Just a stone’s throw from my office is the Hall County YMCA. My office manager is a spin instructor and doing spin is a bit of a craze these days and reportedly has the most calories expended per time spent spinning. The deal is you can sit or stand with any combination of increasing the gear of the stationary bike you are on. In addition to this there are fans and loud music. I’ve done it for about four years and as a result I am probably in the best shape aerobically that I have been in my life despite having gained some weight last year.
Something that has been a concern of mine is the one mile road I take to get there. White Sulphur road a two lane with horrible shoulders and several companies with 18 wheelers on it all the time. I used to jog on it and then biked on it but the traffic and particularly the big trucks made it untenable. And now the road in a car is unsafe. Last year there was a head on collision in which someone lost their life.
So keep in mind the last post. Keep in mind that I have a 96 van that leaks gas, a 86 Toyota truck that back fires, and the Mustang that leaks oil, has old ass brakes, only bright head lights and a non functional defrost situation.
Last night I was coming home from the Y on the road in question after spin and listening to the novel on my iphone “New York” and out of no where is a tremendous shutter and jolt to the front left part of the Mustang. I thought I had hit a deer, “we gots lots of deer here in Georgia” and I was impressed just how fast it all happened. It shook me to my bones but to my surprise no real consequence to the car, no tire issue, or new sounds. I continued on as if nothing happened but planned to pull over to check out the car and try to determine what happened.
In my rear view mirror the car behind me starts blinking its headlights and so I pull over sooner than I had planned hoping it wasn’t someone pissed off at me thinking whatever happened to me somehow put him at risk in his car and it was my fault.
A guy gets out and approaches me, “Hey buddy that was a pot hole back there. I hit it last night. That thing popped your hubcap off and it rolled off in front of me. It’s on the left up there about 100 yards. That’s one hell of a pot hole.”
It was dark and raining and so I elected to go back this morning and see if I could find it and that is the picture above. Of course as I retell the story to my wife I get the lecture about having a car that has no blemishes and has air back. My daughter says, “Get a damn car that works and is safe!”
I am not telling my car stories anymore, too much grief.
So today I am telling a retired police officer about this pot hole. “While I am there getting my hubcap I hear a loud thud and shudder of another car hitting that damn pot hole. Why don’t they fix it.”
He says, ” Is it right there in front of the cheese factory just before the railroad tracks.”
I say, “Yes.”
He says, ” I hit it coming to your office last week. I reported it to the DOT a week ago. I am surprised they haven’t fixed it.”
So…the pothole,gas leaks,shot gun sounds when I accelerate the truck and the rusted out bed that trash fall through and endangers the cars behind me. Oh yeah, a possum crawled into one of our trash cans and died and now it is in a plastic bag in the truck….what if it falls out through the rusted out hole in the back of the truck and then causes some sort of traffic injury….
Okay…I think this is enough of a hint…a new car…but what kind. Remember I got dogs and trash to deal with and of course a reputation about the kind of car I drive.
Prostate Diaries 