I had a tire blowout on the way to work today. I was driving in the left lane on a highway, where there's basically no shoulder on the left side. Since at first I just thought that the tire was only going flat, I didn't do an emergency stop (stop in the middle of the road regardless) and tried to get over into the right lane so I could get onto the shoulder. Well, this idiot in my blind spot sped up when I signalled and started getting over so I couldn't switch lanes. I had to gun it hard to get past him and then get onto the shoulder. By this time I was driving on the rim. When I finally stopped on the shoulder tire bits exploded everywhere and smoke was coming from the tire. I verified that it wasn't actually on fire, but I was shocked to see that the tire had blown out.
That's not the end of it, though. A guy helped me change the tire. I'm very grateful to him, because it would have taken me a lot longer to figure out how to get the spare by myself. Ford did it in a strange way for the Explorer. The spare tire is kept on the underside of the car. That much I knew. What I didn't know is that you have to lower it using one part of the jack handle. The two parts of the jack handle were kept in separate places, and even after reading the manual we didn't find the right part immediately. It wasn't, of course, kept with the jack.
While we changed the tire we both had our hazard lights on, and this guy had put out an emergency triangle road sign to warn people. Do you think anyone changed lanes to make it easier on us? Nope.
I'm very grateful for the help changing the tire, but I'm shocked at how uncaring Boulder drivers are. I'm just glad that the Explorer didn't flip or anything while I was trying to switch lanes to get onto the shoulder. Especially given that the rain was coming down in an earnest manner.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
You know, Arbi, you might find it interesting that when I moved from New Mexico to Colorado about a dozen years ago I remember being impressed with how kind Colorado drivers were in comparison. Of course, the Boulder area is a mess and they must have missed that memo... but for the record, there are places where it's worse. The only thing New Mexico has going for it is that there are less people there, but even that is changing.
And now I've moved to the land of the most polite drivers I've ever come across. They are downright dangerous at 4-way stops when everyone is trying to politely yield right-of-way to the other person. Elsewhere traffic is a mess, but by golly, people will let you in if you signal. (Even when you're driving the streets of Boise and are trying to get out of a business drive-way into a street that's close to gridlocked, someone will let you in really soon.) The one time the van died in traffic tons of people stopped to ask if I needed help.
I'm sorry it was different for you the other day. And I'm glad that one person remembered to be kind.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton