Its snowing in NJ.

Barb and I were out testing the traction control and ABS on the new van. Its really neat. I never used ABS in bad weather before, so its a new sensation when braking.

Posted by Paul Begley at 16:32

This was an interesting week.

Monday I had an appointment in our companies Maryland office. I wanted to be in the office by 8AM, so I left Mount Laurel around 5:30AM. I stopped for coffee at the first Starbucks near Elkton, MD on I-95. Getting out of the car, I heard the distinctive hiss of my rear tire going flat. I must have picked up a nail somewhere. It was still dark, so I drove over to the Texaco, but no one was available until after 7:30 to patch the tire. There was an Exxon at the other end of the center, so I started to drive to the other side of the center. Driving through the parking lot, I failed to notice a concrete divider separating an employee parking lot. I swerved to avoid the curb, but blew out my front passenger tire and dented the rim. Now I had a flat front tire and a rapidly deflating rear tire and I was blocking the entrance to the gas pumps.

I put my mini-spare on the front tire since it was blown out, moved the car out of harms way and went to Starbucks for coffee. At 7:30, I returned to the Texaco. The service guy was very helpful. He repaired the rear tire and banged the dent out of the front tire. He didn't have a replacement tire, so I checked at the Exxon. They were out of my size tire, but recommended going to NTB about 20-25 miles South on I-95. I drove down to exit 77, found NBT and got two new front tires. It was 9:30 by the time I was back on the road. I really, really wanted to get the best wet weather tires for the Taurus since I want to keep the car for Sarah. I got Michelin X/One tires, which are pretty good wet weather tires, but I didn't have much time to research and they were the best they had available in the size I required for the Taurus.

So it goes.

Posted by Paul Begley at 19:58