Tales of a 99 warrior

Fresno was 102 yesterday, Merced was in the middle to high 90.

Against this backdrop I hit the 99 to get the lift mounted on the back of the expedition. Sue had been gifted a power Jazzy wheel chair for people up to 400 pounds. Sue is no where near that.. but to make the gift useful we spent 2900 to buy the lift to move it around the world.

While 99 is nowhere near as exciting as 101. It is a major North South route through the valley to the Sacramento or San Francisco,

The lift company needed the lift and the chair at the same time. This means that I had to go rent a bike trailer from Uhaul and pick up the chair. Take it first to Turlock (about 30miles a way) then go back, turn the trailer back in and then take the Expedition itself back to Turlock to have it modified. The appointment was at 9 AM.

At 8:15.

Three miles north of town on 99 headed North, I had a blowout on the back left tire of the expedition. 99 is too rough a place to change it. So I used my AAA card to have the Expedition towed to Costco. I only waited 20 minutes under the bridge.The tow truck came I was towed back to the Merced Costco. They didn't open until 10. When they opened they put the spare on and said that they did not have tires to fit it.. 17 inch rims. But Turlock had 14. This meant that I was 12 o'clock before I reached Turlock. They took the chair apart and realized that I had to have the batteries replaced in the chair and they had to fabricated a new "dog bone that would fit under the seat to secure it.

They had both the chair and the car at 2 pm. They worked three hours to get it all done. Their little shop was located way out off S. Tegner near a Kozy Shak factory. These are folks that bring you that pudding and tapioca in the tub.

There was no place of entertainment around.It was a bring your own literature spot with a couple of folding chairs in a 10x10 office that had the only air in the entire area. Luckily I was listening to the new Susan Brashears (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants fame) The Last Summer of You and Me Its a very interesting listen. All about a couple of sisters of very different personalities gown up to 21 years old on an island beach community of the Hamptons. My girls have always wanted to go to the Hamptons. All they got growing up to their chagrin was the cold water beaches of California.

They got it all done at 5 and I started thinking about heading to LA on Sunday with no spare tire. I headed over to the Costco and they said that they had some 17 tires but they did not come with the mileage warrenty that the ones I had on came with. I told the to saddle me up with 4 new ones. It would take about an hour and 45. Sure.. I would wonder around Costco. I called mom and dad on the cell. We had a nice conversation. The tire man hunted me down in Costco The High Cost of Free Parking and said that he really didn't think that I needed new tires after all. Their was 50 percent of the tread still on the tire (actually 60) and that he could replace the damaged tire at that proration and I would be good to go after the others were examined and rotated. I said sure. Upon examination of another tire, he noted there were 5 nails in it and 3 had worked all the way through. He said that it wasn't worth his time to repair all of those so he prorated that tire too to a new one. Two new Michelines for $145. Sweet.

They had a little trouble putting the spare tire up under the car with the lift there so I took the chair off and lowered the lift. I thought they may need to have the swing feature enacted, I started to swing the whole lift to the side. He said he could get to it without. I forgot to snap it back in place and and it was dragging ass to the side as I pulled out... so everything had to be unloaded and and reformed and then put back in place.. no damage done.

I was home at 8:30. Pretty exhausted.