So....yeah

A couple of weeks ago, D & I were supposed to meet at a local defunct limestone quarry. It's up for sale, and he had some ideas that he wanted to take a look around and determine if they would work.

On my way to meet him there, a car got in front of me, and decided at the very last second that he was going to turn left right in front of me. This turn required him to slam on his brakes. He had no brake lights, and no turn signal. So I had no warning he was going to do this until my car was nearly making love to his bumper...actually making love is too nice. We know what term should go here.

I could not go out around him as there were other cars there, so I did the only thing I could: slam on my brakes and hope like hell I wouldn't hit him. Well, in this process, I ended up skidding and ended up in the grassy median, facing back in the direction I'd come from. No one was hurt, nothing was damaged. After taking a moment to calm down (and finish cussing the jerk who caused it), I went on and met D. We had a very nice afternoon at the quarry, by the way.

So, anyway, after this little fiasco, I noticed one day that my car seemed very...bumpy. If I was going 20-30 mph, I felt like I was horseback riding. If I went faster than 50, it felt more like, uh...well, let's just say if I were alone in the car, it could have been a lot of fun, shall we? :)

I  mentioned this to my dad, and he commented that when I skidded, I may have "flatspotted" my tires. This is apparently where the rubber gets flattened in one spot when you skid. This, it seems, makes for a bumpy ride much like I was getting.

He didn't seem overly concerned, so I wasn't overly concerned. The consensus seemed to be that the ride would be bumpy, but eventually the tread would wear to match the flatspot and things would be fine.

Yeah...that didn't exactly happen. What happened was that yesterday, I noticed that it seemed to be getting worse. But I thought that perhaps I was simply paranoid, or overly anxious or whatever. Then, this morning, I was certain it was worse. I had come to the conclusion that if D & I felt we could afford it, I was simply going to go get the tires changed, because the bumpiness was beyond annoying. And I was getting somewhat concerned.

Then I left to pick the boys up from school (it was an early day today). I knew then that it was worse, as it got louder. I pulled over to check the tires; everything appeared to be fine. I got back in the car, and pulled back onto the road. I hadn't gone more than maybe 10-20 feet before I heard the bang and pulled back over. I opened my door and before I even got out, I saw the shredded tire and the metal cords inside it.

I was very lucky in that my friend Carolyn drove by, and took me to the school to pick up the boys. My mom came and helped me change the tire, and then I went to our excellent local tire shop and got two tires put on the car. Two hundred and eleven dollars later, my car no longer feels like I'm riding a horse. And I can hear the radio again.

So, yeah, this was not a good day.  I spent money we can't afford to spend, spent time I didn't have on the side of the road, and ended up having something completely different for dinner than I'd planned (since dinner was kind of complicated and I didn't feel like dealing with it).

I had one drink to ease the stress, and now I'm sleepy. Off to watch America's got Talent and then go to bed.