Unexpected expenses
Last night, I drove to downtown DC late at night for MA’s birthday bash.
On my way to pick up HI, who was coming along, I heard some strange noise coming from underneath my car. It was a light, rhythmic thump, thump, thump. I just chalked it up to strange sounds when it rains hard.
When we arrived downtown and parked, I took a quick look at the tires on the driver’s side on some sort of intuition. They looked fine. I didn’t bother checking the passenger side.
The birthday bash was at a lounge, not my usual type of hangout. It was loud. Drinks were expensive. The birthday girl was running late (or rather, I keep forgetting that on the coasts, parties start at least an hour or two late). After she arrived, I said my greetings and left not long after.
On the way back, the thump, thump, thump seemed a bit louder. It seemed to get progressively worse.
By the time we got back to Arlington, even though I had not had a flat tire before, I was getting certain a flat tire was the cause of the noise. The pattern was regular and based on speed. My acceleration and handling was getting funky.
I was only about a mile or less from my apartment when it really started to sound like metal going against the road. I wasn’t sure whether to pull over and change the tire or to try to make it back to my apartment. Well, I figured I might as well try to make it back.
Luckily, I made it okay to my apartment. When I got out of my car, my fears were confirmed. The rear passenger-side tire was dreadfully flat. It was raining hard. I was tired and just didn’t want to deal with it then. I guess part of me was hoping that it was a bad dream and that it would go away by the time I woke up in the morning.
But, of course, it didn’t. After eating breakfast, I went out to the parking lot. The tire was still flat. So, I called the local auto shop for a tire appointment and then went out and changed the tire. It was my first time actually changing a tire, and I was a little surprised about how smooth it went.
Anyway, I ended up getting a set of 4 new tires for the car. I got this car from my parents, and for some reason, it had mismatching tires. They were all getting old (about 4 years old), so I just got them all replaced. That was $500 down the drain.