“Every time an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.”

I couldn’t count how many times I have kicked myself in the ass for not paying more attention to what my Grandfather tried to teach me.

A lot of what I know now, he knew then and I had to learn it the hard way when he was trying to give it to me for free.

It seems this cycle repeats every generation but when you stop and think about it, people today have zero knowledge of what their Great Grandparents took for granted that everybody knew about self sustaining living.

I went upto the tire shop to collect the spare I left overnight only to get there and be informed that somehow I have been packing around a twelve inch wheel and tire in the trunk for a car that has thirteen inch wheels and tires.

I’ve had that car for 38 years now. I can’t remember where that wheel and tire came from or how long it’s been back there. I do know that the tire has been junk for a long time.

The only British car that comes to mind right away that had 12 inch wheels was the original Mini

I remeber my dad had one of those damned things when I was a little kid too.

He raced it just like everything else he owned back then.

Since I haven’t put 500 miles on that Sprite in the last 15-18 years, I was never too concerned about having a spare tire.

The tires I have on it as of last week have less than 200 miles on them and are only about a year old. They were the cheapest tires I could find.

So as soon as I got to work I hit FleaBay and found the cheapest steel wheel I could find that actually fits that car, except I am still going to have to drill out the holes for the studs because I put bigger ones in about ten years ago.

Yet another Bemjamin down the drain. It’s a good thing I quit keeping track or I would probably have myself commited.

The wheel I bought was for the later models and is know as a Rostyle wheel.

It was $60 but with tax and shipping it came to juuuust under a hundred bucks.

The cheapest original steel whell was $80 and looked like it was rusty and dirty as hell.

It is what it is. Now it’s going to cost me another $30-40 to have it mounted and balanced so it can sit in the trunk hopefully until I get rid of the thing. I hope I never have to use it.

I do still have the original jack and a lug wrench so that’s two things I don’t have to go buy.