Christmas Tires

My wife bought me tires for Christmas.

They weren't ultra fancy-- you know, like the kind with spinning rims or the kind that can't get flat because they are made completely of rubber without any air in them. Nothing like that. They're just tires.

Except that after they had been installed by the service guys, I could tell a noticeable difference in how the car handled. The steering wheel didn't vibrate like it used to. It was completely still. When I applied the breaks, the whole car used to shake. Not after New Tires. And my wife asked me if they were quiet. I told her they were, but I didn't *really* notice how quiet they were until I took them out on the highway and noticed the silence! Unbelievable! The radio was only turned up half way rather than all the way. It was really amazing!

I asked the service folks if I could keep my old tires. My wife had been talking about making something out of all the tire scraps on the highway, and I though I could help her by bringing home my old tires. I knew that my old tires were bald, but what I didn't know was that the steel belt was exposed and porcupine-ing along one of the tires.

I really didn't realize just how bad things had gotten until they had been fixed. I'm so glad that they were able to get fixed rather than stay the way they were. I wasn't in any real hurry to get new tires, especially with our family's financial situation being the way it is. But to see that tire with the steel spines coming through the rubber really affected me and made me realize just how lucky I was to get the new tires before something serious had happened.

So the moral for today, kids, is: don't do drugs. Unless you know your dealer, in which case it's fine.