We had a wonderful afternoon with Karine, Adam, and the boys yesterday at their new house. It was good to get out, and the unexpected sun was a treat. We all slept well (and slept in!); great thunderstorm this morning; everyone was in a good mood getting ready for the day.
Then, two words ruined the morning:
Flat tire.
Very flat, in fact. We must have run over something on the unfinished roads out in the new development. Good thing the landscaping has been called off for the day due to the wet weather, because this allows HRH to drive the car very, very carefully on the (surprisingly small) spare out to our mechanic. The bad part is that he’s going to waste half the day doing car stuff when he could be painting and finishing up the job across the street. We’re crossing our fingers and hoping that it’s just a puncture that can be plugged, and not a damaged rim or a tire that can’t be patched.
Sorry, what a drag…and yes, spare tires are another thing of the past, part of the growing “New and not improved” products of today’s marketplace.
The new temporary tires are called “balloons” and are unfortunately, just about as useful.
It was the rim. Evidently it is wonky, and when the pressure isn’t kept pretty much at the max and dips below a certain PSI, everything goes whoosh and deflates. Our mechanic built up the wonky edge with something and warned us to keep the pressure at the recommended level religiously. It will have to be replaced before we put the winter tires on.
The small limited-use spares are almost useless. There’s plenty of room in the trunk floor; why not make them full-size, as they do for SUVs and trucks? The extra weight would be negligable. I can’t see the cost being a huge issue either.