kung-fu lookin’ top that I bought in 2001. I got a compliment. From a guy. Oh well. I think I was agitated from a combination of the pending LONG car drive, the unexpected deaths of John Ritter and Johnny Cash, and the fact that my friend was undergoing their own personal crisis. Saturday was much better. I drove the Eclipse to the dealership, bought a new rim to replace the crappy rim some body shop put on my car in 2001. $900. Ouch. Drove to Shields Firestone off Jones and West Road to drop off my car for install of the new rim and a new tire. I used my scooter to get to the storage place where the DeLorean is stored. I figure they are 3 miles apart. That’s a long way to scoot and I was carrying my company bag filled with my papers and computer. Ouch. I drove the DeLorean to Wal-Mart on 1960 near 290 where it also got some tire loving. Full rotation and balance. I then did my 50 mile roundtrip and back. Parked back at the storage lot. Scooted BACK to the Mitsubishi place. Picked up my car and drove home and chilled out. I went out again with my friend and saw ”Matchstick Men” which I loved. I ate dinner at Miyako which was great as expected. I turned in at midnight. The next day my dad and neice came with me to lunch at Marco’s Mexican Cantina. We had the Mexicana Fajitas for Dos. The waitress was sort of goth and of course I got all flirty and tipped big. Mmmm. I like the goth girls. Okay, where was I? I packed up a lot of papers I intended to go over and got in the Eclipse and departed.


Then things got weird.


My first sign of trouble came when my car made an odd screeching sound for about 5 seconds not 5 minutes after I left. I thought nothing of it. I drove 300 miles and got gas. When I left, my belts where squeeking like crazy for the first couple of minutes. The Jersey Village Auto Shop that my car had been oil changed and inspected at had suggested that my timing belt get replaced. Coincidence? Conspiracy? My records seem to indicate this already happened this past March. I think. I may possibly be mis-reading the invoices I have. I’m not a car monkey. Did these guys loosen my belts to screw with me? What’s up with that? The Mitsubishi guy here said the timing belt needed replacing at 60K, although admitted that it probably wasn’t what was making the screeching sound. Blah. And the car is filthy dirty, so tack on some detail love after the screeching belts are silenced.


The second problem occurred 60 miles prior to Tuskaloosa, Alabama. I heard thumping. I pulled into a gas station and inspected the tires. Nothing. I drove a little more. More thumping. What the? I pull over again and re-inspect. Nothing. Everything looks fine. I get back on the road. I get three miles away and then BLAM! I see something black go flying from my car and behind me. The a-hole following too close behind me freaks out and swerves out of the way. I freak out and pull over onto the median. I get out and discover that the tread on half of the front right tire is completely missing. This is not the tire I replaced over the weekend, but it was practically brand new. An Alabama cop stops to help block my car while I put on the donut and pump it up to 50 psi. He spotted a police property tag that was still attached to the donut when he was handing it to me. Long story about that. He wasn’t too nosey and it wasn’t brought up. I called up the Shields Firestone in Houston and they gave me some numbers to call. I drove to Tuskaloose and the Firestone place there replaced my tire for absolutely free. It was a 4 hour wait, however. Pauses. They’re bad.


And to round out my story now that I’m speaking of pauses. The first night of my trip I stopped in Hattisfield, Mississippi and got a room at the Best Western. The next night I just stopped somewhere in Virginia off I-81 and slept for three hours at a Rest Stop. I got into Philly around 7:30 AM and stopped briefly to unload, take a shower, and drove on to work. Today I am feeling much better, but the aforementioned stress disorder is still around and annoying my brain. I am getting a ton of work done, however, so at least I’m not becoming agoraphobic. Woo hoo. It’s the little things that count.