"Bob’s your uncle" is a way of saying "you’re all set" or "you’ve got it made." It’s a catch phrase dating back to 1887, when British Prime Minister Robert Cecil (a.k.a. Lord Salisbury) decided to appoint a certain Arthur Balfour to the prestigious and sensitive post of Chief Secretary for Ireland. Not lost on the British public was the fact that Lord Salisbury just happened to be better known to Arthur Balfour as "Uncle Bob." In the resulting furor over what was seen as an act of blatant nepotism, "Bob’s your uncle" became a popular sarcastic comment applied to any situation where the outcome was preordained by favoritism. As the scandal faded in public memory, the phrase lost its edge and became just a synonym for "no problem."

From: word-detective.com

Alison and I are getting busy, and with that, the demands on the car are getting more complicated to manage. We have no desire to purchase another car (in fact I’d be perfectly happy to do without one all together if arriving at a client meeting sweaty/soaked/frozen from the bike ride wasn’t frowned upon).

Luckily Autoshare has come to our rescue. Autoshare is an organization that provides time-share cars, conveniently parked around the city. We are currently within 3 subway stops of 5 cars and the fleet is growing so there are more on the way.

In looking at the Autoshare members site, it is clear that the majority of bookings occur on the weekends. That’s perfect for us, as that is the time we don’t need a car.

We went for our orientation session Saturday afternoon, so we’re signed up and ready to roll. It’s a great idea, I’m glad it’s available.

Badunk! Thwuppa! Thwuppa! Thwuppa!

Damn!

The "thwuppa" sound means I just impaled my tire on a foreign object and it’s thwacking my fender. That means it’s stuck. Impaled, stuck, and tire are not good things to combine.

Sure enough, two blocks later my rear tire is flat. I thought they were kevlar belted, I guess I was wrong.

Out comes the cell:

“Al, I’m a 5 minute ride from home, but I’m going to have to walk, I’ll be 20.”

She’s waiting to leave for dinner with friends.

“Sorry, I’ll walk quickly.”

Later, I investigate the cause of the puncture. Steel stud drywall screw, embedded to the hilt. Damn! I hate those things. What is it about winter that covers the roads with construction detritus? The last time I got a flat (that wasn’t caused by a faulty installed rim) it was a drywall screw too.

Anyway, not only did it puncture the tire and tube it punctured the other side of the tube too, only a mm away from the tube stem making the inner tube impossible to repair. So now I’m riding on my spare.

Oh well, off to MEC to order some more bike stuff.