Motoring

You know I have to work in Manchester now, right? I started there on Monday. It takes me about 35 to 4o minutes each way.. and so far I've not had traffic tie-ups on any of the 3 motorways (and one ring road) I must travel.

My car is 7 yrs old this next Halloween. It's only got 33,333 ish miles on it.. which I think is pretty good. I've never had a major problem with it. A couple years ago I did have something wrong in the electrical system.. made my driving lights come on after I'd gotten out of the car and would drain the battery. A guy (who used to be a nice man before he turned fruitcake long after) helped me out by simply removing the fuse that worked those lights (the little tiny ones in the bumper) . But that's been it.

I love my car. It's paid for. It's unusual over here.. Chrysler Neon, RX with a spoiler.. lol, maybe a bellybutton in the States, but not here.

In spite of its regular mantenance I was a mite worried knowing I would be adding all this mileage to it suddenly. Yes, I scoot around in it all the time.. but not often on the motorway... at high speed! Would it hold up? Would its age suddenly become apparent?

Uh yea.

The first time I stop on my trip home last Wednesday is at the lights here in the town where I live. So I've been tooling along going at least 70 for over half an hour... screaming through S-curves cos they're fun.. overtaking the lumbering lorries etc.. and I finally come to the red light. *sniff* What's that smell?

Look to the left, and boiling over the fender is a gigantic angry cloud of smoke. The lady in the car next to me mouths 'your tire is smoking'. lol.. I wanted to laugh for some reason.. glad she's only said that and not 'there are flames shooting out from under your car'...

Well, there's nothing I can do about it sat right where I was, so when the light turned (and as luck would have it I was first in line so EVERYBODY saw my misbehaving car).. I could only turn right and drive the two blocks down to the petrol station.

It's a busy station. One of the attendants came out and an older man came over too. They put the water hose on the tire.. which made the smoke roil even more violently and the tire hisssssss. It took about 20 minutes for that to stop. Lou came to rescue me then..

After it was no longer glowing red, I drove it slowly down to the local garage where the very nice repairman named Neil fixed my wheels.

He said the right hand tire had locked up completely and quizzed me over which one exactly had been smoking, until he got the left one off and could see the evidence of the heat! In the end, all he had to do was clean off the brakes so they'd move properly. I thought I'd have to lay out a couple hundred pounds when I first saw that smoke and only ended up paying £30!

I found myself thinking later.. if it had happened that I had to stop on the motorway with this problem.. would I be the crazed woman on the shoulder beating her smoking car into a dented lump in frustration? All the other drivers could slow down and gawk as they went by, watching my tantrum...

No, I guess I probably wouldn't do it .. I hate that I'm sensible. But the thought does bring me pleasure nontheless.