Having a debilitatingly flat tire in an area that is the poster child for suburban sprawl is like when you (well maybe not you, but certainly I) convince your mother you need to take a day off from school to "catch up". You know, you're not really sick but could use the extra 8 hours by not going to school so you can finish your projects or study for that big test that's coming up. Only problem is, you're not sick and it's a beautiful day and all you wanna do is go outside and play. You keep telling yourself no matter how much time you waste that "it's ok, because it's only 11 am and I still have 4 more hours than I would have." And that goes on for the next 4 hours and your friends start getting home from school and start calling, eager to tell you about all you missed. And you missed a lot because today was the surprise ice cream party your class won for making the most money during the fund-raiser. And today was the day Sarah broke up with Bobby Joe and though she really liked you more, Steve went to school today so they'll probably be goin out for a week and that's just another week you have to wait.

Fast forward a few years and you're driving out of your apartment complex, but something doesn't seem right. There's this loud roaring noise coming from the rear of the car that sounds like a misplaced engine (and a much much more powerful one than your wimpy 2 cylinder lawn mower engine at that). Suddenly you're having flashbacks of your Drivers Ed teacher telling you to kick-check all four tires and make sure your brake lights are working everytime you crank up the car. "Yeah, right" you said, "Who does that?". Now you're sorta wishing you were the one guy that did that, even though you semi-rationalize that the only thing kick-checkin the tire would have done for you is put you in the same situation, just 500 feet closer to your apartment.

Stepping out of the car, you know exactly what the problem is, exactly where it's coming from but no idea exactly how it happened or what to do about it. What you do know is, no matter what the problem is, you're not goin anywhere, because even if it was a 10 minute fix, no one should have to fix a flat and Corporate America's problems all in the same day, that is unless you're a manager for Merchants. Oh, and for those of you who wanna get smart and remind me that I'm still in school and don't fix Corporate America problems, you're wrong, because optimal truck scheduling algorithms are a BIG problem for Corporate America.

So after all of this, you have what amounts to a mental health/catch up day. Well timed because I have a lot of catching up to do, and in spite of myself, I actually did some work. Not as much as I could have, but I'm grateful for baby steps. And as for the tire, well we couldn't find anything wrong with it, but I needed new tires anyway so today was a good time to get them, just before another trip to Maryland to see my little lady.

I just hope today wasn't the free ice cream party day at school.