Tire Labor Day

look at this bliss. wasn't my labor day charmed? even angela martin would have to agree; a day at the beach with alyson, lindsey, kristen, the hadleys, andrew, randy, etc., a slightly sunburnt nose, polishing it off in aly's backyard jacuzi....

i'm all up in fervent admiration for the person who invented labor day, and by extension the american government for continuing to sanction it. otherwise instead of frolicking in the surf, i would have been sitting in an office inserting an IV of dark, sinful chocolate to numb the annoyance that is my current job.

however, before there was the beach and all the charm, there was indeed labor. labor of the acutest (not cutest) kind. via the adventure that came upon lindsey and i on this labor day, i found myself laying on my stomach on the 5 freeway. i'm pretty sure brother brigham never intended that for any daughter of zion. grease was slabbed about my hand. the horrors! the horrible horrors!! why the hell would i ever engage in such folly?

you know i'm about to tell you, because that's what i do on this blog.

lindsey and i were driving along, merging onto the 5 south to meet our friends in sleepy san clemente. i was, pretty ironically, mentioning that i needed my oil changed, and that lead me to reminisce about that time back in like, 1998 when my dad showed his children how to change oil and a tire, predicting such an unfortunate car malfunctioning situation should inevitably, one day, kick our bottoms. i just happened to be chuckling about the fact that i had never personally dealt with vehicular rubber OR oil, and so, all that useful instruction had quickly evaporated from my brain.

just then a mini-van honks wildly next to us. i think, "what? i'm not cutting you off, i'm not speeding. dude, what's yo beef?" he does the "roll down the weendow" sign, and once we roll he informs us that my black left tire is flat.

what. ? .

we pull off to the shoulder. thank HEAVEN lindsey has done all this before.

we get to work. in spite of the situation, i was kind of having a good time.

we were almost done, and then a copper pulls up behind us. he swaggers over, clearly planning on being something of a

to us helpless felines (although to be totally honest, if lindsey hadn't been there, he would have found me sitting on the gravel sobbing without my AAA services, and would have become a true officer hero). i think he was a bit disappointed to find it was almost finished, critiqued lindsey on something trivial, and then loosened some bolts for us, thereby absorbing some of the grease effect.

pretty soon we were donut-ed up and on our way to the ocean blue. i always knew this day would come, and i am pleased to say it happened when i had the crafty and wisened hands of a pal there to make the scion all better.