profound statements from randy joe

my dad has said some profound things since i've known him. one of those things happened to come in the context of a lecture. a lecture of which steve, my husband, was on the receiving end. but to understand the lecture, you must first know that that my dad loves cars - buying them, selling them, taking care of them - through maintenance and having others wash and detail them. some people consider the eyes the window to the soul. my dad believes the condition of one's car is. so it truly bothered my dad when after a few years of marriage, i came home to visit and the honda that he had given me in college was badly in need of new tires. but i was only home for a short visit and although he inspected the car several times during this visit, he ultimately decided against taking it in for me and getting new tires. so i left on sunday morning on my five-hour trip back to birmingham. about an hour outside of nashville, in the fast lane of I75, my tire disintegrated. i managed to get the car through two lanes of traffic into the emergency lane and i called everyone i could think of, except my dad, who i decided must never, under any circumstances, know about this. i understood the magnitude of the impact this would have on my dad - i knew that there would be a 30-45 minute initial lecture, followed by a lifetime of references to the incident and the assumption from that day forward that steve and i were completely inept at car maintenance - which in my dad's eyes was a serious character flaw - one that in his own child, particularly a girl, might be overlooked, but for a son-in-law could be a deal-breaker. but back to the roadside, a trucker stopped to help change my tire and a state patrolman came soon after. i went to a nearby tire store (on a sunday morning) and paid 7 or 8 times what it normally cost to have a used tire installed on my car. and while it all worked out fine, the tire incident put me way behind schedule for returning home. and so approximately 5 hours and a minute or so after i left nashville, my dad called birmingham and steve answered and of all things, told my dad - the TRUTH. this, of course, sent my dad into a tirade - which began and ended with the following statement (which was also restated multiple times throughout the lecture) - "a car caint run without no tires." i can also tell you that this statement is repeated by me and steve (and a few friends) every time cars are discussed.

i don't know what came over steve during the phone call that made him want to tell my dad about the blow-out, but i know that he learned a valuable lesson that day (in addition to learning that cars need tires to run) - never tell my dad things that make him worry - particularly if those things reflect negatively on your ability to maintain and properly care for your vehicle.