ARRRRGH!!!!!

I should count my blessings that H. noticed the low tire and the metal shard today, early enough to get the car to the tire place and the truck to her for work, but I'm still frustrated. I'm left without, but once I get home at least I'll have a bike. Assumed it could be plugged, but it turns out the nail went in through the tread, bent, and came out the side wall. They can't patch/plug it. Naturally the place (where I've bought all my tires (practically every year - damn Mazda) from) doesn't have my tire in stock, nor at any of their other local stores, so I'm told there "should" be one on the truck coming in tomorrow. "should"? I politely informed them that I have plans to leave town tomorrow and that "should" wasn't going to settle me, especially when I still have several hours to try to track down a damn Mazda tire (love the cars, hate their stock tire choices as NO one ever has them in stock and the cars eat through them, zoom zoom) from some other local dealers to get brought over and installed. I walked over to confirm, they said yes and promised the car by 11:30am tomorrow. We'll see if that happens. Another $150 bucks down the drain. Damn Mazda - Z rated low profile, stupid wide, barely 10,000 mile tires. Argh! They are only 4 months old too... dammit!

So catastrophe averted. Plans rearranged. Some hoops jumped through. Some sacrifices made, but we should be able to get out near planned time tomorrow. What a pain in the ass, but again, I should count my blessings. Better now than on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere Iowa or along the interstate in nowhere Illinois. Normally it'd be no big deal, we could swap to another vehicle, only there is only one other option and it is requiring service to repair a compressor. The other option is a cramped rear seat $150 per tank Diesel truck that would almost triple our fuel bill. The other attendee doesn't have a vehicle that would work. Frustrating, but I feel oh so much better venting.

Note to self: befriend friends with nicer vehicles. So who's driving me to Kanza? :-)