At times, it seems Ike nothing can go right.
And other times…
Back in April of 2019, my daughter Heather got us tickets for us to see the Houston Astros take on our beloved NY Yankees at Minute Maid Park In Houston. It actually was part of her Christmas gift to me.
It’s about a 7-hour roundtrip from San Antonio so we left in plenty of time as we were expecting a ton of rush hour traffic as we approached the stadium.
An hour or so into the ride, we were making pretty good time on U.S. 90 East. But Heather said she thought she heard a sound emanating from the front end of her car so we pulled over into a rest stop.
She checked the tires & opened the hood but couldn’t find anything unusual. We grabbed something to eat & got back on the road.
A little while later, she heard the noise again, but the car was handling well so she wasn’t too concerned.
Of course, we got caught in about an hour’s worth of bumper-to-bumper traffic & as frustrating as it was, we still made it in plenty of time for the game.
It was so wonderful to see the Yankees play. The last time I attended a game was in 2010 when I lived in St. Petersburg, FL & watched them for the 9 times they played the Tampa Bay Rays each year at Tropicana Field.
The Yankees lost 6-3, but we still had a great time! Interestingly, Gerrit Cole pitcher for the hated Astros…he just signed a massive contract with the Yankees this past winter.
We got back on the road to return home and by this time (~11:00 PM), the roads were pretty empty.
We flew home, averaging over 80 MPH for most of the ride.
Two days later when she returned to work (EMT), she asked the head mechanic who keeps all the ambulances rolling if he would please look at her car.
He put it up on the hydraulic lift & checked it out…oh, he found something.
In her front passenger-side tire.
He noticed 2 bubbles in the tire, under the tread, not in the sidewalk where they would be obvious.
He advised her to get it repaired ASAP & to drive very carefully, no more than 20 MPH.
She drove to the nearby Discount Tire & spoke with the manager about having it checked out. She mentioned what the mechanic at work had seen.
“You couldn’t have gotten that tire here. Impossible.”
She explained that she ALWAYS has gone to Discount Tire & had this one tire replaced about a year ago. (She has a ‘15 Dodge Dart.)
She asked him to please check his records as she’s positive that she got it at his shop.
Again “Impossible! Besides, that’s an XYZ tire & we haven’t sold those since 2014!”
Again, she asked him to check the records.
And again, he’s at it with the same damned answer!
“Lemme please have the name & number of your boss!”
Finally, he relents & checks the information out on the computer.
And there it was…they had indeed sold her a single XYZ tire on 2018!
“I don’t understand. We discontinued selling these sets in 2014!”
“Could be, but then your salesman (< < pls insert “slimy” here) must’ve sold me a single tire that had been lying around in your warehouse for at least 4 years!”
He apologized & then tried to replace it with a cheaper brand.
“Uh-uh. If you don’t have the exact same one, then you go up in value, not down!”
He replaced the tire free of charge.
Oh, BTW, he didn’t find 2 bubbles under the tread like her mechanic at work did…he discovered 5!!!
Thinking back, we could’ve easily been killed at the speeds we were going.
And since her car is not equipped with a real spare of even a doughnut (but this stupid-ass can of tire sealant), we would’ve been stranded at best as tire sealant doesn’t work very well when the tire is in a million pieces, spread across the highway.
We were so lucky that we weren’t killed!
Which reminds me…I’m wondering if I should call a lawyer to look into this.
I’ve already let the City of San Antonio off the hook when my golf cart crashed on wet pavement…and Santa Rosa Hospital when they used an ointment on Laurie during surgery that she was allergic to, causing two emergency surgeries to remove charred flesh from her abdomen…and David Weekly Homes for the faulty gas igniter in my fireplace that had a leak & helped cause a fire in my home…and the Convalarium of Dublin for deliberately withholding my meds and trying to cover it up…and now Discount Tire who sold my daughter a tire that they discontinued selling 4 years earlier!
Enough is enough. I’m more pissed at myself than anyone else, but this is crazy!
Now I’m so mad at myself typing out the story.
*CRASH*
Thanks again for listening!
Posted in: Stranger Than Fiction
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