Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Fleece me, I'm a sheep

On the way to work this morning I started hearing/feeling a thump. A thump that corresponded to my speed. Funny, some weeks ago, on a nasty and cold morning, I thought to myself (after hitting a pothole) "Wow, it would suck to have to change a tire under these circumstances. I oughta join AAA."

Well, I started feeling the thump in a place where stopping and getting out of the car would have been a good way to get killed, so I just drove slowly until I could pull off. And in doing that it struck me that my car was tracking perfectly straight...it didn't feel like I had a flat at all. I got a surge of hope that I just had a big chunk of ice stuck to my wheel well or something.

But no. I didn't actually flat, but I picked up a screw about the size of a railroad spike. And when I got to the gas station next to the office, the mechanic said it was too close to the sidewall to patch.

Naturally this is in the new tire, the one I had to replace after hitting a massive pothole in the Metro parking lot, not one of the tires that (well, whattya know) are down to the wear indicator.

Should tires at 45,000 miles be in need of replacement? I don't know things like this. I'm a tomboy, but I know very little about car stuff. Which is really bad when the mechanic has your car up on the lift minus a wheel. Do you say sure, replace all four tires and do the alignment, and pop for a brake inspection since the wheels are off anyway and that one roter looks a little thin, even though there's a voice in the back of your head saying "Only an idiot would buy tires at a gas station."

What else do I do? Put the flat tire back on and drive home on the screw? Call Daddy on my cell phone in front of the garage full of people? And even if the tires are more expensive at the gas station...at least I can leave my car with them and go to work, as opposed to giving up my Saturday to deal with the tire warehouse. Where the last time I did that I'm pretty sure I got fleeced too, because it was the pothole morning and I was desperate, and the time before that they didn't have the sale tire my father had told me to get, so I ended up with a substitue deal that probably screwed me, too.

So I'm just going to roll with it (heh, heh. So to speak.) You guys got my Visa card; do whatever you feel needs to be done, just give me my car back at 4:00.

Baaa.

Posted by Nic at February 25, 2005 01:51 PM