Once upon a time, I used to be the sort of girl who'd happily get covered in mud and grease in order to change my flat tire. It wouldn't have even occurred to me to ask for help. I've taught at least two guys how to change a tire.

But, I live in Los Gatos now. There's a law, somewhere, that disallows women to partake in this sort of manual labor. I'm completely sure of it. Maybe it was because I had such a lovely experience with AAA the very day before, when I ran out of gas on 101 in East Palo Alto with the gauge still reading a quarter of a tank remaining. Or maybe because I didn't have a jack, or any real tools in the car, other than a mobile phone. Maybe I've just gotten really lazy.

But, I did it. I called AAA to come bail me out. After about an hour, a nice man with an overgrown blonde mullet arrived and swapped out my bum tire. As he was screwing in the spare, I picked up the old tire to put it back in my car.

"Oh, no! Don't do that! Let me do that." he said, clearly worried. "You'll get *dirt* on your hands!"

"It's OK," I told him. "A little tire grease really won't hurt me. I'm not one of those 'dry-clean only' Los Gatos girls."

Note to self: find a new town...
posted by Lorna Brown at 2:44 PM

Doooom!
Doom doom doom doom doom doom
De doom doom doom
De Doom de doom doom
Doom doom doom!
Doomy doom doom!
Doomy doomy doom!

posted by Lorna Brown at 9:06 PM