Re-Tire

 

What are the chances? Twice in one week!!!! Sometimes, the universe just likes to mess with your head...

Neither tire puncture was due to lousy driving habits or faulty cheesy tires. Both incidents were apparently caused by driving over something sharp...

Last week I was tootling back from Stop and Shop when I noticed an idiot light was on on the dashboard. Investigation proved it to be a low tire pressure sensor... what won't they think of next! (sorry: we're used to driving very old cars that don't have such new fangled instruments as back up computers and automatic transmissions...) Anyway, I checked the air pressure when I got home and lo! the driver's side rear tire was very low. Bob added air, but the next morning the tire was really low again. As luck would have it, I had an eye doctor appointment that morning but our local garage squeezed us in and was able to patch the tire- and not charge us! Thank you Jimmy!

So yesterday, I announced my intentions to drive to Trader Joe's in Danbury. Bob agreed to accompany me as he needed roof tar at Home Depot. This turned out to be fortunate in the extreme. As we tooled along towards Danbury, traffic on Rt 84 came to a crawl and we decided to get off the highway a couple of exits early and run our errands in the opposite order. As I pulled into the exit lane, that damned low air pressure light came back on. I suspected the patch had failed and as we rolled off the exit ramp, the noise of a flopping definitely flat tire became louder. We pulled into a gas station (*1) and yup! Flat tire! But on the passenger's side rear!

Lucky for me, Bob was present and "we" changed the tire (Bob doing most of the work). It really took only a few minutes and donut installed, we returned to Southbury to drop off the tire for patching or replacement. We suspected- and had it confirmed- that whatever we rolled over had punched a nice, really big gash into our tire. Heigh ho! New tire. I am hoping we have reached tire-max and don't need to have another flat for at least a couple of years! What were the chances! (*2)

(*1) Not a REAL gas station- do they even exist?- but a convenience market. At least it had a large, flat parking area! And air! But there was a dopey guy parked right in front of the air dispenser... do you think he'd move? Hahahahahaha!

(*2) And other than that, the car is really great: runs quiet, handles nicely, is comfortable, gets good gas mileage... exactly what you want. And the car now has a name! Beatrice ad John's car is Great White, Cathy's Corolla is the Silver Vortex. So, in keeping with a sort of family color motif, I christen our car Red Rover.