Buying Tires

As in everything I do, it couldn't be easy.

Saturday morning since I was down a kid, I decided we would get up early and head over to Discount Tires to get a new set of wheels. Gunner told me what kind to get, and the general population agreed. We head over there, and Rick at Discount Tires tells me that they don't have those in stock, but they can have them within an hour from the warehouse. Sounds good. I pay a whopping $864 and give Rick my cell phone number to call while we walk across the parking lot to wander around the one store that was open--Home Depot. Rick assures me that once the tires are there, that it won't take very long to get them mounted and put my spare back, etc.

With Junior in the stroller, Abs and I set off for Home Depot. We walked around the entire floor. We checked out tile samples, carpet samples, and Junior ate a mickey mouse paint card. We looked at flowers..

Then Abs met the Maytag repair man...

It was still early and no phone call, so we wandered around Staples. Still no phone call so we waited outside for Ross to open up. Wandered around there for a while and still no response. By this time we are getting close to an hour and 45 minutes of waiting. We head back over, get there, and our car has not moved. I waited and tried to entertain Junior. (Abs was a dream) Finally the manager noticed that my car had not been worked on when he came back from his lunch. He eventually got it pulled back there and they started work. By this time Junior is screaming. Customers are moving away from us, but only one man glared at me. I finally gave up trying to get Junior to stop screaming, it was hopeless. I moved closer to the counter thinking they would get tired of the screaming. Once we moved up there, they started hopping around trying to find my car, getting us water, etc. Finally our car was done.

I went to the car, put Junior and Abs in, and started to load up the stroller and diaper bag. I checked the trunk for the star key that opens my rims, and it wasn't there. I stopped someone who said he would go find it. Then I notice that part of my spare is not put on (you have to go through the trunk to unscrew it, but it's under the trunk if that makes any sense). So when tire guy comes back with the star key, I ask him what the extra part is for, and he says he will fix it. So he's trying to get my car back together, the manager is helping, and I am stewing in the car because Junior is still screaming and we have been there for three hours. Finally the manager comes over and apologizes profusely for taking so long, for not putting my car in the queue where it should have been, for not putting it back together correctly, for not calling (later found out that tire guy left a message at the house), the list went on and on. He then slipped me $100 and told me to have a nice dinner on the store. I think I'll put it towards my new tires.