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| If you look close, you can actually see the steel from the belts. No bueno. |
This has been a year for unexpected expenses. Or rather, for spending money before I had intended.
The tires on the truck were most certainly on their last season, the tread worn nearly to the wear bars. But since it’s summer, I had hoped to run them until Fall, getting every mile I could out of them before shelling out for pricey replacements. The trouble with wear-replaceable items is that if you replace them early, you’re often just wasting money.
But then, while stretching for my half marathon on Saturday, I noticed the damage shown above. So much for plans! The tread was starting to separate from the carcass of the tire in a serious way, and that doesn’t give me warm fuzzies when I’m hurtling down the freeway at [undisclosed speed].
So I made a call to my favorite tire shop, Jamie’s Tire & Service in Fairborn. My family has been taking our cars and trucks there for decades, and I even worked there for a short stint before I left for Basic Training, many years ago. Eric told me they could get the tires I wanted in by that evening, and made me an appointment for this morning to have them installed.
Going to Jamie’s is always like a trip home, for me. I was a kid in that waiting room, while they fixed Mom’s van. I was a young adult there, slinging tires and oil for a living while I waited for the Air Force to give me a date. The familiar faces, the smell of the still-curing new rubber, the industrially musical sounds of impact tools and hydraulic lift motors and banging mallets always conjure a smile. I always enjoy that background music while I lounge in the waiting area, reading a copy of Bicycling and sipping my iced coffee.
This morning’s smile was somewhat dampened by having to spend this $900 four months early, and by the revelation that I’ll soon need to spend $600 more on worn chassis and suspension components. The shuffling of one spending priority up the list always means another must move down, and so this means delaying home projects, motorcycle parts and new bicycles. Ah, the frustrations and compromises of adulthood that they never mention in school.
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| Baby got a new pair of shoes! |