I was up early with James this morning, intending to replace my right rear tire. The tread is getting scant and there is a slight external slit in the rubber right near one part of the tread.

We have been going to the Napa Service Center on Powder Springs Road for years, since they were West Cobb Tire, and I have gotten my last few tires or sets of tires from them. They were really nice to me when my mom was dying, actually coming to the house and fetching the car and then bringing it back because I couldn't leave the house, and they do good work, so I always go there first. But today they told me they only had five tires in stock and not the size for a PT Cruiser, so they would have to order them and I'd have to come back.

So I went down to my old standby, Merlin's, the place we got James' tire and battery at short notice a few months ago. I must have had "rube" written on my face this morning, because the guy—John Clark, who used to own the franchise, doesn't seem to be there anymore—behind the counter told me that the only tire they had was an 80,000-mile tire and it was $126 before the installation and the balancing and it was warrantied for the life of the car only if I followed the rotation schedule precisely. Um. I don't think so.

So I went back to the Napa place and told them to order the tires and made an appointment for next Thursday which I'd planned to take off anyway because James has it off. The guy said he would look for the best deal for me and call me back on my cell phone. So I went to Wally World to top off the groceries and get yogurt (back to 50¢ again, I see) and bananas and all the other weekly necessities, and was at BJs getting gas when he called back with prices on 50,000-mile tires, including Dunlops like I have on the front, which is what I got (I always get tires in pairs; the Dunlops are newest, with still good treads, and those can go in the back and they can have the bad tire and the not-so-bad tire in the rear to recycle).

Got Mandarin oranges and (God help me) milk at BJs, then came home, where I shoved everything in the fridge and ran out to Food Depot for sugar-free ice-cream bars before it got any warmer (and since it was 11:45 and already 77°F...). Got a get-well card for my branch chief in Dollar General next door before getting the bars and dashed home again to shove them in the freezer.

Now I slept really badly last night and my plan was to dub Seems Like Old Times, recorded off TCM a week or so back, on DVD. I could start this and go take a nap for an hour and a half. But when I came in the house the television was on and the satellite box was off. I turned it back on and it was fine, but...why was it off? Then when I started to play Seems Like Old Times the thing started jerking in the middle of the credits and then completely locked up the box and reset it.

::glare::

It came back up, but the movie still didn't play worth a damn, so I erased it. The box shut itself off last week, too.

Which explains why, instead of taking a nap, I am trying to get as many What's My Line? episodes left off the disk, in case the idiot thing is preparing to go belly-up. I had thought about doing this, but James likes to watch them, too, and To Tell the Truth, but if you think I'm going to lose them you have another thing coming. I would rather watch these reruns than all but a handful of stuff on television right now, and GSN has quit showing them, thinking we'd rather watch more boring Richard Dawson slobbering all over Family Feud guests, Millionaire, and ::snore:: poker games.

The one I am watching right now is interesting as one of the guests is a woman who is a television cameraman. Evidently, from the conversation, this was not only a rarity at this time (I think this is around 1960), but it appears it was against union rules! John Charles Daly explained that she worked at a very small television station in Virginia, and also that she only worked part time at night (during the day she was employed at a missile plant!).

(Later: I haven't erased them...just stopped them at To Tell The Truth...there's been one with Arlene Dahl promoting one of my favorite films, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and one with Maureen O'Hara...we'll have to show it to Rusty...soooo sleepy...that damn DVR better not mess up Captain Sindbad—I haven't seen it in years...and I do mean "years"...back when it was shown on Off to See the Wizard in 1967...)

Labels: cars, chores, errands, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 12:59:00 PM

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