Last night whilst navigating the mean streets of Clevia on my way back to my room at the YMCA Rehab Centre I heard this noise coming from the rear of the carriage. Whump whump whump whump... That's odd, no? Very odd indeed.

I pulled over into a vacant parking lot and walked around to the back of the car to try to find where the whump was coming from. Alas! I saw nothing out of the ordinary however it was quite dark and frankly I don't have X-Ray vision so it's not like I could look at the hydromatic transaxle U-joint or anything.

Thusly whump did whump I whunmp just whump continue whump to whump drive whump the whump old whump carriage whump back whump home, figuring whump I whump would whump deal whump with whump it whump in whump the whump daylight whump this whump morning whump. Whump.

Imagine my emotions this morning when I gazed at my carraige from across the parking lot and noticed she seemed to be listing a bit to the right. That's odd, no?

Well, to make a long story short the rear tyre was flat. Flat as the proverbial pancake. Thusly did I open up my trunk and take half the crap out of it (umbrellas and blankets and footballs and various tools) and dig the spare and the jack out and take to the task at hand. Namely, jacking that mother up and cramming the spare tyre on it. When I got the old flat tyre off I found a giant friggin bolt stuck through it, which is where the whump was coming from and which was the downfall of my once proud tyre. Where the giant bolt came from I have no idea but I do know that much like the US Navy when they went up against the iRaqii Navy in the Battle of Midway, it was a force to be reckoned with.

Feh.

I drove the carriage, gingerly, as the spare is one of those donut spare things which didn't seem to be fully inflated anyways, to Smedglers Tyre Emporium on West 7th Street, as my pal Walt Deerfield goes there and he claims those blokes will set you straight with regards to your tyre problems. Sure enough, 28 minutes and 145,398 kopecks later I was back on the road and headed into McMurphey's International Widget Emporium LLC with two new tyres and the peace of mind that goes along with them! All praise the hard working guys at the tyre shop!

YEAR END B.A.D.^tm WRAP UP!!

Right. For those of you who need the Bob Abooey Book Club in order to figure out what to read I have the final list of books read in 2007 updated. Feel free to share this list with your family and friends so they know what books to read also. Otherwise - other than that one time back in June when I came out of a blackout in a tattoo parlor in Bangkok at 2:30 in the morning with a shaved head and a I "heart" Mandy tattoo on my shapely arse not much really happened in 07, I'm hoping for a more exciting 08 fer shur.

Right - I'll be having a grilled chicken salad for lunch - be sure to update your records.