I suppose I am a backseat driver because Gerard turns a deaf ear to my well-meant advice to avoid certain of LA's highly congested roads or "turn here." He also does not heed my advice learned at my father's knee about car maintenance. We have recurring disagreements about the importance doing regular maintenance and in particular the necessity of keeping tires properly inflated. He owns a Jaguar and has to replace his tires every 1 to 2 years which he views as perfectly natural, although expensive, because the tires are butter-soft and made for performance not endurance. I point out that if he would just keep them inflated they might last longer.
But now I realize it is not just me he doesn't like to take advice from. He is impervious to the advice of everyone. About month ago a fellow commuter motioned to us to roll down our car window and told us that the left-rear tire was low on air. When we got to work we took a look. The tire did look low to me, but not to Gerard. This past Monday we were leaving the parking lot at work and Gerard's boss pointed out that all the tires were low but especially that left-rear one and that we had better get to a service station right away. Gerard looked and again wasn't convinced and replied to his boss "my tires always look low."
About a mile into the drive home Gerard was having trouble controlling the car as we were stopping at lights. He said "It's just an intermittent problem." Another mile later I could clearly hear a funny thumping noise coming from the direction of that left-rear tire, and he said "I hear a noise in the dashboard so that cancels out the noise you are hearing." We were passing the last service station on the route for the next 5 miles and I suggested that would be a good place to stop to check out the tire again. He drove right on by.
One mile later an unmistakable grinding noise was coming from the left-rear and the smell of burning rubber had filled the car and so Gerard finally pulled over to the curb. The location could not have been worse. We were on a commuter route, a two-lane road called Altadena Drive, on a curve, and it was pitch black with no nearby streetlight. He put on the hazard lights. Altadena runs through the foothills and the location where we stopped has spotty cell-phone coverage. I did manage to put a call through to AAA roadside service but their phone system cut us off after a couple rings. I called home and asked Hannah to make the call and the same thing happened to her. Next, I went to the neighboring house and rang the bell. I man came to the door and I asked if I could borrow a flashlight because we were going to try to change a flat. He replied, "What, are you crazy?, you'll be run over!" He gathered up several flashlights, and he helped us signal cars coming around the curve while I illuminated Gerard and the rear tire.
Gerard is pretty adept at changing flats since he has been required to do this so frequently. He quickly put on the spare and did not get run over. The left-rear tire was completely shredded but he had not done damage to the rim, amazingly. The next day he had all four tires replaced to the tune of $1K. I really restrained myself and told him "I told you so" not more the 3-5 times. Has he learned anything from this latest experience? Yes, he says he will not buy another Jaguar.
No comments:
Post a Comment