Monday, September 21, 2009

Flat

A few days ago, I went to move our car (to follow the alternate side of the street regulations) and was sorely disappointed to find a flat tire. I am pretty self sufficient in a lot of ways, but when it comes down to changing a flat tire, I like to leave that to the experts who can do it for free, in less than five minutes, and without an energetic two-year old boy in tow.

As to be expected, Liam was fascinated by the whole process and expressed his deep concern over the "broken tire" on "mama's car". Roadside assistance came within the hour of calling them, they replaced the flat with my spare, and off we went to the tire shop.

It turned out that Liam was right! My three-year old tire was well and truly "broken", as in "cracked" and unrepairable. I would hate to think that I got my tire slashed in the middle of the night in such a nice neighborhood. I was legally parked and there was plenty of room for any exiting car from the driveway behind me. The car in front of me also had plenty of room since he had a driveway in front of him. I have to believe that I had either driven right into an ugly pot hole with a jagged edge or in an attempt to park, rubbed the tire against a jagged piece of curb. The guys at the shop believe it was either one of the two last scenarios. Thankfully, it happened during good weather and not in the dead of winter. What a morning! Oh, how I miss having my car in the indoor car garage I had in Queens! *


* Those were the days, when I paid ridiculously cheap rent and could afford such luxuries! My car looked great: nice and clean, no scuffs, no paint scratches, and no dents!

One lesson I learned the very same day I drove my brand new car out of the dealership lot, is that people are disrespectful of other people's property. It's not hard to believe that I had not made the realization before until just then, considering I was never a homeowner worried about people stepping all over my grassy front yard. Well, no sooner had I parked the car in front of my mother's place when I ran up three flights of stairs to look at it from my mother's bedroom window, only to witness the car in front of mine backing up his car hitting my brand new car several times in his lame attempt to drive out of his spot. It was painful to watch to say the least.


Just a couple of weeks later, a guy in the neighborhood actually told me to get the Mul-T-Lock right away because he had a "friend" who was looking for this same kind of car to steal for parts. What?! I immediately set out to get the Mul-T-Lock installed to secure the transmission gear knob, and then to look for a garage. I found a space available at the indoor car garage in the neighboring building. Only then would I be able to sleep at night!


Since Liam was such a trooper through all of it, we rewarded ourselves to a nice long afternoon at the park. I think it is pretty much our last chance to run around in the park wearing t-shirts. I can't believe summer is almost over!

1 comment:

Emily said...

Ugh! Isn't that the worst? A guy totally bumped my car while trying to park and I was right there standing in front of it. So obnoxious! Would that we all could afford parking garages! Oh, and our tire was inexplicably pierced once, too. The guy at the shop asked if I had parked in someone's driveway or if I had an angry ex-boyfriend. Yikes! Let's hope yours and mine were just due to the plentiful potholes.