Minus $168

I had a scare today. As I arrived for a doctor's appointment; 30 minutes away from work, a guy pulled up beside my car to let me know that my tire was about to blow. I had noticed a weird sound and quite a bit of shaking while I was driving and had thought one of my tires was getting low.

But instead of a low tire (which should be cause enough to check out anyways!) one of my front tires had exposed frayed steel wires and a flapping section of loose tire! The tread separation was so bad that I could almost slide my hand in one side, go under the tread and out the other side! The only other time I had seen the inner workings of a tire like this was after it was in pieces littering the highway. I was this-close to being one of those blowouts. As this was before my appointment I put it in the back of my mind until I was done. Then I had to decide what to do.

Would this tire allow me to get closer to home or blowout on the highway? Since I wasn't familiar with the area I couldn't take the chance of just driving around looking for someplace so I called my mechanic and they gave me the location of the nearest Goodyear Tire, luckily, just two exits away.

However, while they took care of me I was missing work at the job where I get paid by the hour. Earlier in the day I had to turn down a free lunch at work because I couldn't spare the time to go because I traded my lunch hour in order to make the doctors appointment. I wouldn't have been able to make up that time too AND we were going to be closed this Friday for the holiday.

So, today's realization is...

• no free lunch today,
• minus three hours of today's pay,
• minus $170 dollars for two* new tires and installation,
• and minus one full days pay this week.
• Rent is also due this weekend! Arrggghhh....
  

(There is also the knowledge that the other two tires will need to replaced in the near future because they have signs of dry rot and are as old as the ones just replaced.) Whew!

I knew the tires needed replacing, believe me, these babies are really old (the mechanic was shocked just how old!) but I just haven't had the money and couldn't face putting them on one of the credit cards. So, like an idiot I pretty much put my life in jeopardy. Even after hydroplaning two months ago in barely-there rain because of how bad the tread was.

I have to do something about money, if only to take care of my car, such as getting two more tires and a long put-off tune-up for my 14 year old car with 70,000 miles on it, that I can't afford to lose. This money situation is serious, I need to make more money to avoid more situations like this.

* the other tire had already been patched two times so it was about time for it too!