We start the day

First wine tasting room

Highlight from the first wine tasting room

Second wine tasting room

Highlight from the second wine tasting room

Third wine tasting room

Highlight from the wine tasting room

Lunch!

Fourth wine tasting room

So, yeah, Kris and I are here in Santa Barbara with Heather and Andy and his friends Alex and Kirsten (hi, Alex!), to spend the day hopping from wine-tasting room to wine-tasting room, all in the name of celebrating Andy's birthday. I know, I know, you're thinking "Andy Crews?" Normally, sure, but not today. That's a birthday camping dog extravaganza weekend (Want to come? You're invited!). No, today is Santa Barbara wine tasting.

But first, we need to leave the hotel.

And before we leave the hotel, we need to not get hit.

Kris, Heather and I are planning on spending the weekend in Santa Barbara. Heather has arranged a group wine tasting in celebration of Andy's birthday (that would be HER Andy's birthday, note the tag, we're going with Chenoweth here, not Crews).

We managed to drive all the way to Morgan Hill before disaster struck, where disaster is a minor bump in the road. Well, bump if bump is a bots dot and minor if a flat tire is minor.

Kris was just changing lanes from lane two to lane one when the rumble over two bots dots was particularly loud. "What was that?" I asked.

"I just changed lanes," Kris answered.

"Is it a flat tire?"

"No, just the bots dots."

We listened.

"Uh, that's flapping. That's a flat tire. Pull over."

"Oh. Yeah."

When all of this was happening, none of us thought to look out the window to see where we were. It was 8:15 at night, we were on 101 heading south. We had passed Morgan Hill. Great. That's all we knew when Kris commented, "Time to call Triple A."

"No it's not. Your membership isn't any good," I answered, fumbling with the console between us. "They cashed our check, then denied your membership, and we have no way to prove it because Netbank went under and f---ing took seven years of our banking data with them."

Kris looked at me aghast.

"Time for Audi Roadside Assistance!" I called out, triumphantly pulling out the card I had placed in the car just last week, finding it on one of my organizational crusades.

After a few minutes, the fifth or so question I was asked by the Audi operator was "Do you have a spare?" Well, crap. Did I?

Yes! And it was a full spare, no less! And it was full! Yay!

Five minutes after hanging up with the operator, we received a call back: the car service guy would be at our vehicle in 40 minutes. "That's too long!" Heather cried out. "Let's change the tire ourselves!"

Out of the car we tumbled out, hair and jackets whipping around in the cold wind blowing along the freeway, tousling everything. Heather found the jack and wrench from the back, handing them to Kris as she pulled the spare out of the back. After a few moments, Kris handed the jack to me, asking me out to work it, the mechanism's leverage point not immediately apparent. I cranked it, told him how to place the jack, then hopped back out the car, car manual in hand, to show him where to place the jack, then putting the jack where it needed to go.

Kris cranked up the car as I ran back into the car to get my camera. Only after I had taken a few pictures did I realize his folly, and told him to drop the car back down. "Why? I just lifted it."

"Because you can't loosen the lug nuts with the tire spinning."

"Oh."

Down went the car. Off went the lug nut covers (the car has lug nut covers? What kind of car has lug nut covers?). Loose went the nuts (after some heavy duty stopping in the left direction) and back up went the car.

You know, physics is great. With the proper leverage, even a scrawny woman can lift a car.

Part way though this escapade, our surroundings lit up. A police office had pulled up behind us, shining his lights on the car. He hopped out of his car, and stood behind us, flashlight shining down on the tire. His car lights helping much more than his flashlight did.

I would have helped Kris and Heather more, but I was too busy either taking pictures or talking to the car service guy, who called 30 minutes into the ordeal, after we had already changed the tire. I hopped back out of the car in time to roll the flat tire back to the back of the car and drop it back in the spare well, but not soon enough to let Kris know that when tightening lug nuts (or, as in the case I learned with: clutch plates), you want to tighten in a star pattern, and not around in a circle.

The police officer let us know that the Kris-arm tightening was sufficient, that we didn't need to jump on the lug nuts to tighten them, and that I needed to check the alignment of the car, as the tire wore then blew on the insides of the tire, indicating poor alignment. Great.

My thoughts were, huh, this flat tire wasn't so bad. I had fears of a disastrous tire blow like you see in the movies. "That's crazy, Kitt!" you think, "You're retarded." Maybe. But talk to my brother's ex before you say that, and ask about the Honda rolling after a blowout ("That's one [flip]. That's two. I wonder when I die. That's three."). Then ask me not to worry.

Heather's thoughts were, "HEY! New life experience! That wasn't so bad!" She had never changed a tire before, and was worried about it. She was happy the car had a good manual, as well as all the tools for changing the tire.

Kris commented it was the first tire he had changed, too, which surprised me. I hadn't expected to be the only person in the car who had changed a flat tire before.

When we arrived at the hotel, at 1:30 in the morning, much later than we had originally planned to arrive, Kris wandered into the hotel room, and wandered back out as I was walking in the door. "Huh, well, that's a new one," he commented, looking up at the canopy bed. "I've never slept in a canopy bed before."

"Another new life experience?"

I think I heard, "Yeah," through the toothbrush in his mouth.

I think I'll save the new life experience of "sex in a canopy bed" for tomorrow.

... but maybe someone else can help me, too.

In high school, I had a friend to whom I was quite mean.

We were friends for a long while, in a few classes together, spent time after school. She wasn't in my main circle of friends, but she was still a friend, one of the few people who were.

One day, I decided (and no, I have absolutely no idea why I decided this, how I decided this, or what I was thinking at the time) that I didn't want to be her friend any more. There was no gradual loss of interest. There was no particular incident that I recall that triggered this decision. I just decided I was done.

And that was it.

I didn't say much to her after that. I didn't avoid her, but I stopped approaching her to talk, stopped the usual friendship offerings of give and take, stopped talking with her. She was quite understandably confused. One day, I'm her friend. The next day, I'm not. I, and just about anyone else on the planet, would have been just as confused.

I wish I could explain why I made that decision, but I can't. It was the right decision at the time. I just don't know why, it just was.

Thankfully, I haven't been mean to anyone like that since. Now days, I wish I hadn't been so mean then. There are a lot of things I wish I had done differently in high school, that's just one of those many things. Megan and I talked about another incident from high school that I regretted. She laughed with me at the stupidity of that moment, and let me know that, you know, we like to think of ourselves as mature at that age, but we're really still just kids, and we don't always know right from wrong, or are able to do what's right.

Megan is a lot more forgiving of me that I am of me. I should take lessons from Megan.

So, back to this high school friend I was mean to.

She contacted me the modern way: via Facebook. I could have said myspace there, but hey, no myspace. Which is sad, my brother is on myspace, and it would be nice to be in his "social network."

So, this high school friend I was mean to.

Help me out here, Paul. Do I respond to her facebook post?

It's been a really long time since I've pulled an all-nighter. I really hope I don't regret this tomorrow. Kris rightly pointed out that I can nap tomorrow, if I need to, though I'll probably miss yoga if I do.

One of my new years resolutions has been to make sure I keep commitments I've made This particular commitment was completed at 3:35 AM, and I am tired.

Might be too tired to sleep.