cranky old dude
12-14-07, 09:28 PM
There is a line in here about bikes, trust me.
The wife’s car broke down today. We call it her car but it’s our family
Chariot. It’s the vehicle we use to travel back and forth to Milwaukee and
Albany to visit the daughters etc. All high speed driving. It’s an old car, a
’96 Toyota Camry with 140,000 miles on it, though we keep it in good
running order. This morning at about 07:30 we heard a distinct metallic
crash followed by her car alarm. We couldn’t tell from the bedroom window
what happened, assumed snow fell off the roof onto the car in the driveway
below.
This afternoon we went out to move vehicles around. Her car was blocking
my pickup which I was to drive into work this evening. I chose not to ride
my bike due to not feeling well enough to battle the 25 mph headwind. As
soon as she started to move her car the left front tire blew and the corner of
the car dropped drastically. The coil spring had snapped, that was what we had
heard earlier in the morning. The broken spring tore open her tire as soon as she
tried to move the car.
Our mechanic informs us that most often this type of failure occurs in the
driveway rather than out on the highway. I don’t know why. I am just SO
thankful that the spring didn’t fail on the highway at 65 mph. I don’t even
want to imagine the scenario that could have been. Our first instinct was to
fear the financial setback from the sure to be hefty repair bill, but we
quickly realized we dodged a big bullet here. No one got hurt. We are were truly
blessed today.
The wife’s car broke down today. We call it her car but it’s our family
Chariot. It’s the vehicle we use to travel back and forth to Milwaukee and
Albany to visit the daughters etc. All high speed driving. It’s an old car, a
’96 Toyota Camry with 140,000 miles on it, though we keep it in good
running order. This morning at about 07:30 we heard a distinct metallic
crash followed by her car alarm. We couldn’t tell from the bedroom window
what happened, assumed snow fell off the roof onto the car in the driveway
below.
This afternoon we went out to move vehicles around. Her car was blocking
my pickup which I was to drive into work this evening. I chose not to ride
my bike due to not feeling well enough to battle the 25 mph headwind. As
soon as she started to move her car the left front tire blew and the corner of
the car dropped drastically. The coil spring had snapped, that was what we had
heard earlier in the morning. The broken spring tore open her tire as soon as she
tried to move the car.
Our mechanic informs us that most often this type of failure occurs in the
driveway rather than out on the highway. I don’t know why. I am just SO
thankful that the spring didn’t fail on the highway at 65 mph. I don’t even
want to imagine the scenario that could have been. Our first instinct was to
fear the financial setback from the sure to be hefty repair bill, but we
quickly realized we dodged a big bullet here. No one got hurt. We are were truly
blessed today.