Thursday night was Simchat Torah, (it's a celebration of the reading of the Torah, with music and dancing and fun) and Stephanie was honored at our synagogue as the Kallah , or the Bride of the Torah. This meant that in addition to her busy schedule of doing her work, and being the vp of the synagogue, she also had to study to read Torah, and to write a drosh, or sermon on the subject. She hadn't read from the Torah in 23 years. In honor of this big event my mom came up to Yonkers for the ceremony, which is I think the first time she's stayed at our house overnight, and the first time that she'd been to a Tehillah event. I picked her up in White Plains (my sister-in-law drove her in on the way to a party of her own-- her grandfather was having a big dinner for his birthday) So as we are driving back, (in Stephanie's car) I hear a noise, and the car starts to shake. It turns out we got a flat tire. I manage to pull over to the side of the road (we were nearly at Yonkers Ave and Rumsey Road, so I pulled over to Rumsey Road to avoid any unpleasantness) I called AAA, but before they could get there, a Good Samaritan (just a guy, not a member of any religious cult) stopped and changed the tire for us. I might have been able to do it in a pinch, but was shy about doing so, as I haven't done it, and would rather keep all of my legs in one piece, thank you very much. This is why I hired AAA-- because I am a mechanical maroon. Anyway, the Samaritan stopped and changed the tire, and I tipped him an easy $20, and we were on our way-- paper plates in tow. We made it to the synagogue in plenty of time, and Stephanie was really fantastic-- she read and chanted the Hebrew beautifully, her drosh was meaningful and touching and well-done, and we ate lots of food and danced and celebrated. The next day I bring the tire to Goodyear to get fixed, but they are clear that they can't fix the tire-- we need another one. Oh yes, and their is some dry rot on your other tires-- perhaps you need four new ones. Not sure if it was a line or what, but we are hopefully going to Toyota tomorrow to argue with them regarding service and warranty on these relatively new tires. (28,000 miles) Goodyear didn't get our money this time-- but never fear-- they will eventually.