A Story of Good Fortune

Got a little story for ya'.

We drove to Ft. Knox over 2 days stopping a little East of Memphis. The first day a long drive but not too bad. The second day was shorter but wet and cold. Fortunately, we only drove a few hours through that mess. Towards the end of that first day, the change oil light came on (10 or 15% life left). Normally, I check where my oil stands before going on a long trip but I had failed to do so for this trip. No problem, I'll just get it changed in Ft. Knox. We arrive on a Thursday afternoon so I took the car to Jiffy Lube (rarely do I use such places) first thing Friday morning. As they were wrapping up the change and making final tire pressure and fluids checks, the guy asks if I knew my front left tire rim was broken. NO!!! I go look and this is what I see.

This photo doesn't do full justice to just how bad it was. I have NO IDEA how the tire was holding pressure. There was no indication while driving that this had happened. Neither Donnice nor I remember hitting anything. With the big drop in temperatures at home, I had to adjust tire pressures a week or so before this trip. Surely I would have noticed this.

Well, this wheel was not making it back to Texas - a drive scheduled to start the following Monday. There is a Ford dealership just a couple of blocks from the Jiffy Lube so I drive there - with a turned over stomach! If that rim had let loose, the tire and likely part of my fender would likely have been torn to shreds and the best outcome would have been just that and no wreck. I'd rather not think about the worst outcome. The back of the car was filled with Chris-crap and would have made getting to the spare a mess in the cold, wet weather on an interstate filled with 18 wheelers. My head is spinning with the potential consequences.

The Ford dealership located a matching rim in Louisville and they had a runner up there already. The new rim didn't get back to Ft. Knox until late Friday. Another stroke of luck - the QuickLane (Ford service) was open Saturday and they would get the tire changed at that time. There was no damage to the tire so it was just replacing the rim. Oh yea, it was a $1650 rim. Remember Doug, the alternatives could have been infinitely worse. $1650 isn't that bad - keep telling myself!

This string of good fortune (I'm assuming the rim was going to fail regardless) was all started by me not changing the oil. Had I not changed oil in Ft. Knox, would I ever have known about this crack in the rim without the consequences of a total failure? Our guardian angels were working overtime.

Here is another photo of Sunset Dome to take our minds off that wheel!

And this is the closeup view (cropped to 100%) of the bat from yesterday. You can see it is hanging upside down as it hibernates.

Thanks,

Comments

Post a Comment

Please include your name in your comment so I know the author! Thanks.

Popular posts from this blog

Palo Duro Canyon

Image
I was  pleasantly surprised by the number of comments back from my reunion e-mail yesterday. I appreciated each of them as most referenced similar feelings to what I tried to express. You just never know.... We met up with a couple Thursday night to go to the Texas play in Palo Duro Canyon. I grabbed a few quick photos of the canyon on the drive in. The panhandle has been blessed with a wet spring and the canyon was beautiful with all the green. If you have never been to this state gem, you are missing something. Growing up, I spent many an hour in this park creating great memories. The sky was clear and the temperatures hot for these photos. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/
Read more

Moon Photos

Image
So "everybody" took photos of the Super Blue Moon on August 19. The "Super" part was due to its orbit being closer to the earth than normal. The "Blue" can have two definitions. The more common definition is the second full moon in a calendar month. Obviously this moon did not fit that description given the August 19 date (moon cycle is 29.5 days). The second definition is a fourth full moon in a seasonal quarter. I didn't know about this definition until I investigated a little. Learned something new...... A few days prior on August 17, we were taking a boat ride on Cow Bayou in Bridge City. The moon looked great so I snapped a few photos from a slow moving pontoon boat hoping for a reasonable shot. The moon phase showed 95% visible. In my opinion, I like partial moon shots better than the full moon shots. Look at the extra detail we can see on the craters when they are on the edge of illumination. The sunlight is hitting the peaks of the craters and ...
Read more

James Earl Rudder

Image
While on the subject of people that have made significant contributions to TAMU, James Earl Rudder is one of those individuals. Rudder was a 1932 graduate of TAMU and commissioned into the US Army. On June 6, 1944 as a Lt.Col., he led a company of 225 Army Rangers in the assault at Pointe Du Hoc in the D-Day Invasion of France. He and his troops faced 90 foot cliffs heavily protected by German fire. His mission was virtually impossible but with incredible bravery, they succeeded in taking the location, though only 90 men survived the assault. He continued his role in WW II, including the Battle of the Bulge, to its end.  After the war, he was a leader in private and public roles before becoming the 16th president of TAMU in 1959. He made the decision to transition A&M from an all-male military university to what you see today - corps optional, women, and integration. That decision was not received well by many/most former students but he knew it was needed for A&M to become...
Read more