Viva La Difference

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We have a cat. He squeaks. I can hear him across the house, up the stairs, through the basement door. He squeaks when he wants something. In, out, food, petting, tail pulled, check on his food supply (this one is a little odd. It only requires that I walk out in the garage and look at his food bowl). My wife and daughter either don't hear him, or don't pay any attention. If he keeps it up, which he always does, it will drive me mad, so I get up and do something about it.
    My wife has a car. She complains about the brakes squeaking and the windshield wipers squeaking. The brakes I don't notice. The wipers, well, she might have a point.
    A couple of years ago I bought a set of new tires for this car. Went to some trouble to save some money. Had them shipped from Nevada and installed by a shop in Beaverton. Brand new tires are supposed to be ROUND and roll SMOOTHLY. From day one there was this annoying vibration in the front end on the freeway.
     I always intended to take it back and get it fixed, but it was my wife's car and she never noticed it, even when I pointed it out to her. Besides, I'd have to drive into Beaverton, and what if they have to replace the tire? They don't have any of these tires in stock, so I'd have to order a replacement and wait for it to be shipped out and then drive back to their shop again. What a pain.
     If I never drove the car, I probably would have forgotten about it, but every month or so I would have to drive it somewhere, usually to the airport, and that accursed vibration would be right there in the center of my consciousness. I finally got tired of this situation and took the car to the local Les Schwab dealer this week. The tire man tells me that the tread on one of the tires was starting to separate from the carcass and that's where the vibration was coming from. Then he starts going off on a tangent about how it was going to take him a couple of days to get some equivalent tires shipped in on account of they were some kind of special. I had no idea they were special. It took a bit to get him calmed down to the point where he could understand that all I wanted were some ROUND tires, whereupon they fixed the problem for $350, which I thought was kind of high for a couple of tires (evidently I've forgotten how much tires cost). I was happy to pay it if it would solve the problem. I'm not entirely sure that it did. I'll find out Saturday when I have to drive to the airport again. In any case, their shop is 5 minutes away, not 25.