As I sat in my garage Tuesday evening smoking a bowl and reflecting on the days events, I just had to marvel at how fortunate things were and have to believe someone was watching out for me.
About a month ago I installed four brand new Blizzak winter tires. For the past several years I drive with winter rated tires on all our vehicles.
The day started out innocuous enough driving to Edmonton to take my wife to the pain clinic for her quarterly injections. That is about 160 kilometers. Got back to RD and dropped my wife off at work and came home. When I went to pick my wife up after work at one point I had to make a lane change and left hand turn. In and of itself no big deal, we all do numerous times a day. I shoulder checked over my left shoulder in order to make a lane change and make a left turn. My left signal was on and in the nanosecond it took me to shoulder check and swing my head back there was a huge Bam, and my car jumped. I had hit the curb on the left hand side and both front and rear left side tires blew out and I was sure bent the rims. This was rush hour at a major intersection, howbeit in Red Deer a major intersection is probably not as much a big deal as it would be in a larger center. I managed to limp through the intersection to my wife's office. I couldn't stop without possible further difficulties and figured that judging by the impact and sound, the rims were smoked anyway. Sure enough. Both tires destroyed as well as both rims. The fortunate part is that it wasn't raining, snowing, blowing or cold as I groped around in the dark to put my spare on the front left side. The temp was about +3C. The end of the story is that I am also fortunate in that my son-in-law is a mechanic and came to load me up with his towing trailer and took myself and my wife home. Had to order four new tire and four new rims. The car is 2013 All wheel control Mitsubishi Lancer and now I the car is sitting lopsided in my garage.
So as I enjoyed a very welcome bowl of Nightcap in my garage, staring at my car, I reflected that it sure could have been worse and have had an entirely different ending.
About a month ago I installed four brand new Blizzak winter tires. For the past several years I drive with winter rated tires on all our vehicles.
The day started out innocuous enough driving to Edmonton to take my wife to the pain clinic for her quarterly injections. That is about 160 kilometers. Got back to RD and dropped my wife off at work and came home. When I went to pick my wife up after work at one point I had to make a lane change and left hand turn. In and of itself no big deal, we all do numerous times a day. I shoulder checked over my left shoulder in order to make a lane change and make a left turn. My left signal was on and in the nanosecond it took me to shoulder check and swing my head back there was a huge Bam, and my car jumped. I had hit the curb on the left hand side and both front and rear left side tires blew out and I was sure bent the rims. This was rush hour at a major intersection, howbeit in Red Deer a major intersection is probably not as much a big deal as it would be in a larger center. I managed to limp through the intersection to my wife's office. I couldn't stop without possible further difficulties and figured that judging by the impact and sound, the rims were smoked anyway. Sure enough. Both tires destroyed as well as both rims. The fortunate part is that it wasn't raining, snowing, blowing or cold as I groped around in the dark to put my spare on the front left side. The temp was about +3C. The end of the story is that I am also fortunate in that my son-in-law is a mechanic and came to load me up with his towing trailer and took myself and my wife home. Had to order four new tire and four new rims. The car is 2013 All wheel control Mitsubishi Lancer and now I the car is sitting lopsided in my garage.
So as I enjoyed a very welcome bowl of Nightcap in my garage, staring at my car, I reflected that it sure could have been worse and have had an entirely different ending.