Driving

Whew! Driving can be hazardous down here in SoCal. The past few nights I've been working graveyard shift and it's been quite difficult coming out of being sick and able to sleep all day to working a 12 hour shift! The second day is always difficult and I was really tired. I usually drive in the fast lane - regardless of the time of day. It's just easier and there are less road hazards - since most of the slower folks drive in the right lanes, more debris is also on that side.

Since I was so tired and getting off work at 430AM, I decided to drive in the slow lane - the right lane... and of course, I was distracted by police lights on the off ramp and the next thing I knew I had run something over. I didn't think it was that bad but after a few seconds I knew I had a flat. I didn't want to pull over since the first thing that came to mind was it's very dark, there are trees on the side of the highway and back in the late 90's, the comedian Bill Cosby had a son that was shot to death as he pulled over on that very interstate for a flat tire. Hell no, I wasn't going to get out of the car and began cheering my little car on to make it home... 5 more miles to go.

Unfortunately, the car kept slowing down and pretty soon I was only able to go 40mph... I saw an emergency call box on the side of the road and finally had gotten out of the bad neighborhood area of that interstate and pulled over. You'll see my tire and be amazed the rim wasn't ruined! I know how to change a tire but as I pulled onto the shoulder I noticed many vehicles change lanes and swerve towards me, pass me by and return to their original left lanes. I don't understand why people would swerve except that my hazard lights drew them in. And I could feel the wind of their vehicles - cars, trucks, semi trailers - rock my car as they sped past. Nervous that I was going to get hit from behind or hit if I changed the tire, I made a phone call. Thankfully, AAA service tow truck came out 20 minutes later and the guy changed my flat in 5 minutes. And thankful the AAA representative remained on the phone line until the tow truck arrived. Strange though that the number I dialed was routed to Austin, Texas and not some Southern California tow service.

Then yesterday, I woke up early and went tire shopping. I was a bit lucky that I did get that flat... I checked all my tires and the tread was missing on two of them! That 3rd tire was just replaced a few years ago when I first moved here - again, I had run something over and got a flat. Since I've been forgetting to rotate my tires, the tire center person said that tire would probably last 6 more months... so, 4 new tires later I left the store and went to work graveyard shift.

Which reminds me... I-405 is quite dangerous... about a year ago I was driving around with a friend of mine after work, around midnight. There was a huge roll of carpet right in the middle of the road! I saw the car ahead of me swerve but didn't know what they swerved around until I had run it over and was pivoting on it. Someone must have called it in since only a few minutes after that the California Highway Patrol (CHP) was on scene trying to get my car off the carpet... and up the road from that was a mattress and a dresser.

Yup, so the spare tire is on the car and the flat tire is really a missing tire! I still have no idea what I ran over. But whatever it was after 2 miles of driving, the tire just shredded off.