i stopped at target today to get some things for my roadtrip, which starts tomorrow.  the cashier scanned my new tire jack and said, “you know what blanche dubois said about always depending on the kindness of strangers?”

“yes,” i said, “but what if there’s nobody around?”

“then it’s like a horror movie, i guess.”

“oh, great.”

“well,” the cashier said, backtracking, “i hate horror movies anyway.  they’re just scary for no reason.  why would anyone want to be scared?  i don’t even know why they make them.”

because some people like to be scared, i wanted to say, but i wasn’t interested in more comparisons of my roadtrip to a slasher film.

i considered my roadtrip as having begun when i acquired a full-size spare today after visiting three different places trying to purchase a wheel.  apparently 14″ wheels for 1996 acuras aren’t very popular.  a record two out of three people at the tire/parts places i visited didn’t patronize me, though the tire guy (not a patronizer) asked if i was taking this trip because i’d just graduated high school.  if i cared about such things as how old i look, i’d consider investing in better clothes.

for those of you who are wondering about the contributions, i reached my goal shortly after taking that part of the site down.  i’m very grateful to all of you who contributed; that you’ve made this trip possible means more to me than i can say.  i’m also grateful to ryan and dave for linking to it on their sites, to jason for letting me borrow parts of his micropayment system, and to min jung for giving me a lot of good ideas.  thanks also to the laptop donor.  you are the best.

the next time i write here, i’ll be in a whole other city.