What is one to do on a cold, bleak, rainy day like this? Iced roads tonight, they said on the weather.....

I consulted the omens and portents (which means I thought about my balding tires). Then I remembered an established blogging tradition called tireblogging, and realized that I too was destined to share the same fate as the other bloggers. So here I am, at the Hub Tire Company in Norristown. Founded in 1927, they provide friendly, personalized service -- something tougher and tougher to find.

All four tires are shot, and I was offered a very nice deal including tires, mounting, balancing, so I said yes before they could change their minds. On top of that, when I asked if it was OK to blog about the experience, they offered me this nice desk for my laptop.

I'm also taking advantage of the occasion to try out my new aircard. (That's air for the Internet, not the tires....)

Let's see whether I san save this thing; I'll upload the photos later. (Now, if I'd remembered to bring my PCMCIA to CompactFlash card adaptor...)

Success! I'm happy to report that the air card has worked, and I can hear the air tools zipping away at my lug nuts, so they'll probably be done before I'm done with this post.

More later.....

Man they're fast! They finished with the tires before I finished this post! (Right now I'm finishing it in my car.)

If you're in the Philly area and need tires, check this place out!

UPDATE: Here's a shot of the inside of the place:

(Would have uploaded this earlier but the web site was down.)

ADDITIONAL NOTE: The aircard I am using is the Sierra 750, which delivers a strong GPRS Internet signal, plus works as a GSM voice phone, so I can use my laptop as a phone while online. The telephone software is quite nice, and I plan to use it on long drives. You could use this all the time as a phone, but it might look a bit silly carrying around a laptop and talking into a headset.

But what's silly, anyway? People look ridiculous enough already with these almost invisible earbuds -- as if they're talking to themselves. Would carrying around a laptop really be any sillier?

MORE: Whoops! Almost forgot to upload the photo of the nice desk they let me use in the waiting area:

I know it's not the greatest picture, but it raises an important question for anyone contemplating tireblogging. How many tire companies provide bloggers with attractive desks?

Anyway, I'm sure I'll get a lot of mileage out of these tires -- possibly more than I will from my car (which currently has over 159,000 miles on the odometer).

There. I've done my part for tire blogging!

Just don't expect me to follow every blogging trend. (I mean, it's one thing when tires go bald and have to be replaced. But no matter what I do, my hair could never look this good, so there will be absolutely no hair blogging allowed here! Clearly, some things are best left unseen.)