Introducing Spare Tire

On the ride out to Pimpet's father's wake, I rode with a friend of her's and Hubby's because we both live in the same town. It was an hour plus ride one way and while I didn't know this fellow that well, one thing was clear. He's married and Pimpet and Hubby are friends with wifey. While I respect the bonds of marriage, this just doubly reinforces the idea this guy is completely off limits.

So what kind of ride was this going to be? What kind of wake? As a woman who's experienced a few in her day, I figured it'd be a line with lots of crying. What was going to be our strategy? We agreed we were the in/out kind of people when it came to this sort of thing.

Oh, the interesting fact is his wife is on deployment, so Pimpet and Hubby have taken it upon themselves since they have now moved into the same town to entertain this fellow as often as possible. So here I am, the third wheel with Pimpet and Hubby. On the ride out, this fellow and I are joking about how we are both a 3rd wheel in one way or another. He came up with the analogy that we were two spare tires and while it wasn't pretty we were all going to get there together.

From there he was warned. He'd earned the nickname Spare Tire and was now open for blog fodder. The established game plan was we'd stay an hour and Spare Tire wanted to be home by 8. I was elated. This meant I could have beer AND a nap before work.

The conversation flowed like two old friends (or perhaps two worn tires). The last time I remember being in such a good mood going to such a sober event was when I attended my brother in law's mother's wake with Biff. She kept me laughing the whole time.

We arrived and found it to be more like a cocktail party than a wake, sadly sans booze. Rather than the anticipated mourning of the sudden lost, the room seemed to be filled with a sense of relief. The other thing was there were no lines, but rather people standing in clusters throughout the room, with Pimpet and Hubby working the crowd.

The return ride home was just as much fun as it was out with us encrouching upon slightly more serious subjects. However, these words were not filled with moments of laughter in between. Pulling into the driveway and making curfew, I thanked Spare Tire for a nice time and told him how I'd been in a cunt of a mood lately. I greatly appreciated the lightening of that.