Gulp!

An update ~ for those of you who don’t check the Weather Channel every hour on the hour after hearing the words “hurricane in the Atlantic moving west” 🙂 …Hurricane Earl is still a powerful Category 4 hurricane headed towards the United States.  Everyone keeps saying it is going to turn….the sooner the better please.  I’m hopeful…but then ~

Image Credit ~ The Weather Channel

This is the worst case scenario….passing right over the Outer Banks.  They have issued a hurricane watch for most of the North Carolina coast.  Interests in Virginia and north to New England have been advised to monitor Earl.  The best case scenario has it at a more desirable distance……

Image Credit ~ The Weather Channel

It is still a long ways off…..there is time for that turn.  But just in case…..

I bought some water.  I will keep my eye on the tracking and if it continues on the worst case scenario path, I will get some more things tomorrow.  I know some people were going home this evening to look at what they will need to secure.   It may seem a little early to begin to plan….but you got to have a plan when it comes to hurricanes. 

I got the water while I was at Costco getting new tires.  Yes….new tires.  I had quite a surprise when I got to work this morning.  While driving in…on the interstate…I heard this clunking kind of sound and looked in the rear view to see something black rolling around in the road as I thought “what the hell was that?”.  Nothing seemed wrong with the car or the way it handled…..and I noticed there were pieces of tire or tread on the highway so I assumed I had run over a piece.  I thought about pulling over to have a look see, but decided everything was alright and went on in to the office.  I took my lunch and things in and went back out to check the tire….my supervisor came with me.  This is what I saw….(I went back and got my camera, I didn’t have it at first glance)

My tire came apart!  While I was driving down the interstate!  How scary is that?!?  Well….not as scary as when I looked at the other three tires and saw a similar crack all around each one ~ in other words, the remaining three were getting ready to join this one and fall to pieces exactly the same way.  The piece of something I saw in my rear view mirror…my tire.  I couldn’t believe it….there was no way I could ride home on this tire.  And then the best thing happened ~ my manager changed my tire for me.  Out there in the heat, in the parking lot ~ he changed my tire for me.  He got hot, he got dirty ~ fortunately he was in jeans ~ and he didn’t even complain. A full sized spare, not an easy chore.  I am beyond grateful.  I’m nominating him for the best manager ever.  🙂

These tires were old, original tires on the Jeep.  I would look at them to be sure they were inflated, but I never “really looked” close enough to see the crack forming around the outside of the tire.  I only noticed them after this…..and then they were glaringly obvious.  How long had they been there?  I have to believe these have just come about in the last couple of weeks or so.  It makes my heart skip a beat to think what if this had happened when I was traveling.  Check your tires closely folks…..especially if they have a lot of miles and some age on them!