I had put off going to the grocery store until I had no choice. I only go every two weeks anyway. I headed out after church this afternoon, anticipating high crowds due to the Super Bowl game this evening. I wanted to have new tires on my car so I thought I should be able to do both at the same time. I didn’t realize that getting tires would be so complicated. First, I only needed two. The back ones were fine but the front left one was bald (hmmm, potential alignment problems?!) and the front right didn’t look so hot either. Okay, so then came the size. The size on my existing tires didn’t match the size on the door panel. Uh-oh. Apparently the people who had my Durango before wanted something a bit bigger. That would explain why my speedometer is off! Then there was the question of lifetime warranty. A quick call to Ken confirmed that was a nay. Then the guy asked me something about the white-walls showing on the exterior or the interior. Huh? Just put the darn tires on the car! I don’t care what’s showing as long as I’m safe driving my family around!! They gave me an estimate of 2 1/2 hours to put them on. Okay, whatever, I was doing the grocery shopping anyway so I handed over my keys, got my claim tag, and headed inside for a cart.
I was about half-way ’round when I got a page to come back to Automotive. Seems the guy quoted me for tires that weren’t recommended for my vehicle and they needed approval to change to another one before going on. At least the price was the same. Sure, just get me my tires so I can go home! I left home at about 1:30pm and got home at 3:45pm, way later than my usual shopping time. I would say that was the crowds, not necessarily the tires. I HAD planned on calling Ken to come pick me and the groceries up and then come back and get the car. Oh well, at least he didn’t need to go out. So, I was out $270 for groceries and $245 for two tires. Apparently my SUV has expensive-size tires. That’s an expensive shopping afternoon at Wal*Mart. Next up will be an alignment but I think I may go somewhere else for that!
