i just happened to glance at my tire today on the way to lunch and something shiny caught my eye. not shiny like a pretty penny, not shiny like a diamond ring, not shiny like the ever-so-hard-to-find wii fit. no. shiny like, why-is-my-tired-shiny shiny?

so upon further inspection, i see that there’s a nail lodged in my tire. it’s deep in the groove of one of the treads near the sidewall. i was a little worried that it wouldn’t be able to get patched. i drove to the local gas station to see if it can be patched.

me: do you fix nails in tires?
owner: yeah. pull up over there.

(after i pull up, the owner looks at the nail for a good while, examining it from different angles. at one point, she touches the nail and then she comes back to me.)

owner: yeah, we can fix it. $10. cash only.
me: sure, ok.

(cash only? this must be one of those things that don’t get recorded on the books. it doesn’t cost them much, a kit to fix nails must be pretty cheap and the repair takes less than 10 minutes.)

so the tire is patched up and they even check the pressure in my tires. a little shady with the whole cash only thing, but still well worth it. the last time i went to get a nail fixed at some tire shop, they wanted $20 for it. i balked at how much they wanted AND they wanted me to leave the car there for several hours while they fix it. ridiculous, if you ask me. i’ve found my new place for fixing flats.