The Laughing Wolf

Interesting Time With Autos

 saw a neighbor of mine that I say hi to in passing, and we talked a bit. He and I both like hot peppers, and I have shared a few of my home-grown Thai-bombs with him. I hadn’t seen his car for a few days, and I found out why. He had experienced a blow-out on a tire on the interstate, at speed, and the car was totaled. With good luck, he was sore but not totaled.

Today was my turn. Just a bit ago I went and ran some errands and had ended up at the Barnes & Noble to do some research and feed by coffee addiction. When I left, I rolled down the window to blow out the warm air in the car, and heard something odd.

It sounded like something caught around the axle or a tire rim, but nothing dire. I went to get onto a pseudo-interstate and that is when the fun began. Pups, my car, handles like a fighter and has racing tires as a result. The entry to the pseudo-interstate has two sharp turns of 90 degrees or better, along with a nice secondary curve. Going into it, things didn’t feel quite right, but not bad. Then at the top of ramp and the final 90, things nearly got out of control. Pups fishtailed and heeled over, and it took some serious correction and driving to catch things.

Well, it was obvious there was a problem, so I pulled over at the next exit into the triangle between the exit ramp and the traffic lanes as there is no emergency strip on this road. The left rear tire was flat, having gone so since I left the bookstore. The culprit was easy to find: a nail that may or may not have been leaned against the inside portion of the tire. No matter how it got there, it got into the tire and did some damage. I am just glad that the tire did not truly blow, especially in the turns. As it is, I am not sore or even shaken, just glad it was not much worse.

Go check your tires, right now. Let’s not let there be a third in this series of mishaps.

LW