Just a Little Tire-d this week...
This week, I got my car inspected and I made some zucchini bread.
It's a good thing I had my whole Saturday free. Usually, getting my car inspected is a simple affair: I go to the nearest inspection station early-ish in the morning, which is about 5 minutes from my place. I generally wait about half an hour, pay the guys the $40 or so it costs for both a safety and emissions inspection (I needed both this time) and I'm good for another year because I believe in routine vehicle maintenance and I have a good mechanic. (Sadly, he's not authorized to do safety and emissions inspections or else I'd get it done there.)
Well, this year my car decided it wanted two new tires. Now. Not in 4 months like I'd hoped so I'd have really new tires for the winter.
Ugh.
They said I had 15 days to do it and come back to get the "sticker of SHAME!!!" taken off my car and a nice shiny valid inspection sticker attached instead. The nearest good tire place is a few miles up the road. I took this as a challenge and was determined to take care of everything all at once in one day. The inspection station closes at 2pm (though as long as you're in line by then they will still do your inspection.)
Okay, I can do this.
I got to the tire place and there was a line. Uh oh. My turn came, I handed them the keys and headed off for a coffee, eventually returning and watching old Tarzan movies on the TV (since that's what was showing... they really couldn't make a movie like that these days.)
Three hours later I had two brand new rear tires and a corrected alignment, which I didn't realize I even needed, but I can't remember the last time I had one done (probably when I bought those tires almost... 3 years ago) and one of my tires was REALLY off-kilter, so it's probably a good thing. The discount coupon I found online on my phone when I was waiting didn't make much of a dent in the final total, but it did cancel-out the sales tax.
But it still cost me $350 I really could have used elsewhere. :-(
I made it back to the testing station at 1:55pm and got in line. The inspector remembered me from the morning and almost seemed impressed that I had managed to pull it off in one day. The new tires were acceptable and good, and I went on my way.
I'm glad it's over, and honestly, it's a financial hit I can absorb, though it hurt a bit and cost me a trip to a sci-fi con at the end of July, since that's what I was going to use that money for. Oh well. Not much I can do about that. *shrug*
As for the zucchini bread, I didn't think to take pictures before it got eaten by all my cow-orkers. It went over well, though. I'm only really mentioning it here because I learned how to spell "zucchini" a few years back and I'm showing off. :-P
Here's a link to the recipe I used, in case you want some for yourself: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/zucchini_bread/ It takes a LOT less time than the recipe indicates to cook, though.
tl;dr: The inspection took longer than inspected, and I can correctly spell oddly-named vegetables.
This entry was originally posted at http://something-for-thursday.dreamwidth.org/5148.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
It's a good thing I had my whole Saturday free. Usually, getting my car inspected is a simple affair: I go to the nearest inspection station early-ish in the morning, which is about 5 minutes from my place. I generally wait about half an hour, pay the guys the $40 or so it costs for both a safety and emissions inspection (I needed both this time) and I'm good for another year because I believe in routine vehicle maintenance and I have a good mechanic. (Sadly, he's not authorized to do safety and emissions inspections or else I'd get it done there.)
Well, this year my car decided it wanted two new tires. Now. Not in 4 months like I'd hoped so I'd have really new tires for the winter.
Ugh.
They said I had 15 days to do it and come back to get the "sticker of SHAME!!!" taken off my car and a nice shiny valid inspection sticker attached instead. The nearest good tire place is a few miles up the road. I took this as a challenge and was determined to take care of everything all at once in one day. The inspection station closes at 2pm (though as long as you're in line by then they will still do your inspection.)
Okay, I can do this.
I got to the tire place and there was a line. Uh oh. My turn came, I handed them the keys and headed off for a coffee, eventually returning and watching old Tarzan movies on the TV (since that's what was showing... they really couldn't make a movie like that these days.)
Three hours later I had two brand new rear tires and a corrected alignment, which I didn't realize I even needed, but I can't remember the last time I had one done (probably when I bought those tires almost... 3 years ago) and one of my tires was REALLY off-kilter, so it's probably a good thing. The discount coupon I found online on my phone when I was waiting didn't make much of a dent in the final total, but it did cancel-out the sales tax.
But it still cost me $350 I really could have used elsewhere. :-(
I made it back to the testing station at 1:55pm and got in line. The inspector remembered me from the morning and almost seemed impressed that I had managed to pull it off in one day. The new tires were acceptable and good, and I went on my way.
I'm glad it's over, and honestly, it's a financial hit I can absorb, though it hurt a bit and cost me a trip to a sci-fi con at the end of July, since that's what I was going to use that money for. Oh well. Not much I can do about that. *shrug*
As for the zucchini bread, I didn't think to take pictures before it got eaten by all my cow-orkers. It went over well, though. I'm only really mentioning it here because I learned how to spell "zucchini" a few years back and I'm showing off. :-P
Here's a link to the recipe I used, in case you want some for yourself: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/zucchini_bread/ It takes a LOT less time than the recipe indicates to cook, though.
tl;dr: The inspection took longer than inspected, and I can correctly spell oddly-named vegetables.
This entry was originally posted at http://something-for-thursday.dreamwidth.org/5148.html. Please comment there using OpenID.