Good luck, bad luck

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Source: clipartpanda

Source: clipartpanda

There was the promise of good weather. Predictions of mid-60s. In this area in February, it would be another two months before we had a steady diet of that.

With this window of warmth, my mind was in a tizzy. What could I do that would make the most of it?

I could plan a long walk in a local park. Hmmm….After a week of single digits, it wouldn’t be really warm. It was a cloudy day so the sun wouldn’t be shining. Oh, let’s face it! I didn’t want to walk in a park that was still all brown and muddy.

A nice walk around our local outside upscale mall may work. There are enough “treats” at the end to make us happy. Book store for him. Just about anything else for me.

These are the thoughts I woke up to on that predicted “warm” day. Those thoughts would be gone within the hour.

On my normal trip to Starbucks, my tire pressure gauge lit up like the Starship Enterprise. I wasn’t concerned. It happened once before and it was a “weather” thing. I added a little more air and all was good.

I walked around the car to see if any tires looked flat. No flats although one had a funny thing sticking out the side. Looked like a toothpick.

I got my coffee and drove home to complain to the beloved husband. Although very talented, he’s not mechanical in nature but has helpful suggestions and can be soothing.

Before I went into the house, I touched the “toothpick” and it felt like metal. The kind of metal nail that comes from a gun.

It was in the sidewall. Any sidewall puncture means that you need to replace the tire, even if the tire has 7,000 miles on it (like mine). This wasn’t going to be good (and I was only thinking about money here).

After an appropriate amount of whining, I called our local tire place. The beloved husband checked the tire. It was at 12 pounds and should have been at 32 pounds. He inflated it to get me to the tire place.

Did I mention that it’s Saturday? There are a lot of things that you don’t want to go wrong on Saturdays. Toothaches and car problems come to mind. Hard to get either fixed before Monday.

The tire place said they would work me in until they saw my tire. They don’t carry it and it would take a couple of days to order and oh yes, it’s close to $300 (that’s for ONE tire). They suggested I try the dealer.

Fortunately my dealer has their repair department open on Saturdays although I was less hopeful on getting worked in.

No need to worry about that. My current tire (only 2 years old) has been discontinued and a “comparable” wasn’t stocked. They couldn’t order before Monday and IF it was in stock at the distributor, there was a one day turnaround time. By my thinking, allowing for some things to go bad, I’m car-less until Wednesday. (And yes, the replacement was still $300.)

After all this whining, here’s the good news. Because my 4-wheel-drive tire had such low mileage I could get away with only replacing one tire instead of the two rear or all four. (Woo hoo!)

The weather was still lovely but the morning was gone. The sun never really come out so despite the warmth, it wasn’t that magical spring day we all had hoped for (that was a good thing or I would have been annoyed I missed it).

The beloved husband volunteered to chauffeur me (or allow me to borrow his car) so I don’t totally feel housebound.

The bad thing — knowing I am car-less will make the time seem longer just like a kid waiting for Christmas.

 

62 thoughts on “Good luck, bad luck”

  1. “Car trouble” seems worse to me than a toothache or even the BigFoot boot! I’m glad it wasn’t a balmy spring day and you didn’t miss the joys of spring. And the one-tire happy result is encouraging too. Still – it was “car trouble.” with a happy ending. 🙂

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  2. Sorry, Kate. It’s so annoying when great weather plans change for the worse and on a Saturday no less. Being retired means you should be able to do stuff like this during the week when the rest of the world is working. Being without a car is so confining. Hopefully you have it back already and Sunday should be close to 60…:)

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  3. Love the exchange with Elle. Can’t imagine having a car, I do have a license for ID purposes, but never drive. Just yesterday when my pal Ed came to install my book shelf his car double parked asked, can you drive? I had to think.

    Nice post.

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  5. I could just feel how your “taster” was all set for a little spring, even if just a tease! How disappointing! I think the hardest thing about needing to replace or repair a tire while it still has good tread is the expense! It never comes when you’ve been planning for the outlay of funds! I am just glad you weren’t stuck out on the highway or something! I hope you have another mall trip planned. You deserve a treat, too! 🙂

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  6. That was quite a long and twisted tale, with all the trouble finding and getting the right tire. I hope the tale ends well tomorrow (Wednesday) as promised. I’m glad you’ve had your husband’s car as a fallback. I haven’t had a flat tire for a long time. Good thing. I wouldn’t know what to do.

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  7. Whoa… I’ve been thinking about my tires lately. I took my car in for regular service at the dealership last week and was surprised they didn’t recommend new tires. I came home still thinking about them, *dreamt* about them last night too. And now I read your post.

    That’s a lot of money for one tire, wow!

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    • Picked up the car yesterday and the “final” bill was $245 so it was less than $300. I always round up when I’m in hysteria. Maybe all this tire stuff is a call to you to check your tires. If you’re dreaming about them, something is up.

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  8. Sometimes I think the Amish in my area have the right idea ~ forget the car, get a horse and buggy. No expensive tires to replace and no break-downs.

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  10. I feel your pain. We live in a subdivision that is still [always?] in the process of building a few new houses. Nails in our tires are part of the price we pay to drive directly from point A to point B. My last nail was on a Saturday, come to think of it. Maybe that’s just the way the Universe laughs at us poor human beings and our mechanical buggies. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

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    • I live on a street with a cul de sac. I don’t live in the “sac” area but there is a new home being built there. Somehow that nail may have gravitated down from there. I hate new construction mostly because of the dirt but there is the possibility of tire issues.

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  11. Well, dangit, that doesn’t sound like much fun. It just messes with our routines (and our wallets) when stuff like this happens, not to mention the uncomfortable sensation of not having our wheels available to us … usually when that happens, you all of the sudden get in the mood to go somewhere … anywhere … even though you know you can’t. We’re strange creatures in that we always seem to want what we already know we can’t have.

    For instance, I’ve been housebound for a few days because of illness (and because I’m attempting not to spend any more cashola between now and the end of the month). So it makes perfect sense that I’ve been itching to go “window shopping”, which we all know doesn’t usually end in “just looking”. So I’ve had to be disciplined and have forced myself not to venture out, even though OUT seems to be constantly on my mind. I should be using this time to check a few things off that ever-growing list of house projects that always seem to go unfinished, but nope. Instead I mumble and grumble and wish I was anywhere but home. LOL

    Sure will be nice when you get your wheels back. On to the next thing, right?

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    • You hit the nail on the head (hopefully not a nail that’s in a tire!). Over the winter there were many days that my only trip was to the gym and Starbucks. As soon as the car was in the shop I was thinking of all the places I could or should go. People are weird. All of us! Got my car back today so now I’m good with being home.

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      • Oddly enough, I just confirmed this weekend that I have a slow leak in one of my tires, so I guess I’m going to have to finally break down and buy two tires. If not four. At least two. Oh well, it was time. I was within six months of their “best by” date, more or less. Close enough. Thanks for reminding me (by proxy) that I meant to check the air pressure in my tires over a three day period (because my “check air pressure” light kept coming off and on, sporadically. Yep, just as I suspected, I’m losing air in one of them. Phooey.

        Speaking of hitting the nail on the head … LOL. 🙂

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  15. Car problems are the worse! Andrew hit a raccoon last week that messed up his bumper on his new-to-him car. Of course you have to replace the whole bumper these days because they are fiberglass. At least his tires are new! Sorry you had such a rotten day Kate. ~Elle

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  16. Why are tires so expensive??? And why anytime those words “low tire pressure” show up on my dashboard, do I think it is the end of the world?! Seriously, the thought of having a flat tire and not being able to get to the tire store/place just puts me in stomach ache mode!

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    • Yes indeed! I was spared the stomach ache because I thought it was a false warning. I have 4 wheel drive so that may be part of the “why are they so expensive?” equation. Hate all things car related excepting driving where I want to go in a clean red car.

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  17. One of my dancer partners had a big truck. He kept complaining about a clinking noise when he drove. About the fifth time he inspected a rear tire, he saw a big bolt, driven up to the head of the screw, in the tire. He yelled, “Ah-ha!”

    As I said, “Noooooo…” he yanked the offending bolt out of the tire.

    Tire, of course, promptly and completely deflated.

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    • Me neither. Of course we were cute and there weren’t as many perverts around. I keep newer cars to avoid those things. My car is 2 years old with low mileage although with the amount of driving I do it may last me the rest of my life. Then again, I need to win the lottery. Lincoln makes a beautiful shade of red that I like better.

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    • I absolutely do. I thought it was a conspiracy plot. It’s a nail that comes out of a nail gun. Who totes a generator around to put nails in tires? On top of that I just had them rotated and balanced a few days before. The only places I had been was my gym, Starbucks and our local mall (short daytime visit). None of those places seem likely.

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    • That was the icing on the cake. The email read that I would end up with MORE rewards. No, I won’t. It will take me longer to get a free drink. Many people get food there. I am just a coffee person so it won’t benefit me at all. It will benefit people who get multiple drinks and food in one transaction. Things change. I adapt. Maybe I’ll have an extra mocha to soothe me.

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  22. My car went into the shop unexpectedly yesterday too…must be something contagious going around. Try being a pet sitter without a car!! Luckily schedule is light for me and Marley and we can share his car for a couple days.

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  23. Oh, no! Not on Saturday! The worst time for tire problems. Glad you were at home and not on the road or in a mall parking lot loaded with new stuff. (Tires have gotten much more complicated now it seems…not to mention expensive! Now we actually consider wheel size and tires when looking at cars.)
    That last line is perfect.

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