file under no good deed goes unpunished

deacon

deacon

minor bike philosopher
My wife has a new econobox as do my daughter and her husband. So when they need to move something, it's call and borrow my full sized mercury sable from the early 90s. You can do any damage to it since I have decided not to repair it no matter what. Yesterday was no exception. My son in law picked up the sable and off he went to transport a pressure washer to his house.

Today I got in my sable (I know I'm not supposed to drive a car) but I needed a 20" kiddie bike to build a new friction drive bike. I took off and was pleasantly surprised to find that the gas tank was NOT empty. I got about ten blocks and noticed a funny sound outside the car. My mind is not as sharp as it once was so I ignored it.

I went to the thrift shop and found the bike I wanted was too expensive so I left. When I got to my car I found I had a flat tire. Now the tires are old and need replacing bad but I still didn't need a flat five miles from home. I had a choice change it in the parking lot of the thrift shop or go find a can of fixoflat. I walked about a quarter mile to an auto parts store and bought one.

Then of course I couldn't figure out how to get the top off. After I screwed the can up I finally got it off. I managed to get enough foam into the tire to get the car home. My little toy compresser strained and strained but finally got the tire inflated enough to run for a while. I expect there is a nail in it but I haven't looked yet. That is this afternoons project.

I might even pull it off and go buy a tire. The wife will drive me to get one, if I decide to do that.

The point is I spent an hour this morning doing nothing productive and it cost me eight bucks at that. Oh well what are parents for anyway.
 
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Flat tires and broken wires what a day. I know it sounds like a country song but may when things go wrong they just pile up. I had to repair the power cord on my ebike.
 
sounds like your having fun. I hate flat tires. You know its strange that a tire is only flat on the bottom. Things that make you go HHHMMMM??????
Normanlaff
 
I would rather come out in the morning at home to find it dead flat than 3/4 flat and not notice it. I drove that thing about two miles before I noticed it when i came out of the store.
 
Two days ago my neighbor had broken down on the side of the highway told me he shut her down because it was overheated. I drove him over to where he left his car and it was gone. So we drove over to the police department and they had no record of it so we reported it stolen fairly unusual but we assumed it went to the chop shop.
Yesterday he came back and told me the cops told them it was towed away to impound because the car was too close to the white paint that marked the highway it was a bold face lie because the car was so far off the road the right side was practically on the lawn but how does one prove that they can't.
So I took him to the impound lot and they wanted 150 dollars. So he payed them showed him his ID and proof of ownership and we went around back to retrieve it.
It had a gash on it's front tire. It was not like that when he had left it. Also it wouldn't start and it needed water in the radiator.
At the impound lot you cannot under any circumstances work on your car while it is on their property. And the only way to get it out was to have it go on it's own power or have it towed by a reputable towing company.
So he payed the impound lot the 25 bucks to give it a jump start and it still struggled to start but it finally did and with no water in the radiator and a flat front tire he was able to round the corner in this dirt lot and drive it off their property and parked it across the street.
Then we walked over to a house asking for some water and the guy was real nice telling us he gets a few of us daily from over across the street pretty outrageous but the guy was a saint. So we filled up the radiator but discovered a rather huge leak but he still wanted to drive it home 15 miles away.
After convincing him it was a lost cause after changing that tire to his temporary spare I pulled out a rope and told him were gonna tow it home.
We made it back Ford F-150 straight 6 I call him Luther I love my Fords. It towed a Chevy. It was a Lumina. Fords tow Chevys. It was beautiful.
Poor guy. I fear he blew his engine. And he was laid off a month ago. That money came from his unemployment check.
So what did I learn?
When you tow another car use a rope. Using a chain is murder on your ride and your nerves because it has no flex. A rope is much more forgiving.
Recovery businesses are making a killing robbing people blind on an hourly basis every day of the year.
If you think you signed on to something easy you didn't.
The more neighbors you help out the more respected you will be.
My neighbors still think I'm that crazy guy with them bikes.
 
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