And Now A Word From Our Sponsor

If anyone among you living in the lower 48 states needs a tire for your car, get thee to Venburg Tire on highway 61 in Maplewood. I'm serious. I brought in the tire that has been flat twice now thinking it was ruined, but Paul at Venburg looked at it and said that it might be able to be fixed, but he wouldn't know until they had a look on the inside. Sure enough, when I called later in the day, he said they had reinforced the first patch job and fixed another hole. Total cost $13. This is the same outfit I brought the car to a few years ago because of a vibrating sound coming from the front wheels. I was thinking it was old worn out tires, and I told Paul I thought I needed at new set. He looked at them, felt around, stood up and said, "No you don't." He just made a lifelong customer. What I needed was front bearings. I've gone there with crappy cars saying I need tires that are appropriate for this piece of junk, and they never tried to sell me up on something I didn't need. Why didn't I go there in the first place with my flat tire? They moved. At first, when I couldn't find them, I thought they might have gone out of business. "What a stinkin' shame," I thought to myself, "The last honest business in America bit the dust." (Except for Northern Test Equipment of course) Fortunately for me, and for you, they moved across highway 61 to brand new shiny digs, except for the big 80's vintage console t.v. in the waiting area. They brought that over from the old shop. This new place is a fitting reward for doing right by their customers. Now if I wake up tomorrow morning and the tire is flat again, you can forget everything I just said.

The Other (Younger) Half's brother Kent (Improved - now with hair!) stopped by from China this evening. It's always fun to have either of her brothers and their families come and visit. Lots of laughs. Sadly, he left the rest of his family in Shanghai this time. We'll catch up with them when they are all back this summer. KyKy is lucky enough to be leaving on Saturday to go stay with them for two weeks. That's part of the reason Kent is back in town - he'll be escorting her back there. I don't know what that says about me, Kent comes all the way back from China to get KyKy safely to her destination. I, on the other hand, cannot be pulled away from Maplewood to be with her on a Metro Transit bus ride. In any case, make sure you bug KyKy about blogging her trip, right here on Whaddup With Us, your first source for news of the Stocking family.