Mama said there'd be days like these....
Wednesday I drove home after spending a week in Phoenix, it's almost 500 miles and about a 10 hour drive with dawdling and stops for photography and fuel and snacks and etcetera. My Subaru Crosstrek had my bike rack attached, to which my bike was attached. My wife met me at Applebee's for a late dinner before ascending the mountain and we got home about 11:30. Brought in the essentials: suit cases, ice chests, backpack with laptop. Unpacked the ultra-essentials: perishables from ice chests, meds, iPad, etc., and went to bed after frolicking with the dogs and sending parents and friends emails that I'd arrived home safely.
Thursday I did very little except rest. Absolutely no reason to do anything with the car. No concerns about the bike on the back of the car as it was securely locked and anyone wanting to steal it would need a 19mm wrench and would activate all the dogs.
Friday was going to be a busy day. Finish unloading smaller stuff from the car, unload bike, remove bike rack, clear out back of the car so I could load my summer tires and get the snow tires swapped out.
And then things got interesting.
I could swear that when I loaded the bike on my car Wednesday that the rear tire seemed fine. The front tire was a little soft but the rear tire was OK. Friday it was completely flat. I got the bike off the rack, pulled the rack off my car, got the pump out of my wife's car, backed my car out of the car port for some sunshine while I'm doing all this, plugged it in to the 'accessory power port', and got ready to inflate the tire.
First step: pull the valve stem out fully so I can better attach the pump nozzle to it. And I pulled the valve stem completely off the tube.
Rubber rot.
So back goes the bike rack in to the trailer hitch, back goes the bike on to the bike rack, and down in to The Village (I AM NOT A NUMBER, I AM A FREE MAN!) to take it to get serviced. New tubes for both tires as they're of equal age, general lube and inspection. I'll pick it up probably Tuesday.
Back home, remove bike rack and stow it in the shed (had I been smart, I would have left it close to the car: it ain't light). Clean out car, move summer tires in to car. Drive down to Alamogordo, get tires swapped. While I'm sitting there reading a book on my iPad, tire guy comes over. This is a bad sign: if they were done, they'd call me to the counter. A lug nut had seized and they have to cold chisel it off to get the tire off, but at least they completed the tire swap and my summer tires are on. Since they're my tire guys and the only ones who've messed with my tires since my snow tires were put on last November, they're responsible. I'll have to go in next week for about an hour or so for them to replace the stud, fortunately at no cost to me aside from time.
It happens, no big.
Next stop, chiropractor. My back's been bothering me, and part of the problem is my car seat. I went to the dealership in Phoenix to find out what's going on with the seat. Turns out that the foam in the seat back is collapsing. The car is a '15, I've had it less than three years. Needless to say, replacing foam is not covered by warranty or extended warranty. Dealership would want some $700 to replace the foam. I'll be looking at upholsterers to see how much I can get it done for locally.
So I walk in to the chiropractor and there's a sign: my doctor is out Friday. No big deal, I can see her dad, he does a good job. And I get adjusted. I had also bought a really nice cushion at Bed Bath and Beyond before leaving Phoenix and I think it really helped. It's an "As Seen On TV", I might buy a couple more.
Finish with chiro, go to fill car and get it washed, get the dead bugs scraped off the windshield. Exit the car wash, and there's now a crack covering about 30% of the windshield on the driver's side! Weren't thar when I went in to the car wash! Stop and look, and there's a spot in the top left corner in that area where it's supported by the black body work and it looks like it was shot by a BB. Clearly I got hit by a rock during my drive and the temperature of the car wash water caused it to split.
I really needed lunch at this time, so I go and get a burger and onion rings. Thus fortified, I go to my insurance agent, and she calls the claims people, who call Safelite, and Monday I have an appointment to drive down to El Paso for a new windshield. Takes about 45 minutes, all said and done, to file the claim and arrange for the appointment. Replacing the windshield is not straightforward on two counts. First, my Crosstrek is a premium model: the the part of the windshield where the wiper blades park is electrically heated in case of a winter storm, so you have to make sure you get the correct windshield. B, my Crosstrek has the Subaru Eyesight system that provides adaptive cruise control: it has two cameras next to the rear view mirrors that watch traffic ahead of me. I did not know this, but if you replace the windshield, the system has to be recalibrated. Conveniently, this particular Safelite facility has the equipment to recalibrate it! So that's quite spiffy.
I'm really not too keen to go to El Paso for a single reason: it's a two hour drive and I have no other purpose to go there except to do the windshield and get lunch. Normally I'll have three or four errands to do before I go, but not this trip. At least it's an important trip. I'll probably stop at the mall, it's across the interstate from the Vietnamese place that I'll be going for lunch. The mall has a Think Geek store and the last time that I was there they had an awesome shirt that I wanted to get for my wife, it said "You've read my shirt (then in smaller print) I think that's enough social interaction for the day". Sadly they didn't have it in her size at that time.
Thursday I did very little except rest. Absolutely no reason to do anything with the car. No concerns about the bike on the back of the car as it was securely locked and anyone wanting to steal it would need a 19mm wrench and would activate all the dogs.
Friday was going to be a busy day. Finish unloading smaller stuff from the car, unload bike, remove bike rack, clear out back of the car so I could load my summer tires and get the snow tires swapped out.
And then things got interesting.
I could swear that when I loaded the bike on my car Wednesday that the rear tire seemed fine. The front tire was a little soft but the rear tire was OK. Friday it was completely flat. I got the bike off the rack, pulled the rack off my car, got the pump out of my wife's car, backed my car out of the car port for some sunshine while I'm doing all this, plugged it in to the 'accessory power port', and got ready to inflate the tire.
First step: pull the valve stem out fully so I can better attach the pump nozzle to it. And I pulled the valve stem completely off the tube.
Rubber rot.
So back goes the bike rack in to the trailer hitch, back goes the bike on to the bike rack, and down in to The Village (I AM NOT A NUMBER, I AM A FREE MAN!) to take it to get serviced. New tubes for both tires as they're of equal age, general lube and inspection. I'll pick it up probably Tuesday.
Back home, remove bike rack and stow it in the shed (had I been smart, I would have left it close to the car: it ain't light). Clean out car, move summer tires in to car. Drive down to Alamogordo, get tires swapped. While I'm sitting there reading a book on my iPad, tire guy comes over. This is a bad sign: if they were done, they'd call me to the counter. A lug nut had seized and they have to cold chisel it off to get the tire off, but at least they completed the tire swap and my summer tires are on. Since they're my tire guys and the only ones who've messed with my tires since my snow tires were put on last November, they're responsible. I'll have to go in next week for about an hour or so for them to replace the stud, fortunately at no cost to me aside from time.
It happens, no big.
Next stop, chiropractor. My back's been bothering me, and part of the problem is my car seat. I went to the dealership in Phoenix to find out what's going on with the seat. Turns out that the foam in the seat back is collapsing. The car is a '15, I've had it less than three years. Needless to say, replacing foam is not covered by warranty or extended warranty. Dealership would want some $700 to replace the foam. I'll be looking at upholsterers to see how much I can get it done for locally.
So I walk in to the chiropractor and there's a sign: my doctor is out Friday. No big deal, I can see her dad, he does a good job. And I get adjusted. I had also bought a really nice cushion at Bed Bath and Beyond before leaving Phoenix and I think it really helped. It's an "As Seen On TV", I might buy a couple more.
Finish with chiro, go to fill car and get it washed, get the dead bugs scraped off the windshield. Exit the car wash, and there's now a crack covering about 30% of the windshield on the driver's side! Weren't thar when I went in to the car wash! Stop and look, and there's a spot in the top left corner in that area where it's supported by the black body work and it looks like it was shot by a BB. Clearly I got hit by a rock during my drive and the temperature of the car wash water caused it to split.
I really needed lunch at this time, so I go and get a burger and onion rings. Thus fortified, I go to my insurance agent, and she calls the claims people, who call Safelite, and Monday I have an appointment to drive down to El Paso for a new windshield. Takes about 45 minutes, all said and done, to file the claim and arrange for the appointment. Replacing the windshield is not straightforward on two counts. First, my Crosstrek is a premium model: the the part of the windshield where the wiper blades park is electrically heated in case of a winter storm, so you have to make sure you get the correct windshield. B, my Crosstrek has the Subaru Eyesight system that provides adaptive cruise control: it has two cameras next to the rear view mirrors that watch traffic ahead of me. I did not know this, but if you replace the windshield, the system has to be recalibrated. Conveniently, this particular Safelite facility has the equipment to recalibrate it! So that's quite spiffy.
I'm really not too keen to go to El Paso for a single reason: it's a two hour drive and I have no other purpose to go there except to do the windshield and get lunch. Normally I'll have three or four errands to do before I go, but not this trip. At least it's an important trip. I'll probably stop at the mall, it's across the interstate from the Vietnamese place that I'll be going for lunch. The mall has a Think Geek store and the last time that I was there they had an awesome shirt that I wanted to get for my wife, it said "You've read my shirt (then in smaller print) I think that's enough social interaction for the day". Sadly they didn't have it in her size at that time.