A Helpful Nail

My son had a nail in his tire, but said he wasn't going to take it out.

(Can you see it?)

This seemed counterproductive to me. Nails don't belong in tires. Nails punch holes in tires. Holes in tires let air out.

But my son said that his tire pressure was steady. The nail was actually plugging its own hole, successfully trapping the air inside the tire.

In spite of his assurances that all was well in Inflated Tire Land, I had the urge to grab that nail and pull it out because it just doesn't belong there!

His plan is to keep close track of his tire pressure, and then have the problem taken care of the next time he takes his vehicle in for routine service.

What would you do? Leave the nail in for awhile? Or pull it out now and get the tire fixed?

I Can Park a Car!

I had to park my car overnight by the car repair shop. I tucked it into a corner, because I don't like parking in between cars. I've had my doors dinged by careless car-getter-inners before.

I actually backed up and went forward a couple of times to make sure my car was straight and settled in for the night.

It wasn't until I went back to retrieve my car the next morning that I saw my poor tire had been barely balanced on the curb all night long!

It's a good thing I'd bought my tires, with a guarantee, at that very establishment.

I didn't need to make a replace-a-tire claim, however, because I managed to drive away just fine.

Are you good at parking? Turning? Backing up? Parallel parking? What's your best driving ability?

Hot Wheels

There we were, driving in the racing red PT Cruiser along 7 miles of highway toward home when all of a sudden, the car accelerated without pressing the pedal.

What the hey?

Michael was at the wheel, both feet on the brake, asking me what he should do while the car rushed down the highway.

What do I know about cars?

I asked if he thought he could make it home safely. He said if he kept stepping on the brake he could. I told him I thought we should get home before we turned the car off in case it wouldn't turn on again.

Oops.

We called Bob only after we reached town, after the smoke, the smell of burned rubber that would rival the turns at the Indie 500, after the flame in the wheel.

Rather than take a picture of the fire, I ran to the house in the background for water to put it out, but no one answered the door. So we used what was left in my water bottle to extinguish the flame. (See wet spot next to tire. It isn't pee.)

The next day, I drove the car with all its Batman regalia in for repairs (gliding through stop signs with my feet shoved against the brake, just managing not to crash into the building.) They removed the piece of plastic that had lodged against the accelerator.

They said there wasn't any other damage.

Excuse me? Didn't I explain the part about the FIRE?

Yes, ma'am, but Michael's amazing super hero car is in good working condition.

Who needs a Batmobile when you have a PT Cruiser?