Land of Oz

Idiot Drivers

Yesterday a friend of mine told me about an early morning (1 a.m.) accident near his house out in the boondocks. It seems he was getting ready for bed when he noticed flashing lights outside. It turned out to be the emergency response to a tanker truck in a ditch. His worry was that the truck might have been carrying hazardous materials.

It turns out the truck was hauling "nitrogen-based products" that weren't hazardous. Hmmm, ever heard of TNT? Anyway, I looked in the next day's paper for information about the accident and found a couple of column inches on it. Seems the idiot driver , Leonard Paszek from South Bend, Ind. turned where his GPS told him to turn instead of looking at the road and turning where he should have turned! Just how lazy must you be when you don't even want to look out the window when making a turn on a dark country road? I don't care how good GPS gets, I'm still going to want to confirm I'm driving on a road with my own low-tech eyes.

Labels: driving, tech

Fuel Prices

Yep, they're high and getting higher. I don't see anything that can really be done about. It's that old supply and demand oddity. The more the demand, the higher the price. And right now, demand is going sky-high and I can only see it getting higher. India is coming out with a $2500 car for its 1.5 billion prospective drivers. Most of whom will be spending most of their time burning gas in traffic jams. The bike jams of Beijing have long since given way to good old western style traffic jams of cars, buses and trucks. And what happens if Africa ever gets it head out of its ass and moves up to the 19th century - even more cars.

To be honest, I'm surprised it's taken so long. While on active duty in the USAF, I used to wonder in the 80s if I'd be able to buy and afford a car in the 90s after I retired. I was really surprised when I bought my car in 1995 and found that gas still appeared to be cheap and plentiful I can remember spending $3 plus in US dollars for a gallon of gas to put into my VW Thing when in England in 1982. So $4 doesn't surprise me too much 25 years later. The only surprise is that it took 25 years.

There's a lot of talk about knocking back the gas tax - wow, big mistake. First, it's not going to amount to that much. Even if it's all the tax instead of just the fed's tax. And you will pay that tax back in other forms. With no maintenance tax money roads will get worse and your car will need more repairs. Freeways will become toll roads. We take a 50 km expressway shortcut in Toronto now that costs us $15 in tolls. With no road tax coming in, where do you think the money is going to come to pay for fixing that crumbling overpass or repairing the pot holes along I-94?

Let's do some real easy stuff first. Fifty-five mph - big savings in gas and safety there. How about a proportional gas guzzler tax for everything getting under 30 mpg? Buses and trains - how about getting them back with useful schedules and destinations? Stop lights - get a little intelligence in them. How many times have you been stopped by a red light at an empty intersection or go down a long road where every light seems change at random times. Set the timing on those things so when you go the speed limit and hit one green, you'll hit all green.

And think about it. Is gas really that expensive? People pay $4 for a cup of coffee and $2 for a bottle of water they could have pulled from a tap. In fact, I just paid $8.99 for 72 ozs. of some Brazilian managed, German style beer (Becks) which works out to $15.98 a gallon.

Labels: driving

Hmmm

Is it any wonder we're confused...

Labels: driving

Gas Tax

What do you think of the politicians latest bit of pandering? The suspension of the federal gas tax for the summer. Isn't that just stupid? You're going to end up saving under 7% (the fed's tax is around US$0.19 per gallon) - and if the gas keeps going up, even less. For the couple of months during the summer. And then come September, gas will pop up US$0.19 again out of the blue.

How about you tell folks to just drive 10% less. Or better yet, drop the national speed limit back down to 55 mph. Actually, if you really want to save 10% just drive slower - that's pretty easy. At least slow down a bit. I drive 11.4 miles to work and most of the traffic is whizzing by me, by quite a bit. I'm not driving slow, I'm actually at or just a tad above the posted limit. I watch the lights and try to manage my drive so I don't catch any reds. That means slowing down early and watching traffic as I go. The funny thing is I drive a little New Beetle getting around 28 mpg and most of the folks passing me are driving full size pickups, SUVs and large American cars.

Even if I did drive like an speeding idiot, I'd probably be getting double the mileage of many passing me on my way to work.

Labels: driving, government, gripes

Cars I've Owned

I just saw an Andy Rooney video about his visit to the International Car Show and was struck by the fact that he said he owned about 13 cars. That caused me to think about just how many cars I've owned. Some memorable and some not so memorable.

• 1963? VW Convertible - I should note that this wasn't really owned by me. I paid for it, but never got the title and sold it back for the same price. Also, there was no body except for the front seats and windshield. But it did run.
• 1971 Chevy Nova - My first real car bought new. It was Silver with an added black stripe had a 3 speed floor shifter, black vinyl interior and a 307 V-8. Later had air shocks, glass packs, fire extinguisher on the hump, chrome reverse wheels and wide tires in the back.
• 1969 Opel GT - Silver and looked like a baby 'vette. Handled like a dream. Added a switch to turn off the brake lights. Brakes needed replacement often.
• 1972? VW Fastback (lemon) - had leaky fuel injection. Was bought during the fuel crisis in the 1974. Coasted it into the VW lot to trade in on the Thing.
• 1970? Chevy Nova - emergency replacement. Pieces (mirrors, windows, etc.) literally would fall off while driving down the road. Didn't own too long.
• 1975 VW Thing. Great car. Owned it for 10 years with one engine replacement in England. Originally cream, later painted olive drab. Top replaced. Stupidly traded it in on my Cavalier.
• 1985 Chevy Cavalier. Second great car. Bright yellow with manual and no A/C. Owned it for 10 years and never-ever had a problem. At the time I sold it, it still had everything original except for muffler and tires, hoses and belts. Same brakes, spark plugs, no accidents, etc. Power steering was just starting to act up. Two months after I sold it, the new owner wrecked it.
• 1995 Chevy S10 Pickup (lemon). Nothing but trouble from the day I bought it. Cruise control, speakers, radio, and lights, were some of the problems the dealer had to fix. Totalled it after about six months in Fresno, California.
• 1996 Saturn SW-2 Wagon. Dark blue-green. Not a bad car, but nothing great. Basic transportation that slowly started to fall apart after four years.
• 2001 VW New Beetle. Another bright yellow car. Turbocharged engine and manual transmission (as have they all been). Lots of minor troubles and a dealer that is the pits have made this a less that fantastic experience. But, overall, not a bad ride. Good mileage and fun to drive.

So, there you have it. Ten cars in thirty-eight years. Two of those cars covered twenty years and two other cars have covered over ten. There's been four Volkswagens, four Chevies, an Opel and a Saturn.

Labels: driving, oldies

Directions

Why do they make directions so complicated. I live in an area called Freeland, that is between the cities of Midland, Bay City and Saginaw Michigan. There's a couple of ways to get from where we live to Midland, but the road names make no sense. Some examples:

One road you take to get to Freeland is called Freeland Road, except when it's in Freeland, where it's called Washington. Then from the Freeland/Washington Road, you turn north on Midland road to go to Midland, but on the way there, you have to turn off the road you're on to stay on Midland Road, which becomes Saginaw Road. Which if you drive it long enough, goes from South Saginaw, to North Saginaw and as you get farther west, becomes East Saginaw road - all the time get farther away from Saginaw City and County. Eventually, it becomes West Saginaw Road, before changing back into North Saginaw Road until if changes into East Railway Street.

And by the way, when you're southbound on Midland Road, it turns into State Street unless you turn off of it to stay on Midland Road.

Labels: driving, michigan

Driving and Lights

Or rather the lack of. Last night I was heading for home and it was dark and rainy/sleety and I work out in the boonies with little or no street lamps. There's a row of cars coming and two out of the first four have a burned-out headlight. One of the car's remaining lights wasn't all that great either. My first thought was what is the problem with these idiots driving around with half-a-light/brain on such a nasty day. So I wait for a couple more cars to go on by and then pull out.

Whoosh, some idiot with no lights at all breezes by just missing me. Had I been just a bit slower, I would've been t-boned in the drivers door at 45MPH. What on earth was that cretin thinking? It's not like it was just past dusk and hard to tell it was dark. Maybe he was wearing night-vision goggles or something, but I sure couldn't figure out that one.

Slow Drivers on the Left

I take a new route home now and instead of local neighborhood backroads, I drive a four-lane almost highway home. I can't figure out what is going on. Going to work (eastbound), I'm usually being passed by most vehicles as I putter along at allegedly just over 55MPH. On the same road, but heading home (westbound), I usually get trapped behind cars doing about 50MPH - one in each lane. I don't understand the difference. Does a bit of darkness scare people than much? I'd think people would be in more of a hurry to get home instead of speeding to work. This road is straight with few driveways and fewer crossroads. And it's not like it's a busy road either. And this road behavior has been consistent now for the month or so I've been driving it. Strange.

Right Turn on Red

Come on folks, this is a law for a reason. Why sit there when no one is coming from the left? There's no sign that says, no right on red . Why wait? However, when you do decide to pull out, why do you wait until there is a car almost in the intersection? Yes, I do realize it's only a matter of several seconds, but yes, I'm impatient. If there's traffic coming, by all means wait, but if it's clear, GO. What really bugs me is being behind someone waiting to turn right on red and there's two or three cars that making a left turn from the direction we're waiting to go. Hey, if they can make a left turn across the traffic, you surely can make your right.

Sigh... Ok, that off my chest for a few moments.

Labels: driving, gripes

US Auto Makers

I don't have the best economic mind in the world. In fact, my economic sense is pretty crappy. I can buy an old truck for $600, put a couple of hundred bucks worth of parts in it and then sell it for $100. My housing sense isn't a lot better. However, compared to Ford, I'm a wimp in the buy high - sell low market. Check out this story from CNN.

Basically it goes like this. For bought Jag and Land Rover for $5.2 billion (with a B) and now they're getting ready to sell them for $2 billion (at least it's still a b. Is it any wonder that Ford lost $12.6 billion last year.

"Ford bought Jaguar for $2.5 billion in 1989 and Land Rover for $2.7 billion in 2000, which with Aston Martin and Volvo, made up its Premier Automotive Group.

Last month people close to the negotiations told The Associated Press the potential suitors had submitted bids that ranged from $1.5 billion to $2 billion."

For those who may have missed my earlier article, I still think that Jaguar used to make the most beautiful cars in the world.

Labels: driving, michigan

Winter Drivers

As part of my permanent rant mode about drivers, I'd like to talk about an SUV I saw driving down the road today. Yesterday, we finished a major snow storm of about 8-10". The major roads were pretty much cleared off by the time I left for work this morning, but the secondary roads are still the pits; which makes my very low VW New Beetle very unhappy. (And the original Beetles were such good snow machines too.) Ironically, as I pulled out onto are unplowed road this morning, I met the snow plow coming in.

The main road to work was pretty clear, but did have a little slush from the drifting snow of the evening. I came up behind an SUV driving about 10 mph under the speed limit. No big thing, I can understand the caution and stayed behind her for awhile. Finally I sped up a little and passed her as the road got better. When I passed I took a look at the cautious driver.

She had no lights on, was smoking a cigarette and talking on her cell phone, and had only uncovered her window leaving a pile of snow on her hood and roof. Does she really think that driving a little slower will counteract all the stupid stuff she was also doing? Granted, I've seen much worse. Cars with nothing more than a porthole cleared in the front window with all other windows covered in inches of snow; tailgating on icy, snow-covered roads; driving with no lights on during a dark and snowy night; the stupidity continues unabated.

You'd think that after living in Michigan, you'd come up with some snow common sense. It's not like Mississippi where you might see snow once a year - if that often. You couldn't possibly be surprised that it's snowy and slippery out - OK, I guess you can. They did interview people on TV last night who were totally clueless that a snow fall had been forecast for a week. Supposedly, these folks had gotten up on Sunday surprised at the 6 inches of snow. Please find these people a place on the Darwin Award rolls.

Labels: driving, gripes

DUI

Another actor bites the bullet with a DUI and this time faces some serious jail time. Kiefer Sutherland's 24 hours has been extended into 48 days and Daniel Baldwin has a warrant put out on him. And actors from Lost seem to make DUIs part of the script. What bugs me is that people seem to get extra pissed when this happens.

Actors are people too. Driving while impaired is a lot more common than the police blotter would lead you to believe. Looking back on my childhood so many years ago, I hesitate to count the number of times I might have allegedly been driving under conditions that may or may have not been considered under the influence. Not that I would ever do something like that. (Is that phrase legally wishy-washy enough to get by?)

The biggest problem is that Joe Smith gets busted and it's filed on page 6 under Metro News while when Mel Gibson gets busted it's front page news on every manner of media known to man. Just think about how many times you've left a restaurant after a couple glasses wine and after dinner drink? Can you honestly say you weren't over the limit? You probably made it home this time, but sooner or later you're going to pay for the alcohol high. If we're lucky, you'll just wrap your car and yourself around a tree. If we're unlucky, you'll take some of us with you.

Labels: driving, food, gripes

Drivers and Gas Stations

Here's an intersection that causes me no end of problems. I's pretty simple actually. There's a three lane, one-way street (Davenport) that runs east to west and it crosses a two lane, two-way street (Bay Road) that runs north and south. By Saginaw standards, it's pretty busy. The biggest problem is a gas station (whose brand slips my mind right now) that sits in the southeast corner.

First, the gas station itself. It has sold bad gas at least twice in the last couple of years. I mean bad enough that it made cars quit running and require pretty expensive repairs. Again, not just once, but at least twice that has been publicized. Yet people still stop there. And the price isn't that low. And since it's just a stop and shop, there isn't any service quality advantage that I can see. But people keep stopping. And to stop there, they have to cross lines of traffic. And herein lies the problem.

These idiot drivers can't be bothered by the fact that letting part of their car hang out into a busy lane of traffic while they wait to enter the station is bad. The south part of the intersection has a left-turn center lane and that's where most problems happen. People try to leave the station and cut across two busy lanes to the get to the center lane and then don't leave themselves enough room to clear the busy lanes. Or they see some other idiot in half-way in the turn lane and then swerve around them (and into you) in their lame attempt to merge.

I wish drivers would realize that there is no way to conveniently leave the station of bad gas and go east or south. Just go with the logical flow of west and north and quit driving across all lanes of traffic. Or better yet, just buy gas at a station with higher quality and easier access and let this one die a slow death. I don't normally wish ill will on a business, but in this case I'll make an exception.

Labels: driving, michigan

Drivers?

This morning I saw a couple of interesting drivers on the road. The first was driving a white convertible and stopped at the light in front of me. I noticed her because I thought it ironic she would have the top down on a day that was almost 40 degrees cooler than the day before. Once the light changed and the cars started moving, she began to tailgate the truck in front of her. And then she started to brush her hair - while wandering into the center turn lane. It was at that point I dropped back and got into another lane. With any luck she'll find a tree to run into soon and quit endangering others.

The other idiot today was in a white van doing 30 in a 45 mile per hour zone. The poor car in front of me (who was directly behind the snail) was looking for a way to get past with no luck. Once he turned off, I was soon to follow trying to get around. Unfortunately I was also stuck behind this idiot until my turn off came up. The problem with this road is that it is only two lanes (one each way) in a semi-residential area. I think the problem is that the population here has a lot of older folks and heaven forbid they should drive the speed limit. Those are the ones complaining in the paper about the "speed demons" on the road. The only reason we seem like speed demons is because we aren't driving 15 miles an hour under the speed limit and are on our way to work, not for coffee at Macdonalds.

If you're going to drive that slow, at least pull over every few blocks and let us speeding idiots get past - obviously you're not in any hurry to get where you're going.

Labels: driving, gripes

Comforting

A recent "odd" news article stated:

Both were cited for drunken driving and driving while revoked. They're planning to defend themselves in court with an argument that neither had control, so neither was driving.

Miller blew a 0.16 percent blood alcohol reading on the breath test and Marzinske was at 0.09 percent, the police report said. The legal limit is .08 percent.

Miller said he takes drunken driving seriously, "but we were doing things as safe as possible."

Police clocked them going 35 mph in a 55 zone.

Marzinske acknowledged the arrest was embarrasing(sic).

"I asked my daughter right out, 'Are you embarrassed about this?'" he said. "She says, 'A little bit Dad, but it sure is funny.' So we just have fun with it. There isn't much else you can do."

It's nice to know that neither one of these idiots felt they weren't in control. I'm even more impressed that they're teaching their kids that it's funny to drive without a license and while drunk. Maybe if they have to peel their kid off a tree some night, they might lose a little humor. Can you actually believe they didn't think there was anything wrong with what they were doing? I'm guessing that back in them-there rural hills of rustic Wisconsin, telephones to call for a ride haven't been put up yet.

Labels: crime, driving, gripes

Noise

Here's an article about people complaining about noise. While mostly about the noise from an iPod's earphones, it also touches on iPod listeners singing along with their iPod. The following quote is what really got to me:

"Did anyone ever complain about the noise coming from a Walkman or a CD player?" he [Leander Kahney, managing editor of Wired magazine's Web site] said. "Unless you're in a quiet environment, you're really gonna have to strain to hear any kind of noise from somebody else's iPod."

Our world, he said, has become freakishly quiet. "It's not noise pollution — it's noise absence. And I find it almost more disturbing and upsetting than I did loud noise. It's sort of unnatural."

Where on earth does this guy live? I live in what I've considered a relatively quiet residential neighborhood, but it is still filled with loud speeding vehicles with bad exhausts, cars with audio units that you can hear blocks away with that annoying boing-rattle of cheap bass speaker units. Not to mention year-round and round-the-clock sirens, helicopters and fireworks. There's the one idiot neighbor who warms his loud car up every cold morning at 7:15 - 7:30 a.m. and another one who never fails to honk his horn, not once of course, for his ride pickup at 6 a.m. And did I mention the next door neighbor with their garage band and the house on the other side of the block that like to entertain the entire block with their musical racket? For awhile, people in the next block were calling the police to complain about the noise level from the house next door to me. Thankfully, one of house inhabitants got hauled off in an ambulance last year (disposition unknown) and it's been relatively (only loud a couple times a month at 2 a.m. now) quiet ever since.

I sit in my cubicle at work and listen to the ever-present growl of the air handling system, loud chattering employees in the next aisle and people holding conference calls with her speaker phone two cubicles away. And when the growl of the air conditioning dies, as it too often does, the apparent level of chatter and noise goes up a couple more notches.

I guess Wired magazine must have some special high-tech quiet zone that Mr. Kahney lives in, because I sure haven't noticed it. Yes, today there isn't the clump of horses hooves, or the rattle of milk cans in the morning and the train tracks a block away were removed several years ago. The growls of bears and howls of wolves have also gone away as well as the steam boats on the river and the clang of the street car three blocks away. But somehow, I don't think they added up to one addled adolescent with a 300 watt stereo system and 15 inch speakers in their car.

Labels: apple, driving, gripes, tech

NASCAR

Let me start off by saying I am a fan of NASCAR. Not a big one, but I'm interested. But let me also say, the I have a lot of problems with NASCAR. First, it's called stock car racing. What part of the car is "stock?" I'd honestly be surprised if there's any part on a stock car that can be found on a stock car. Take Jeff Gordon, who supposedly drives a Chevy. What part on that car is the same as the part on the Chevy that my neighbor parks in his driveway?

Now they have some new type of NASCAR car, that seems to be the same for all drivers. I'm guessing they don't even want to make believe that what's running on Darlington might be similar to what Fred is driving on I-94 outside of Detroit. I think they should really drop the nomenclature of "stock" from NASCAR racing. I mean, Jeff Gordon's stock car is about as similar to my old Chevy as Ralf Schumacher's Toyota is to my wife's Camry. At least Formula doesn't try to pass their equipment off as something you might be able to purchase at the local GM dealer.

The other thing that bugs me about NASCAR is how they try to make it seem like a NASCAR car/driver is something you'd probably run into at your local 7/11, as opposed to the sophistication and unreachable manner of a Formula One driver/car. Honestly, about the only difference between Gordon and Schumacher is that they are driving differently named cars and one spends most of his time turning left (and why left not right?) and the other doesn't have a roof over his head. Besides that, they are both professional drivers with driving skills and automobiles far beyond that of someone who buys a pack of Marlboro in 7/11.

But I guess they're not completely alone. I recently went to a tractor pull. They have John Deeres and Internationals and Minneapolis Molines that bear absolutely no resemblance to what you might find in some farmer's field. At one time they had to have at least the axle of the tractor they were called, but I kinda doubt that applies any more. The one thing, is that they don't call them stock tractors if they aren't really stock tractors. One other thing, is that a lot of these guys are still tractor driving farmers for real.

Labels: driving, gripes

Zone of Stupidity

There's an intersection near where I work that seems to bring out the stupid in drivers - even more so that usual. It's a fairly busy 5 lane secondary road, Tittabawassee, that crosses an interstate highway bypass, I-675. Most of the problems come from eastbound Tittabawassee drivers who are trying to get on I-675. You'd think it was pretty straight-forward. Get in the right lane, put your turn signal on and turn.

For some reason a lot of drivers seem to favor making the right turn from the left lane. They wait until they're right near the turnoff then, jump over to the right - some occasionally use a turn signal, but I think their kids probably reach over and flick the level. The one complication (and having driven in New York, London and Los Angeles among others I'd hardly call it a complication), is that there's a gas station on the south side of Tittabawassee just before you get to the southbound turn off. You can look at the picture and see how congested it is - yeah right.

What you end up with is westbound drivers (from all three of their lanes) trying to turn into the gas station, and eastbound drivers (from all three of their lanes) trying to turn off Tittabawassee and get on I-675. And ever hour or so, it seems like there's some quack who will straddle the middle turning lane, not having left themselves enough time to fully cross, poking into the traffic flow of east and westbound cars.

By the way, the traffic level of the picture is a little low, but not much. Saginaw rush hour traffic levels are similar to 3 a.m. traffic levels in a lot of real cities. In fact, along Bay Road, one of our busiest, about 3/4 of the traffic signals become flashing yellows after 10 p.m. And heaven forbid you sneak some snow on the roads. What self respecting Michigander would recognize that snow is slippery?

Labels: crime, driving, gripes

A Load of Crap

Gee -- who would have guessed. After three days of a 45 day jail sentence that was shortened to 23 days a rich spoiled brat gets to go home. Her punishment? Staying at home for 20 days. I haven't been there, but I doubt that staying in her home is going to be any hardship.

Her dirtbag lawyer says, "[Hiltion is] really being punished because of her celebrity". No, you dingbat, she's being punished because she repeatedly drove with a suspended license. Flaunting the law has nothing to do (although is often associated with) being a celebrity.

It's beginning to look like California is a celebrities' "get out of jail free" state. Whether it's drugs, drunk driving, molesting kids, driving with a suspended license or murder, if a celebrity does it in California, they've got a good chance of getting off.

I hope it doesn't happen, but the next time Hilton has an accident I'm hoping she hits and hurts another celebrity instead of some poor shmuck who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time driving a cheap Chevy or Ford. This is the kind of stuff that just really pisses me off. If there was really justice, maybe Blake would shoot Hilton behind the wheel of her car causing her to lose control and runs into OJ forcing his Bronco off the road down a cliff running over Jackson just before he gets his creepy white hands on another 10 year old while Macauley looks on.

Update: I didn't see this until just now: Actress Michelle Rodriguez was released from jail early, after serving less than a day of a 60-day jail sentence, authorities said Tuesday.

Labels: celebs, crime, driving, gripes

Thelen

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know I have a less than satisfactory relationship with my car dealer - Thelen VW in Bay City, Michigan. Today I went back there for a 70,000 mile service and because the infamous Check Engine Light (CEL) has been on in my New Beetle.

My appointment was for 8AM so I'd have time for them to drive me back to work while they did their nefarious deeds to my car. That's when things started to get weird. I turned it in at 8 and mentioned I just wanted the factory VW service and they agreed with no hassles. Normally they try to tack on 3 or 4 added services that they at Thelen have decided your car will fall apart and kill you if not done. No argument at all. Just the oil change and a charge for the troubleshooting (total about $110) of the CEL. After about an hour I double-checked with the desk and they said, they were almost done with the troubleshooting run and would get back with me.

Around 930AM, the service desk gal (now there's two gals working instead of the guys) came out and explained that they found a cracked vacuum tube and would charge $10 for it - nothing more for labor or other parts. I actually looked around the room to see if I was really in Thelens or had wandered into the wrong dealership somehow. It was like an episode of the Twilight Zone.

Two hours after I'd dropped off my car, I was back at work, with a bill no larger than they originally said, and a car that was working again. That is about the first time that's happened in six long years of dealing with them.

Labels: driving, gripes

Spares

No, not bowling. Today I had a flat tire. I was at my desk when someone came over and said my car had a flat. I went out to check and sure enough it was going down. The first thing I saw was a nail in the sidewall and thought someone must be screwing with me.

I went into the trunk and pulled out the spare and toolkit and got to work. I even checked the manual to make sure I remembered where to put the jack. I kept a piece of pipe in the car that fit the lug nut wrench to make it easier to remove the tight nuts.

It didn't more than a few minutes to pull the tire and replace it with the spare - I do check the spare tire pressure by the way. The surprising thing was that there were a total of three nails in the tire. Two in the tread and one in the sidewall. That made me a little less apt to suspect fowl play (yes, rampant chickens could have done it).

I drove over to the tire store where I bought the Goodyear tires - Northwest Tire & Services on Tittabawassee in Saginaw - and they took care of it all in about 45 minutes. I had the extra warranty so the tire was replaced for free and after $35 for sundry labor fees and parts I was on my way. I finally have something good to say about a tire dealer.

The funny part is that when I told my tale of woe at work, everyone wondered how I made it to the tire store. No one even seems to think about putting on a spare anymore. One person asked if I called AAA and another wondered who took my flat to the tire store. I told them that I was actually able to change to the spare all by my lonesome - I may be getting up in age, but I'm not quite totally decrepit yet.

Labels: driving

Snow Driving Nitwits

What is it about snow that brings out the stupid in people. I won't say I've been immune to this myself. When I was a kid (and yes, there were cars back then) I did my share of crazy winter driving. However, in my defense, I'd like to say that was almost always on back country roads and I will say that there were never other people near by.

What brings this up is the newest nitwits on our block. They've moved into the house wreck rental that used to have the little girl who stole mail and their dog chained out in the sun in the backyard. This guy has a 4x4 - large American iron kind, not little SUV kind - and can't seem to drive it on the snow with less than pedal-to-the-metal. You can see the skid marks on the snow in front of our street where he consistently goes sideways to the next corner before powering into a U-turn. In the mornings around 0630 you can hear the steady rumble as he warms up his truck for 20-30 minutes.

This morning I was driving to work. We had a new snow last night; a couple of inches, so it's not too slick since it's 7F degrees and the snow was nice and dry. However this is on top of the other packed snow that's been there for a couple weeks now. (They don't do much in the way of plowing around my house.) I warned my wife that if she sees that idiot be very careful since he is in fact, an idiot. Sure enough, just as we started a right turn off to another road, you could hear his engine roar as he started sideways down the street - thankfully not the street we were on.

OK, now as much as I hate to wish ill will on people (ok, so that's a lie, I really love to wish ill will on lots of people who deserve it). I'm sure looking forward to seeing that 4x4 wrapped around a tree on our street. I'd rather a tree than a telephone pole, since I don't want to lose power - and I'd desire a tree rather than a neighbor's house, since it's really cold right now and I really do like many of my neighbors. However, on second thought, I'd gladly sacrifice a day's worth of electricity to see it. The results of this would make the street much quieter at 0630 (should I mention this is two hours before I usually wake?) and much safer in the long run, since sooner or later that idiot is going to run into someone else.

Labels: driving