and the worst part is they design those emails to look exactly like a real confirmation. i had the same thing happen with a $49 fare to Nashville last year, and now i just straight up call the airline after booking to make sure the money actually left my account. like, look for the charge on your credit card before you even close the booking site. also, try booking directly on the airline's app instead of those third party sites, it saved me a headache last time even if the fare was a few bucks more.

Oh man, rim tape issues are the worst. I had a similar thing happen on my old KLR after a shop changed the tires. It drove me crazy for weeks, kept thinking it was a bad tube. Finally found the rim tape had bunched up right over a spoke hole. I actually ended up just replacing the tape myself with some heavy duty Gorilla Tape after watching a YouTube video. Worked way better than the original stuff, never had another flat from that again. That old biker in Chilliwack knew his stuff, glad you got it sorted before it left you stranded for real.

Dude, those $35 pole sanders are a total trap for small patches. I made the same mistake on a ceiling repair in my bathroom here in Calgary, and the dust cloud was insane, I had to vacuum my entire living room twice. The gouges you mentioned hit home, mine looked like I attacked the ceiling with a garden rake. So here's my question: after you re-mudded those gouged spots and went back with the 120 grit sponge, did you find you had to feather the new mud way wider than the original patch to hide the repair? I had to spread mine like a foot past the gouges to get it flush.