story of the day:

Driving along 51st street, I looked to my right, an empty lot where they tore down an abandoned building. Not uncommon near my house... usually someone is selling stuffed animals or mexican flags or bright colored carpets with pictures of tigers or something on them.

Usually they also sell these awesome blankets that are so huge... huge enough to cover an entire double stroller and two toddlers when walking through the snow to the bus (not uncommon near my house). Really if you have not experienced these blankets, you have to ask me someday. Holly and I have a couple (we got like 10 of them at a recent baby shower from our friends). They are usually brightly colored, 100% acrylic, and covered with badly drawn teddy bears or something similar. We use them for everything, but when we leave the southwest side of chicago we keep them folded up and hidden because others just don't seem to get it if they're not from these parts.

Anyway but today there was not someone selling these crazy blankets, teddy bears, and tiger rugs. Today, I saw a blue school bus parked on the empty lot, with a large loudspeaker blasting homegrown blues music. A rough, hand-painted sign read "gRoWN fOLkS mUsiC" and all the guys were sitting around in lawnchairs selling their CDs and taking over the whole empty lot. I was in a rush to get my two front tires repaired or I would have stopped.

So I went on to get my tires repaired by BB TIRE repair.. a Mexican owned storefront tire place. You have to drive through the alley and park in this gravel backyard sort of area, with lots of mexicans hanging around watching the guys fix the tires, put new rims, etc... Then you wait for a one of the workers to come out and ask you what you need. They don't speak much english, so I usually just point to the tire and say "I need repair" or "I need replace." The total bill was $40, and they completely replaced one tire and repaired the other, as well as busting off the wheel lock with a hammer for me because I didn't have the key ($5 extra).

posted by Chaddo 4/30/2005 10:26:00 PM