This weekend was a whirlwind of family and friend gatherings and getting nothing done. I did manage to get new tires on the Jeep and get the cargo rack up on the roof. After a good cleaning tonight, we’ll start loading her up.

I always feel like I’m getting ripped off when buying tires. This time, they told me they were going to have to cut off one of the lugnut bolts because it was rusted on and they couldn’t remove it. The best part is that they were going to send me driving away with four lugnuts on that tire since they said they couldn’t fix it there. I don’t know about you, but that just doesn’t seem safe. They seemed a little too eager to start hacking away at my poor Jeep and send me away crippled with nothing more than a, “you should be fine,” and a slap on the back. Fortunately, one of them must have turned the compressor up to eleven and they managed to get all their nuts off.

In doing so, they also sold me an entirely new set of lugnuts, saying that some were US and some were metric, and all were shit. I no longer put up an argument because I was elated that they didn’t saw off relatively important parts of my car. Perhaps I should have researched, but $45 for shiny new lugnuts seemed like a good idea at the time.

And when I say Jeep, it’s purely out of habit. It’s technically a Jeep Grand Cherokee, but the thing looks more like a minivan. I used to fight it and argue that it was still cool, but I’ve since accepted the fact. I hope my minivan makes it to California.