This might be paranoia, but last night and tonight, while driving to and from the test scoring place, my car felt really, really wobbly. I was driving in the rain -- not a driving rain, but not a drizzle either -- and when I was turning I didn't feel in complete control of my car. That's a hella scary feeling.
I know that my tires are old. I think I am approaching four complete years of having this car, and I still have the tires that came with it. But ... well, I got busy, plus I would rather wait too late than change the tires too soon and "leave" some "tread" on the Original Equipment tires. Might as well get as much "value" out of them, right?
And besides, it had been a while since I checked the air in the tires. I checked between jobs and, yes, they were all low, so after my workday ended I went to the gas station and pumped my tires up. But that is where I finally noticed the tread bars that those arrows on the sides of tires are pointing to. They are actually in the tread, and if they become flush with the tread, that means, well, you have no tread left. And when I ran a penny across a couple treads, and then touched inside the groove and felt that there was no "inside" to touch (boy, I'm using a lot of quote marks on this blog post), I finally understand how bald my tires are.
Yeah, I'm suddenly feeling not very safe in these cars. I'm guessing they'll be just fine in good weather. But maybe, even with my tires properly inflated, these tires are as bad as I felt the last two nights. Finally, we are going through a run of days with rain in the forecast, plus I want to see Grandmother's friend all the way on the other side of town this weekend, plus Mother's Day is next weekend, and knowing my bad luck, we'll get into a car crash because of the balding tires.
So that settles it. I wrote in my previous blog post about all these expenses piling up. I really wanted to delay getting tires until my credit card's next cycle. But I can't wait much longer. I'm doing it Monday. Well, I want to wait to actually purchase the tires tomorrow (Friday) and hopefully get them installed Monday. Hope to Buddha the shop I plan on sending my tires to can do it then, otherwise it'll be at least a week before I can finally change them.
This will set me back about $600, for tires and labor. That was the main reason I wanted to push this tire change until after Memorial Weekend. But not only can I not wait to switch these out, the sudden infusion of cash actually is allowing me to feel good about pushing up this expense. The check from the Final Four actually doubled my checking account. I get paid on Friday. I think I get paid next week, plus I have yet another check for working the Final Four I can cash in next week. After all that, I think I have enough money to completely pay off one credit card and its $1,700+ statement. And then I'll have yet another payday from my day job one day before I need to start paying on my other credit card. It's much less than $1,700 (before charging the tires), so I can carry over some of my charges and completely pay it off next month.
Now, I just need to survive on the road ... four-ish more days before I (hopefully) get the tires changed. Have to drive everywhere around town, hither and yon. Just have to drive slow and smart. Man, I hope I don't get into an accident.
I know that my tires are old. I think I am approaching four complete years of having this car, and I still have the tires that came with it. But ... well, I got busy, plus I would rather wait too late than change the tires too soon and "leave" some "tread" on the Original Equipment tires. Might as well get as much "value" out of them, right?
And besides, it had been a while since I checked the air in the tires. I checked between jobs and, yes, they were all low, so after my workday ended I went to the gas station and pumped my tires up. But that is where I finally noticed the tread bars that those arrows on the sides of tires are pointing to. They are actually in the tread, and if they become flush with the tread, that means, well, you have no tread left. And when I ran a penny across a couple treads, and then touched inside the groove and felt that there was no "inside" to touch (boy, I'm using a lot of quote marks on this blog post), I finally understand how bald my tires are.
Yeah, I'm suddenly feeling not very safe in these cars. I'm guessing they'll be just fine in good weather. But maybe, even with my tires properly inflated, these tires are as bad as I felt the last two nights. Finally, we are going through a run of days with rain in the forecast, plus I want to see Grandmother's friend all the way on the other side of town this weekend, plus Mother's Day is next weekend, and knowing my bad luck, we'll get into a car crash because of the balding tires.
So that settles it. I wrote in my previous blog post about all these expenses piling up. I really wanted to delay getting tires until my credit card's next cycle. But I can't wait much longer. I'm doing it Monday. Well, I want to wait to actually purchase the tires tomorrow (Friday) and hopefully get them installed Monday. Hope to Buddha the shop I plan on sending my tires to can do it then, otherwise it'll be at least a week before I can finally change them.
This will set me back about $600, for tires and labor. That was the main reason I wanted to push this tire change until after Memorial Weekend. But not only can I not wait to switch these out, the sudden infusion of cash actually is allowing me to feel good about pushing up this expense. The check from the Final Four actually doubled my checking account. I get paid on Friday. I think I get paid next week, plus I have yet another check for working the Final Four I can cash in next week. After all that, I think I have enough money to completely pay off one credit card and its $1,700+ statement. And then I'll have yet another payday from my day job one day before I need to start paying on my other credit card. It's much less than $1,700 (before charging the tires), so I can carry over some of my charges and completely pay it off next month.
Now, I just need to survive on the road ... four-ish more days before I (hopefully) get the tires changed. Have to drive everywhere around town, hither and yon. Just have to drive slow and smart. Man, I hope I don't get into an accident.
No comments:
Post a Comment