jamesq | Putting the Crap in Crappy Tire (Reply)

Today being a day off that's not my birthday (that would be tomorrow), I figured I'd get some chores out of the way. Car maintenance basically.

So I drive down to the local Canadian Tire to get:

new winter tires put onto my rims (the original tires both got shredded last year).
The two old and two new winter tires swapped out with the four that are on the car now.
A new battery, since my current battery has been deep discharged twice, shows nothing in the little indicator bubble, and was giving me shit whenever the temperature dipped to about -10C.

Problems occur when I discover they don't have any winter tires in my size.

"Ok, fine. Just swap the two winter tires I do have onto whichever axle it makes most sense for them to be on", I say. I might as well have two decent tires instead of none.
"We can't do that", they say, "Quebec passed a law mandating that winter tires must be swapped out in complete sets."
"I promise I won't drive to Quebec this winter."
"Doesn't matter, Canadian Tire made it their corporate policy."
"So you're telling me that you can't sell me two tires so that I can make a full set, and you won't put the two tires I do have onto the car. So I'm basically fucked."
"You could always swap out the tires yourself."

This leads to a discussion of how one does that, in case I decide I have greater mechanical aptitude then experience indicates. At a minimum, I'm going to want a better car jack then the one in my trunk. It also requires a level of confidence that I simply don't have for these sorts of things. That's why the kitchen faucet still leaks despite my having a new kitchen faucet (not installed, still in the box) and why I never installed the ten-or-so new electrical sockets in the basement that have needed doing for several years now (the old sockets are "loose", so plugs tend to fall out of them - not particularly dangerous, but annoying nonetheless)

I did see a book at Chapters I might pick up - basically an encyclopedia of home repairs, so I can at least try some of this stuff myself without diving in blind. Next pay cheque maybe.

On the bright side, I do have a new battery and they did it on the spot, so I have my car back and it should be OK provided I don't do anything bone-headed like leave my lights on. Now I have to start hunting around for winter tires. I'm tempted to simply buy a whole new set with two new rims and keep the two older winter tires as spares. Kind of expensive though. If I was smart, I'd check to see if one of the tires will fit in the spare tire well where the donut lives. Donut spares always bothered me because of the dire warning for their use: Don't go farther then 50K, don't drive faster then 50KpH, Don't even think about rough conditions. Tire is made out of soap bubbles and Christmas tree ornaments, so don't even blow on it when installing. This is of course, the thing they give you for emergencies. Is it any wonder I'd like a normal tire.

Fuck it, I'm going to wander downtown and grab some lunch in the east end and wander over to points west to do some Christmas browsing.