Around the house I primarily handle garbage and cat litter duty, with the exception of days she knows people will be over while I’m at work. She handles most duties concerning our daughter and I pinch hit where I am able [read: won’t screw it up]. I clean the bathrooms and she cleans the rest. We share lawn duty, with me tackling the most treacherous parts. I keep the pool running, she keeps it clean. You can see where the style vs. substance roles play here.
When it comes to finances, my wife handles the cell phone, car insurance, water & sewage bills and I handle the rest (mortgage, utilities, car payments, etc.) Now, there is some give and take in regards to who actually pays for them but in general this is the division of labor. She does have her own credit card, but I told her not to use it because she gets a little crazy and we recently went through a bit of an issue over the past few years.
However, due to my work schedule I am sometimes unable to handle all of my responsibilities as it pertains to the hours available to achieve the task. In short, I asked my wife to get new tires on the car I primarily drive.
For awhile my back tires, which are probably a good two years old, have been losing air. Sometimes, it’s as much as 10-15 psi from the recommended 30psi. I drive an hour, both ways, from our home nestled in a satellite borough of Westmoreland County out towards the airport. I am in traffic and driving at the maximum *cough* speed limit *cough*.
So, in order for me to get my tires changed out, I need to go after work, on the weekend, or have her do it. Here’s three caveats.
- They are not open past 5PM on weekdays and 12:00 PM on Saturdays.
- My wife works both days this coming weekend, which would leave me to do it, little monster in tow as well as another appointment that morning that I will have to drag her to, possibly missing the 12PM window.
- I don’t want to go to Walmart. I like my tire place.
I simply left her the keys, my credit card and the instructions for them to switch out the back tires for the new ones and then rotate the ones in the front, diagonally to the back. Simple, right?
I got a text at 10:30 this morning that said only this:
I attempted to call her and couldn’t get through. I texted back, “Answer your phone!” Bad service, she said, when she finally called me back.
She had been there forty minutes and they had not taken the car yet. When they finally did take it and she explained what she wanted, they eye rolled her. When they pulled the car in, their response was, “Well, the back tires are flat.”
Look, maybe I didn’t explain exactly what I wanted correctly. Perhaps I should have said, “Rotate the tires, diagonally and then replace the front ones.”
In my mind, telling someone you want the back tires replaced after you rotate them leaves the opportunity for them to replace the wrong one. Maybe I should have used a big white marker to draw an ‘X’ on the tires I wanted replaced, kind of like they do in hospitals when they want to ensure they operate on the right limb. I don’t know. I don’t think a medical degree is needed to understand that the back tires are flat and they need replaced with new snow tires for the upcoming winter. Also, those new tires, need to be on the front because the front ones haven’t been rotated in a bit. So, I simply said, “Replace the back tires, diagonally rotate the front ones to the back.”
Yet, the B-Team shows up and puts my wife in a position of having to troubleshoot something she isn’t used to handling with no experience in the matter.
Needless to say, I owe her dinner at her favorite Chinese place and she gets to have her credit card back.
I get that bill, too.
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