Afterwards, I had to explain the concept of a "bald tire" to a British coworker.

[fancycwabs]

After the Monday morning meeting, I got back to my desk and immediately received a phone call from Mrs. Cwabs telling me that she'd had a blowout and her spare was in the garage at home and could I please come take care of it. Went home, got the tire, changed pants and shoes, drove to the remote location where the Mini lay, changed the tire (cutting my hand on the steel belts of the bald tire that had blown out), noticed that the donut spare was nearly flat, remarked about this to Mrs. Cwabs as she tried unsuccessfully to start her car (dead battery), rolled her car forward, pulled around, jump stated her battery after several unsuccessful attempts, followed her to the gas station to put air in the tire, drove to Costco to order new tires, had hot and sour soup for lunch since I was out that direction anyway, drove back to work.

Comments

[oldhubcap.livejournal.com]

The spelling probably threw your British friend off, had you said bald "tyre" he would have instantly understood.

(ducks and runs out of room)

;)

[meedja.livejournal.com]

How bald? As a Brit, there are restrictions to how much tread you must have left on your tyres for them to be road-legal in the UK. 5mm I think, but that could be a figure straight out of my arse. So a tyre should never be completely bald. Worn, yes, but they should be replaced before they are bald. If you're stopped by the police & you've got worn tyres, you can be fined.

[fancycwabs.livejournal.com]

Patrick Stewart bald. Yul Brenner bald. Mr. Clean (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Clean) bald.

Unfortunately MINI tires (tyres) in the US are a special-order item, even from the MINI dealership, so it'll take a couple days to replace them.