Griffey and the Infiniti

Yesterday the SU and I spent the afternoon at the Mariners game. I finally got to see one of my childhood favorites play because Ken Griffey Jr was back in town with the Cincinnati Reds. Griffey was one of the guys that you tried to model your game after when you were playing little league. He would swing the bat like nobody else, steal bases, and make the fantastic catches too. He was an all around player when I was a kid. I was very excited to see the game and he didn’t disappoint. In his first at bat he hit a homer to left center and the crowd went mostly nuts. There were those fans that booed but the majority of the people were happy for Griffey. The next time up he drilled a pitch over the right field wall and bounced it off of a sign on the second deck. The crowd really went berserk when did that one. It was one of those that you knew it was gone as soon as it left the bat. We had a great time and we also witnessed a rarity in baseball. The Mariners managed to pull off a suicide squeeze to grab the lead in the 7th inning. I’ve never seen that work before in person. With his second homer, he managed to pass Mark McGwire on the all time home run list. Griffey also made a couple of spectacular catches in right field that were just down right jaw dropping. We had a great time and we’re hoping to go again soon.

This morning I went out and got in the car to go to work and as soon as I put the car in gear and started to move I knew something was wrong. I hopped out and discovered that my rear tire on the drivers side was completely flat. I backed up the car very slowly and put it back in the parking spot and proceeded to look for the tire changing equipment. Now, those of you who know me realize that this is a bad situation. I’ve been banned from changing tires on the Mazda because I dropped the Venture off of the jack when I attempted to change a flat tire. We don’t have roadside assistance any more and since we paid $200 for the Infiniti I decided that I was going to try and do it myself anyway. After I carefully studied the equipment and discovered the proper jack points I secured the car by putting it in park with the e-brake on. Then I used the blocks that came with the car and put them in front of the front wheels and proceeded to jack up the car. After struggling with the lug nuts I finally got them off. One of them was on so tight I didn’t think I was going to be able to get it off. The SU was outside supervising in case something happened and she was amazed at how hard it was to get it off. I managed to get the flat off without dropping the car off of the jack but I realized I didn’t jack the car up high enough to put the spare on so I had to jack it up some more. I finally got the spare on and tightened the lug nuts in a cross pattern (4 bolt lugs on this baby) and lowered the car off of the jack. I stood back in amazement and rejoiced that I actually changed a tire using the proper jacking point without damaging the car or hurting myself. After spending an hour and $85 dollars on a new tire at Discount Tire I was finally able to make my way into the office. It turns out that our tires are leaking air because the chrome is peeling and therefore pushing the rubber back and created the air leaks. We’ll eventually need to get new wheels for the Infiniti. Ebay/Craigslist here we come.

T-Minus 3 days till the move.