Treading Lightly

Two weeks ago I, um, kind of biffed one of the tires on our car. I didn't exactly see part of the curb as I was pulling in, and, well, you can probably see where this is going. Anyway, I hit the curb, got out to check things, and found a nice little bulge in the sidewall of the front passenger tire. No big deal, really, but not something I wanted to drive on during my half-hour commute (I once drove for weeks on a tire on which the tread was hanging on by a couple pieces of hair-thin rubber). Thankfully, we had a warranty on it, so $9 later our little black Corolla, "William," was nicely outfitted with a brand-new rubber sole.

Trouble was, it turned out that the other three tires were nearing the end of their round little lives. So today I took him in to get new kicks on the rest of his little 14-inch rims. Even though the bill was higher than I was expecting, it's nice to know we're all set for a few years of tooling around town in our little car.

I also started watching Band of Brothers again. I tried watching this series many years ago, but only made it through the first disc or two--not because it was boring or poorly-realized, but I think I stopped out of sheer apathy. And in the meantime I have, off and on, been meaning to give it another go. So this morning I started up again, and so far it's pretty good. I appreciate how much time it's taking to get things rolling, in fact. It bodes well for the rest of the tale, knowing that the filmmakers will have the freedom to really explore the relationships between the characters, and how they change throughout the course of Easy Company's time in World War II Europe. I know plenty of guys who say it's the definitive World War II chronicle, so here's hoping it can hold its own next to Saving Private Ryan.