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Friday, May 01, 2009

That Sort of Day, Progressive, and FFI #122

It was one of those days.

I have a tendency to let things slide, waiting for a more opportune time to rectify the situation (also known as waiting until the last minute). I hate being forced to do something I have no control over. I rarely fill my gas tank before the needle hits "E", and then after driving around for just a little bit longer. Things like that.

I have known for awhile that I was in need of new front tires. They were going bald, traction in the snow wasn't good, but they were working fine. And I was certainly smart enough to get them taken care of before any sort of road trip. And if I blew a tire in town, I certainly know how to change a flat. So I could put it off a little bit longer. Until today.

I started off to work like every other morning, though a bit upset that it was still lightly snowing. In the time that I was stopped at a red light, to the time it turned green, I lost all the air in my tire. No bang, no pop, just flat. I pulled into a nearby parking lot, grabbed the little baby donut tire that passes as a spare these days, and pulled out the jack. That's where the day went downhill.

I bought my car, used, about 7 years ago. It's been a good car. And apparently, I've never had to change a tire, because I found a totally unusable jack. It was broken, bent, and missing over half of the mechanism! So I left it there, and had to walk the rest of the way to work.

In the snow.

After work, I was able to get a jack, put on the spare, and stuck the flat in the trunk. As you can see, the tread is gone (click it to big it!). All the tread that you see in the middle of the tire should also be over on the side. Right where it's worn down to the cord (the white) and the big hole in the middle of it. She just wore down. I high-tailed it to buy new tires, because the other front one was just as bad, and could have done the same thing to me at any moment.

I may procrastinate with the best of them, but you know what? The traction I'm getting now is great!!!
OK, I have to admit a bit of an obsession recently. I am totally enamored by the Progressive Insurance chick. Her name is Flo (as you can see on her tricked-out name tag). I'm not sure what it is about her, but I literally stop everything I might be doing whenever their commercials come on. I don't do that for the gecko. I don't do that for Burger King (I generally run to the bathroom during those). Is it the annoying perkiness? Too much make-up? I don't know. But I ran across this webpage from the entertainment section of the Austin newspaper. Apparently, I'm not the only one with this obsession. I was also thrilled to see a picture of the actress (complete with a real name!). Now that I've seen her, I KNOW I'm infatuated. Particularly for the old-timers around here--does she remind you of one of our favorite former HNTers???
Someone told me there's some sort of horse race going on this Saturday. Hope you all behave!

1. The first rule of working in an office and getting along is don't steal other's lunches.

2. You can't make the chowder if you don't have the clams.

3. When I think of carnivals I think of deep fried Twinkies.

4. The lilac is my favorite spring flower.

5. Things on my desk include 3 flat screen monitors, a tuba mouthpiece and beer mug, and that's my desk at work.

6. Too much beer makes me wanna pee.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to beers and gizzards with my high school friends, tomorrow my plans include maybe watching the aforementioned horse race and Sunday, I want to catch up on some projects!

Be sure to check out the other FFIers, and feel free to join in!

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