You know when you have your day all laid out so nicely.
Goals listed. Meditation for a great day accomplished. Yet sometimes you just get screwed.
Lesson 1: Have car, have AAA.
Within moments, my tire was pumped up, all ready to drive to the tire shop. Not before the AAA measured the tread left on my other tires — because on AWD cars you need to replace all tires if the tread is low on the other tires. Ack.
In my case, it took 6 hours to find out that’s what had caused the flat in my rear tire. A big fat screw on the sidewall that made the tire irreparable.
Or at least the tire guy told me.
I’m lucky to live in an area where there were almost too many tire shop choices.
Somehow I decided to go with the “chain tire store.” Despite their having only 3 stars on Yelp.
Partly it was their location, near lunch and coffee spots, versus the other shop which was in an area where I wasn’t sure I wanted to walk around with a laptop on my back.
Anyhoo…so I leave the car there. It’d be $20 to patch the tire.
Off for lunch, then coffee.
I call, they say the car’s nearly ready. The bad news: My tread is so low that I would need 4 new tires.
- Oh really? That’s not what the AAA guy said!
Knowledge is Power
Having armed myself with the AAA guy’s diagnosis that the other tires did have enough tread that all 4 wouldn’t need to be replaced, I thanked Fuckstone, left with my little spare tire as a temporary fix, and crossed the street to the dealer service.
There I implored someone to measure the tread on the other 3 tires.
Lesson 2: Get second, third, fourth opinions.
“You have enough tread!” the guy announced.
So off I went to the very first tire shop I had called, who said they could have a new tire tomorrow.
There they confirmed my other 3 tires were fine.
Money saved: $300.
Whether for medical problems, food business vendor choices, car repair or any other big decisions, do not hesitate to get a second, third or fourth opinion!
You’ll be glad you did, no matter how much time it takes.
Happy 🙂
