Why it's illegal to shoot your offspring...
Jeremy's car is still unregistered. He's been working on it - slowly but surely - but it needs some work to pass the required smog check. It also goes through front tires at an alarming rate, due to some damage to one of the front tie-rods.
Whenever he goes to school, it's almost 50/50 that he'll get a ticket for having lapsed registration. So, last Thursday and today, he drove up to my work, left me his car, and took my car. There's no chance of getting a ticket at my work.
So, I'm on my way home, on surface streets since the car is patently unsafe at freeway speeds. I get stopped by the Gold Line on Mission St. in So. Pasadena - a long wait for two trains. The ride is noticeably bumpy after I start off, so I pull over to check it out.
Sure enough, the left front tire is flat. I pop the trunk, and of course find that the spare is also flat. (Apparently he'd changed it a few weeks back.) Jeremy's on his way to school again, so I'm left to call AAA for a tow.
While I'm waiting I had a nice chat with Karen, who called me about her computer. (Jeremy was supposed to reload the OS, but I told Justin to do it after Jeremy 'forgot' too often.) The driver arrived in only 20 minutes or so, and did a professional job. Normally you hate the tow truck drive - you're already tweaked because you need a tow, and the driver invariably wants to talk about something you're either not interested in or abhor. But my driver was very pleasant. We talked about his towing station, the procedures they use, driver training, etc.
He scraped up the driveway when he pulled out, but otherwise the towing experience was painless. I'm glad I choose not to own a firearm, though.