Close calls

Today was full of close calls. The most notable involved Shelby's dentist appointment this morning, but that will be a long-winded entry that will have to come a little later.

The most potentially tragic was a near flat-tire for the third time in the last several months. Just after I picked up the girls from summer camp, the weather was nice enough that I happened to be driving with the windows down instead of using the A/C. Subsequently I heard that dreadful metalic tap-tap-tap-tap-tap that speeds up as you accelerate when you have something stuck in your tire. I pulled over to confirm the good news, and though I didn't find a nail in the tire, I DID see that my right-rear tire was noticably less inflated than the rest, which just didn't jive with the fact that I had been to the car dealership only two days ago and I knew that they adjust the air pressure and rotated the tires. So I quickly got back in the car and headed to the nearest tire-fixer-upper place, and the timing could not have been better. Not only did I make it there ten minutes before closing (JUST like the first time I had this problem a few months ago... WTF?), but the suspect tire was REALLY low on air pressure, and when I pulled up I was starting to be able to feel the difference in the way the car drove. Talk about close calls. Had I not noticed the sound and reacted exacted when and how I did I would have certainly ended up with flat on the side of the road somewhere. More specifically, you probably could have seen me changing my flat on the side of the highway as that's where I was headed when I heard that tapping sound.

My whole life, I've had one blow-out three cars ago, and a couple of funky flat situations with a parked car, but this is unprecidented. Three about-to-be-flat tires in the last five or so months in three different tires on the same vehicle, one causing a costly full tire replacement. I'd just like to know if it's where I'm driving, how I'm driving, or if there's just more crap on the road.

In the spirit of tomorrow's primary election, that will be my platform if I ever run for office. I'll vow to fight crap-on-the-road, and will promise to cut the amount of crap-on-the-road by at least ten percent while I'm in office. Sounds more noble than some other political promises that I've heard in recent days as the hype-machine has acheived full-hype status in the run up to the election.

Just imagine if I were to find out that my near-flat-tire was somehow related to someone's campaign sign-hanging. Grrr....


Here's a little pre-election treat for you, in case you're confused about yourself: The Political Compass.

I was a little surprised by my results, which I'll not reveal here.