Waiting for tires

When I pulled the rear wheel off the Kuwahara to true it I discovered that the tire needed replacing. It's down to the casing in several places. One of the disadvantages of fenders is that you don't actually see much of your rear tire, so unless you make a effort to check it periodically wear can go further than is ideal. Of course, all good cyclists should check things like this regularly but I'm a slacker. I also have a tendency not to worry too much about the commuting bike. If I were heading off on a brevet I'd check my tires but if I'm just going to work I just jump on my bike and go (day after day after day until something breaks on the way to work and I kick myself for not having caught the problem in time.) I'm also cheap, so I'm inclined to try to stretch tire life as long as it will go. If I start to get frequent flats I'll replace a tire but if there are no flats I tend to leave things as they are. However, in spite of the lack of flats I decided that I really needed new tires, what with both front and back down to the casing in spots. A note on the iBob list mentioned that Nashbar has Panaracer Paselas on sale for $6.95 so I made my first Nashbar order in about twenty years. I don't usually order bike bits online, unless its something I can't get locally but I haven't seen any Paselas around here apart from the Tourguards at MEC, which are $34. My usual commuting tire, the Continental UltraSports, only go up to 28mm and I'm keen to get something a bit bigger for riding offroad. Anyway, I ordered two tires in each of 28. 32 and 38 mm.
Having finally decided to get new tires I promptly had a flat coming home on Tuesday. I was taking a long route home, via the Watts Creek Pathway, and had just gone a little way along the path when my rear tire popped. I discovered that I was almost prepared. I had a patch kit with no patches (used the last patch last week to fix a tire for the kid next door), a spare tube, no tire levers and two pumps. I also had a spare folding tire. I found the folding tire while tidying up in the basement a while ago and threw it into my backback "just in case." It's a tire I bought in 1989, just before G and I went on our big cycling trip so I'm certainly getting my money's worth. Anyway, I managed to get the tire off using my keys as tire levers. (There are people who say they can get tires off without levers. How do they do this? Do they have incredibly powerful thumbs?) The puncture wasn't in one of the really thin spots in the tire but I didn't want to take any chances of another flat (no patches, remember) so I put on the folding spare. While I was fixing my flat I had plenty of offers of help. At least half a dozen people riding by must have slowed to check whether I had everything I needed. On the way home I stopped at MEC to pick up a new patch kit, a couple of tubes and some tire levers, so I'm ok for the next flat but I really would like to get my new tires.