I was fortunate enough to be able to spend Christmas with my Mom and the rest of my family again this year, although they live two states away from me. Traveling home to Nashville last Sunday night (December 28, 2008), my right rear tire blew out.
If this hasn’t happened to you yet, then you are really lucky. If it has happened to you, then you understand just how scary it is. I had no doubt in my mind what had occurred, even though it had never happened to me before. The car was hard to control and I could feel that end riding the rim.
I did what you aren’t supposed to do – I drove just a little bit further on it. I know, I know… But it was already dark and I thought I would prefer to buy a new rim than to be stuck in the dark on the side of I-65. It might not have been the right decision, but it’s what worked for me in the moment.
The other deciding factor in driving just a little further was that I was already at the Fieldstown Road exit in Birmingham, an exit I have used numerous times for travel breaks, meals, etc. I knew there was a gas station right off the exit, so I pulled into the Chevron and went inside to see if they could recommend a place to get a new tire.
They reminded me that there was a Wal-Mart just around the corner and suggested I drive there. Having already driven further than I should have, I decided it best to get a tow there. I was already someplace I felt relatively safe, so there was no need to chance further damage to the rim or face the hazard of driving a car that is hard to control.
I phoned Wal-Mart’s Auto Service department and asked if they could dispatch someone or if they had a tow service. The fellow who answered the phone said they had actually closed at 5 PM that evening (by now it was almost 6 PM) and I asked if he could recommend someone else that could do it. He put me on hold and Steve came back on the line to tell me they were going to reopen just to put a tire on for me and he also gave me the number to a tow service they liked.
I called the tow service, Hurst Towing & Recovery, and they dispatched someone pretty quickly. Chief showed up and took charge immediately, hooking my little Honda Civic up on the back of his truck and toting both it and me off to Wal-Mart. When I tried to tip him, he flatly refused, wishing me a Merry Christmas and telling me he was glad I was safe. I thanked him profusely before he left.
Then I met with Steve, the Auto Service manager at Wal-Mart who had been kind enough to reopen and wait for me. I made sure he had what he needed from me to get started and then begged to be pointed to their restroom (I hadn’t been in 250 miles by then).
Steve and his employee, Randy, worked hard to get a new tire on the car for me as quick as possible, without complaint. They went above and beyond to help a stranded traveler and I really appreciated the effort they went to in order to make sure I was taken care of. I would totally have understood if they had not reopened, but this group of people showed me that the spirit of Christmas is alive and well in Birmingham. Although I have to believe that Chief, Steve, and Randy probably exhibit that spirit year round, not just at the holidays.
I would happily do business with any of these wonderful people again, and highly recommend them to anyone in their area looking for services they provide.
Wal-Mart
Store #1201
890 Odum Road
Gardendale, AL 35071
(205) 631-8110
Hurst Towing & Recovery
Birmingham, AL
(205) 631-8697
The rain is pouring right now, and I went out to pick up a to-go order for lunch, having a craving for my favorite Caribbean Barbecue Rotisserie Chicken with black beans and sweet potatoes… But I digress…
While en route to the restaurant, I found myself rather annoyed at another motorist who neglected to turn their headlights on even though the rain is pouring.
Then I noticed MINE weren’t on. I am usually so good about turning them on in the rain – it’s turning them off once I’ve parked that is my problem. But there I was, driving without my headlights.
So I felt bad about being annoyed with the other driver. Maybe they just forgot this once too. I guess it can happen to any of us…
This is me, ashamed and reminded to have a little more tolerance…
When your massage therapist suggests you use a safe word with him, you get the feeling the massage will be pretty intense!
That’s what happened to me tonight. I went for a long overdue massage and had a new guy this time – at least he was new to me. So of course we talked about what I liked, where my problem areas are, etc. beforehand.
When he learned I like the Firm Swedish massage and that I ask for male masseuses because they are typically stronger and can apply more pressure he suggested that I pick a ’safe word’ in case he was too hard on me. We settled on simply using the word ’stop’ and he also said he would probably be able to tell by the way I was breathing and also if I tensed up.
It’s funny, though. I read a lot of BDSM romances and learned about something called ’subspace’ where the submissive enters a state where they are kind of floating, aware but feel somewhat outside of themselves. I get that way during a good massage. If a massage therapist is doing a good job, that is.
The first time I had a professional massage a few years back, I was a little nervous. I had heard that they are very careful of keeping the private areas of your body covered with the sheet at all times, but was still a little worried that an accident might happen and I’d end up all shy , embarrassed and tense from it.
I needn’t have worried. Not only are they really good at keeping you covered, but about 15 minutes into that massage I entered that relaxed euphoria and realized that I didn’t give a flying leap if he wanted to yank the covers completely off of me. Seriously. At that point, I felt so damn good I didn’t care what he did to me as long as those magic hands kept doing their job.
The next day when I thought about that feeling, I thought that must be what ’subspace’ feels like, or at least a little close to it.
Tonight when my masseur assured me he would be able to tell if I was OK by paying attention to my breathing and body tension, I once again thought how similar this activity is to the BDSM relationships I’ve read about. A good Dom, as I understand it, must be totally aware of his sub’s state, using the same sort of signals to tell what state of mind the sub is in.
At least that’s how I imagine it must be… I might be reading too many novels, though! LOL
Recognize that line? For years I thought that the chorus to AC/DC’s hit song Dirty Deeds was “dirty deeds and the thunder chief”. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I found out it is actually “dirty deeds and their done dirt cheap”. Imagine my disappointment. I thought the ‘Thunder Chief’ sounded kind of hot. LOL Which is probably totally NOT what AC/DC was going for, I am certain.
But it doesn’t stop there – I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who wondered why in the world Manfred Mann was singing about a douche in the song Blinded by the Light. I now know the line in the song reads “blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night” but I STILL hear the word ‘douche’ in place of ‘deuce’.
Bonnie Tyler’s hit Total Eclipse of the Heart was one of my favorite songs once upon a time – I still love it, actually. But it took years before I figured out that ‘pollygag’ was actually ‘powderkeg’ in the line “we’re living in a powderkeg and giving off sparks”.
Of course, the most infamous misheard lyric ever is probably from Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze. “Scuse me, while I kiss this guy” is what many people heard – still hear. The line is actually “Scuse me, while I kiss the sky”, but it is rumored that Jimi Hendrix was known to fool around a bit with that line, feeding the ‘misheard’ lyric.
One of my favorite websites gets its name from that particular misheard lyric: http://kissthisguy.com. Sounds kind of dirty, right? But it is one of the net’s most long-lived archive of misheard song lyrics. Visitors to the site can submit their own misheard lyrics to be enjoyed by all who come. Or you can simply have a good laugh browsing through the crazy lines posted by the rest of us fools! LOL
So c’mon, sock it to me. Share some of your favorite misheard song lyrics in the comments here… You know you want to!
For many of us women who enjoy romantic fiction, the Alpha Male is the kind of hero fantasies are made of. He is arrogant, strong, demanding, dominant, maddening, and more.
Underneath it all, though, he is simply a great guy. He saves the day. He excites us beyond reason. He is strong and confident enough to enjoy the challenge that an equally strong and independent woman presents to him. In fact, he appreciates a woman with a lot of moxy.
But how does that work in real life? In the real world, a man as arrogant and demanding as the romance hero alpha male can be fairly off-putting. And sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between him and the garden variety jerk or bully.
So what is a woman to do? How does a gal find a guy who has all or some of the positive traits of the Alpha Male without crossing the line into the abusive, domineering SOB that is threatened by a woman who doesn’t cater to his every whim?
The trick is to always listen to your intuition. If that little warning bell goes off inside your head, there is probably something your subconscious mind has picked up on that is being overlooked by your conscious. Think about it – think hard. You’ll figure out what is wrong with the situation.
On the other hand, is it just that this guy makes you a little uncomfortable? Does he try to push you past some limits that maybe you need to get past? For me personally, there are some things I maybe need a little nudge to get over every now and then – especially in the romantic area. The man who recognizes that and forces me to face my fear might make me a little uncomfortable as I work through whatever it is that worries me, but he is doing me a favor in the long-run.
The problem for the Alpha Male, though, is how can he determine when a woman wants or needs to be pushed a little and when does he need to step back? Trust me, I don’t envy the Alpha Male in today’s dating world. It can’t be easy to temper their natural tendencies to take charge with some of us modern women who demand (and deserve) equal footing. And figuring out when such a woman WANTS him to take charge versus when she needs to keep the reins in hand has to be difficult.
Premature cancellation. It’s a problem that is running rampant through the television networks these days. Network executives are hasty with their cancellation orders these days, often axing a show before it has more than a few episodes under its belt. I tell you, if I love a show, it is a good indication that it will be cancelled pretty quickly.
Some shows are at least allowed to finish their one and only season, yet often leave storylines in the air, preventing fans from achieving any kind of closure. One of my favorites was Birds of Prey, a series with great storylines, well-developed characters, and fantastic action. It never came back after Season 1.
Other shows are given the rare chance at a second season, allowing viewers to get their hopes up, only to dash those very hopes shortly into the season. It was recently announced that another of my favorite shows won’t be renewed for what would have been its third season: Pushing Daisies. This show is so clever, witty, and very different from anything else on television. To see it killed when some pretty trashy reality shows survive is disheartening.
Pushing Daisies shared a creator with another great series with a low episode count: Dead Like Me. Bryan Fuller infused this show with the same quirky humor and offbeat plots that he brought to Pushing Daisies. It was also cancelled unceremoniously. Some new life was breathed into it when it was re-run years later on teh SciFi channel, but it was too little too late. The cast had long since moved on to other projects, so even if a network bought the show, the chemistry that those actors brought to Dead Like Me was a thing of the past.
Occasionally, a show is cancelled prematurely, but sees new life in a movie format. Fans let out an uproar when shows like Firefly and Farscape were cancelled. We found closure with Farscape when the SciFi channel wrapped up the storylines in made-for-tv movies. Firefly’s return was even more spectacular, with feature film release in theaters nationwide. The joy was shortlived, however, when it was made clear that the movie Serenity, even as phenomenal a movie as it was, turned out to be the final death-knoll for that world and those beloved characters.
What’s the point of all this? Networks are killing themselves with premature cancellation. Think about Seinfeld: that show didn’t score well in the ratings its first season. In fact, it didn’t reach the top 30 until its fourth season. By today’s network standards, it would have been cancelled before it really had a chance to find its audience.
The fickle nature of tv networks today makes viewers like me reluctant to give new shows a chance. I’m tired of finding great shows that are never given the chance to find their footing before impatient executives trash them and fill the slot with the next new thing. It is rare I’ll watch a show in its first season anymore, preferring to see it get renewed at least once before I invest myself in it. Consequently, viewership suffers even further because people like me aren’t tuning in.
I’m just tired of it. The mindless banality and shameless manipulation inherent in the reality shows that swarm each channel today get renewed season after season, yet shows that have depth to them, real stories, shows that take talent to create and produce are killed off ruthlessly.
More and more I turn to other entertainment mediums to fill my spare time. Reading is my primary joy, although I like watching movies as well. Music is a neverending source of joy for me. But television? I find it is now staying turned off more nights than it is on.
The writing community has banded together to help one of their own in need. A number of authors have donated services and books for auctions to help author Jo Leigh. For more information, check their website:
Join author Evangeline Anderson when she guest blogs with Wild on Books! Evangeline talks about building up to a love scene, and shares an excerpt of her new book, Picture Perfect, in which she tortures her characters in the best way…
OK, not really – at least, not ALL of the time! LOL Yeah, I’ll talk about myself some here, what’s going on, random thoughts, and the like. But I’ll also share things I’ve enjoyed, such as books, movies, tv shows, restaurants, whatever. I’ll post links to my reviews for Amazon Vineand Wild on Books, links to interviews I’ve done, recipes, jokes, and more. And I welcome your feedback and discussion via comments. So, that means it isn’t really all about me, I reckon… LOL
