vovat | I Had Trouble in Getting to Newport News

Since it had been a while since I'd seen my grandmother in Virginia,

bethje and I decided to go down there this weekend, since I had both Saturday and Sunday off. On the way down, I ended up with a flat tire, probably due to rough roads. I'm pretty much helpless when it comes to things like that, and since it was Saturday nothing seemed to be open anyway. I tried using that Fix-A-Flat stuff, which they had at the gas station where we were stuck, but even though it was just a little hole it didn't appear to do anything. I called roadside assistance so they could put my spare tire on. It's not even changing the tire that I'm concerned about so much as putting the jack in the right place. I really should learn, though. My spare is one of those tiny ones (Beth calls it a doughnut), so I couldn't drive on it for long. The roadside assistance guy suggested a nearby Walmart, but they didn't have my size tires. Neither did another Walmart or a Firestone place. According to the guy at Firestone, they're pretty rare tires, which I certainly didn't know before. I guess next time I buy a car, I'll have to ask how common the tires are. It turned out that the only nearby place we could find that was open and had the right kind of tire was a used tire place, and I don't know that I totally trust the tire he put on. Last time I bought a used tire (this was for my first car), I was later told that it was rotten. Still, better than nothing, or driving 300 miles on the spare. It took us ten hours to make what should have been between a six- and seven-hour drive. My mom was down there for her high school reunion (it's bizarre she goes to those; I certainly never plan to), so we went out to eat at Cheddar's, which was pretty good. They don't have those up here, you know. On Sunday, after getting the tire replaced, we drove back and went to Shoney's for dinner. That's another place we don't have up here, but it wasn't that great, although I am always excited when the salad bar has fruit. Small pleasures, I suppose. I remember going to Shoney's quite a bit when on trips down south as a kid. They had these little comics for kids featuring a character named Shoney Bear. All in all, the trip was a rather harrowing experience, but at least we got to see this weird soda machine at the tire place.

According to a Facebook friend in South Carolina, a lot of small businesses in the South have those. Oh, and toward the end of the trip back, Beth decided to read me some Missed Connections on Craigslist. These people DO realize that the girl who smiled at them on the subway isn't necessarily interested in a relationship, right? More than that, however, the whole idea of asking out strangers is just so bizarre to me. Also, if you're thirty-two and totally desperate to get married, even to someone you don't really know, then you don't get to say you have "no drama." And by the way, that's not a Missed Connection.