I had a tire blow out on me two weekends ago. Unfortuantely, it happened while I was going uphill, so I had to keep driving along on the rim until I got to a level place. By the time this happened, it was ruined beyound salvation. My initial thought was filled with expletives, thinking it was going to cost me a prtty penny to fix this one. Then I thought about how much worse it could have been if I was on the interstate. You see, as soon as my front two tires hit the on-ramp, I become an entirely different driver. The foot drops, I surge forward, and you hear the sonic boom as I break the sound barrier.

I started calling around on Monday to get estimates. I was praying that when I showed up to have them take a look at the rim, they would say it could be repaired. Sure, I knew better, but my bank account and I were hoping. Negative, ghostwriter. Your flyby is denied. The pattern is full. I was told in no uncertain terms by three different shops that I needed a new rim. I called the dealership where I got my car in August, but they've changed from Mistubishi to Hyundai. The suggested I call the new Mitsubishi dealer down the road. The guy who I spoke with in their parts department made the customer service reps at my cable company look like MENSA candidates. He also wanted $275 for a new rim.

I decided to try salvage yards. I knew this might be a stretch since the car is an '06, but I figured it couldn't hurt. The guys at Weaver's Auto found me a rim, said it would be in in two days and they would only charge me $150. Hell yeah. Fast forward two days: I go to pick it up, open the box, and notice a glaring difference. The current rims on my car? 10 spokes, 5 lugs. This one? 5 spokes, 6 lugs. Not the same rim. Not even the same lug configuration, I couldn't make it fit if I wanted to. Jeff at Weaver's called the guy he got it from, who continued to insist that he had sent the right part, that there was only one type of rim that came on '06 Galants. Jeff, who is a nice guy until you piss him off, informed the guy that he was standing right beside my car, and he was pretty damn sure he could count, and then said some other things I won't repeat.

So, it's now been five days that I've been cruising around on this donut of a spare tire. The dealership, in addition to wanting twice as much as Weaver's, can't get a rim in for 3 days. Weaver's can't find another one, so I've had to resort to eBay. I found the right one, and with shipping added, it was $130, so I'm saving money. The problem is, it's coming from AZ, which is a 4 day shipping route for UPS. I had absolutely no idea that this could turn into such a long drawn out ordeal.

However, and I know I've been a long time coming to the point here, is that during my search online I gave my email address to a company that promised to do the searching for me and only charge a slight commission if they found the right part. Apparently, they sent out an email blast with my car info and email address to every damn salvage yard in the known universe. These people have continued to send me emails about parts for cars that I don't even own since last Tuesday.

Then, today I started getting emails with Harlem Globetrotters fan club information. I'm assuming that these two are related, because I'm pretty careful about giving out my email address. The sad part is, I'm kind of excited about getting these emails. Hopefully "Sweet Lou" Dunbar and the rest of them will show up in SC soon, whistling Sweet Georgia Brown. I would pay a decent bit of money to see them play.

Little know Globetrotters fact: Pope John Paul II was mad an honorary Globetrotter in 2000.