Tuesday, September 12, 2006

The things that annoy

So, before we went on holidays last month I had the tyres changed. Nothing remarkable in that, happens every couple of years when they get too worn. Its always felt a bit wasteful, but mine is the car that drives the family about. Safety is first and last, so changed they were.

Earlier in the week my car dutifully told me I had a tyre puncture. I’m not sure I like dutiful cars, its always telling me something about itself. A real moaner my car. Despite having a big chufty engine and being able to go from naught to ninety in minus 3 seconds, its always on about something. The brake fluid needs changing, or the washer reservoir is dry, or I haven’t properly closed a door. In my mind its got a weedy whiny voice.

A tyre puncture though, that’s something you have to take notice of. Thankfully a petrol station was nearby and I pulled in. The car is good at telling me something is wrong, just no detail, so I had to check all four tyres. Sure enough, one had low pressure, but certainly wasn’t flat. I filled it and carried on my merry way home.

Two days later the same thing, two days after that, the same. I was convinced the guys at the tyre shop had either done a bad installation, or it was a faulty tyre. Only a few weeks after it being a new tyre, couldn’t be anything else, could it?

I had taken yesterday off to use up some spare holiday days with the intention of catching up on all those things that build up in a busy life. You know, sorting the paper mountain, and fixing the light in the room that no one ever went into. That sort of thing. Except now I had to get a tyre fixed.

Silly me thought it would be a swift job. I called the shop up and to their credit they were good as gold. Agreed it could be something faulty and to come right in. I did, and five minutes after pulling in a very apologetic manager came and showed me the tyre. The damn thing had a brand spanking new shiny nail pushed straight through the rubber. Its one of this fancy tyres that can’t be patched, so it meant having to have it replaced. Replaced and only one month old. They didn’t have one in, so I had to waste the morning doing not very much as they fetched a replacement. One holiday day meant to catch up on things, completely blown.

Here’s the thing that’s been bothering me though. The nail was through a thick part of the tyre, not in a tread. It was shiny new, and I haven’t been near any building works lately. Physics are physics, I can’t for the life of me figure out the extreme odds of a nail being able to puncture straight up unless it was fixed to something, in which case it likely would have pulled back out again, or was deliberately put there.

Why in heavens name would somebody spike my tyre? Yes, it sits in the train station parking lot all day, but so do hundred of other cars. Its not a flash car, doesn’t stand out. I don’t believe I’ve got any enemies. I don’t believe I’ve even mildly annoyed anyone lately.

Life is strange somedays.

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