This morning, I got up and drove Tobias to get his wheels realigned and oil changed. He's developed a nasty habit of pulling to the left, and since he had his 30000th birthmile last weekend, I decided it was waaaay past time to get him his first wheel realignment. (One is normally supposed to do it about every 7500 miles or so, so it would be correct to say I have been grossly negligent with regard to that matter.)

I drove into Stan's at approximately 0900 and checked Tobias in for service. Why Stan's instead of the random chain shop down the street? Because everyone I've ever known who has gone there says that they are not only honest mechanics, but also highly competent, locally owned, and a generally classy operation.

They offered to give me a ride somewhere if I needed it. Since there was nowhere in particular that I needed to be, I declined. (I suppose I could have asked for a ride back to one of these apartments, but I spend enough time aronud here already.) I figured it might just be fun to spend some time just wandering around on foot.

The guy declined to give me even a wild guess rough estimate as to how long it would take, since they had several cars to do, and potential unknown factors with any of them (not to mention mine) could hugely affect the time it would take to finish. He said they would call me when it's done, or if anything requiring my attention comes up.

Armed with my backpack, and wearing my hiking boots, I took off in an easterly direction down South Boulder Road. I thought I might visit the new Albertson's that, had to my surprise, had just opened on the corner of South Boulder and 287. (It's been a while since that area was my regular stomping ground. Things have changed.)

On the way, I idly wandered by a bus stop and examined the schedule, expecting to see the latest info for route 227, which I once rode on a daily basis. I was amused to discover that although the route follows essentially the same path, it has been renamed with the cheesy title "The Dash".

Seconds later, a bus pulled up next to me and stopped. I hadn't really been planning to ride, but I thought what the hell. Who wants to spend all day at Wal Mart and the surrounding Wal Mart protectorate territories anyway? Pearl Street is much more fun. So I jumped aboard.

The rate was somewhat shocking. $1.15. Back when I used to ride it long ago, I remember being mildly annoyed when it rose from 60 to 75 cents. Oh well. If RTD likes to exceed the rate of inflation by several multiples, so be it. I paid the fare, and rode the happy bus into Boulder.

My epic journey to Pearl Street was a success. (Not to be confused with Python Street, where snakes are likely to jump out of the sidewalk and bite you in the knee.) I pulled out my trusty Panasonic cd player (pushing 6 years now, and sounding better than ever), and wanderd to the sound of American Life.

I was shocked and disgusted to find that the old music store on the corner of 14th and Pearl was... gone!?! Originally known as Rocky Mountain Records and Tapes (even though they mostly carried cds), it had later been renamed Wherehouse Music. It was a place where I spent many an afternoon of my adolescence expanding my budding music collection.

My first clue was the lack of gigantic billboard-sized mulals depicting various album covers on the east wall of the building, which had remained a trademark of the place even after the name change. It was now blank.

When I rounded the corner to look in the window, my eyes were not prepared for the horror I was about to witness. Standing in place of shelves once inhabited by thousands of cds both new and used, there hung rack after rack of bland, dull, generically styled women's clothing. Somebody turned the old record store into a Gap wannabe clone. As if there aren't already enough of those. I thought, "Whoever is responsible for this ought to be murdered."

(I had known the Wherehouse Music down on 28th was going out of business, but I didn't realize other outlets in the chain were also affected.)

I couldn't stand to look at it. I walked away, and did my best to enjoy the ambience of Pearl Street sans my old record store.

After a trip up and down the main mall, I headed eastward. There is something incredibly liberating about being out in the sunshine in the middle of a beautiful city, with nothing but a backpack full of cds and a few dollars in cash for lunch, and all day to waste wandering around, No specific objective required.

I walked relentlessly to the east on Pears Street, out past Foothills, while Regenerator's War played in my ears.

On the way back, I stopped at Circut City to check their price on the new Buffy Season 4 pack. $45.99. I opted to go ahead and buy it. Recalling my experience with Season 3, I knew that if Best Buy was going to beat that, it wasn't going to be by much. (I've noticed the price inching upward ever so gradually with each season. Interesting.)

While there, I also bagged Forces of Nature from the $9.99 discount rack (excellent movie, if my memory serves), and Evanescence's Fallen. I know, I know, every station in town has been playing Bring Me To Life on an hourly basis. But I love the sound of that band.

As I presented my recently updated happy bank account depletion card at the checkout, I thought to myself, "I really ought to start curtailing my entertainment spending. It's getting out of hand lately. Tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow."

Outside, I realized I had a voice mail from Stan's. I immediately called back.

Bad news. One of my front tires was totally worn through to the wheel. (Or something like that.) It would need replacement before an alignment could be properly performed at all. So the guy asked me if it would be ok to put in a set of 2 new front tires?

(When I said something like, "huh?", he calmly explained that if one front or rear tire is replaced, the other should also be done at the same time. As if explaining to a 2-year-old that one cannot insert an AGP card into a PCI slot. Duh.)

I asked what a new pair of tires would run. He took a minute to look it up, and returned with a quote.

"Alrighty then." I okayed the operation. What else could I really do? That'll teach me to put off routine maintenance on my car.

I wandered back the mall area, ate a yummy lunch at Illegal Pete's, and hung out listening to the awesome fusion of sound that is Evanescence.

Took The Dash back to the Lafayette Wal Mart stop. I intentionally overshot my mark so I could have more time to walk.

When I arrived at Stan's Tires at 1500, I peeked into the garage window and saw somebody sticking what looked like a drill into the wheel of a tire-less Tobias.

Hung out in the Stan's lounge, drank free soda, and played my gameboy while I waited. And waited. And waited.

At 1630, an explanation was forthcoming. They took me back to see a brief demonstration. One of Tobias's rear wheels was mounted on a spinning device with a tire attached. The tire appeared to wobble from side to side, even though the wheel was mounted straight onto the axle. Explanation: The wheel itself was bent, and so it was impossible to align. Tobias will require a new rear wheel.

How did it get this way? Though I can't say for certain, I think I have a strong suspicion. That'll teach me to get in a fender bender and forego a checkup afterwards because, in my expert assessment, "Everything looks ok and I can still drive around just fine."

So then they gave me the scoop: The front is all good now. The tires have been replaced with nice new ones, and the wheels there are aligned. The rear cannot be aligned until I get a good wheel. They will get a quote for me on the price of a wheel tomorrow morning. For now, they put it all back together, bum wheel and all, and I can drive it around. After they get the quote on the rear wheel, if I decide to buy it and have them put it in, they'll do the rear alignment with no additional labor charge when the new wheel goes in. He doesn't expect it to be horribly expensive.

As I drove Tobias home, the ride already felt much smoother. Almost like new again, except the steering was slightly off, which I attribute to the rear wheel problem. Hopefully, that will be all better soon.

In the meantime, there's a chunk of change out of my bank account.

Now I've rambled longer than I planned. I'm going to go see about the status of the Kohan meeting that was called by Yanthor. Peace out.