An email was sent out to the whole building Wednesday that stated a white car with a handicap permit hanging from the rear view mirror, not a company vehicle, parked in the main lot first row, had a flat tire.

Gee whiz, I wonder who owns that car? As I walked towards the front of the building, it seemed everyone I passed said, "Hey Tom, did you know you have a flat tire?" or "Is that your car with the rear right flat?" In a place where a couple hundred people work that gets old fast.

Now I have just 30,000 miles on the car, and not a bit of tread has worn off at all. I decided to take my lunch time and hunt down a tire shop nearby. Our auto shop guys drove down and refilled the tire and it seemed to hold air, so I drove off and found a tire place a few miles away.

A half hour to patch it they said, but of course I ran head on into the 7th law of thermodynamics. You know the one that states "Any tire purchased or used will never be replaced under warranty regardless of any circunstances because, if two thermodynamic systems (tire, rim) are each in thermal equilibrium with a third (Road), then all warrantees are thermodynamically voided immediately." Yep, there was a puncture in the sidewall, which is a tire repair guys way of saying, "Kiss my ass, sucker!" So I bought a new tire, One of those Korean Porno named tires Kum-Ho.

I spent $57.99 for the tire, $3.00 for a tire valve, $2.99 for a wheel balance, $8.00 for wheel balance labor (!), $12.00 for a road hazard warranty, $2.00 for scrap tire disposal, $.90 for shop matierials, $1.16 for AZ waste tire fee, $5.00 for a city luxury tax (I'm thinking owning a car with tires, even a cheap one is considered luxury), a "Green city" carbon tax of $2.45, and last but not least, sales tax of $5.26.

My road hazard warranty also comes under the 7th law because invariably tires covered by Road Hazard warranties wear out and have no tread when they go flat so you're S.O.L.

When I was young, There were Firestone tires, B.F. Goodrich, Goodyear, Dunlops and Pirellis for foriegn cars, and Michelin for the best Sears tires. Now we have Kum-Ho, Hankook ( I think you would be a kook to use your hand when there's a Kum-ho available! Sorry, I couldn't resist.), Nankang (sounds like a rape to me), Nitto, Yokohoma, Sumitomo and Toyo among others. Go figure.....

Amy took the rats to a Christmas / snow night the city puts on. A woman came up to herand asked her to make a charity event donation. She did, $5.00, and as soon as she got home they called to say she won the kid's bicycle prize, so the rats have a bike to share now.

They piled up like 10 tons of snow there so children can see what snow is. Cause you know we have so much snow here. Maybe at the North pole, in July, They turn the heater way up to 90, then turn on a really bright sun lamp, and celebrate Summer!

We are enjoying our "Balmy" weather, no less than 40 at night and in the 60's during the day, which sounds quite Balmy to many of you as you freeze your A** off in snow storms etc.

Curiouoso* is freezing in sympathy with you. In fact, I might just go jump in the 50 dgree pool just to see what cold is!