Did a 360

An alert light showed on my dashboard earlier this week. (It turned out to be no big deal.) Then I had a bad dream that I was measuring the air in my tires, and a front tire was ten pounds lower than a rear tire.

I think I know the cause of that dream. So here is a reprise of my post from a previous year.

___________________________

It was rainy today, and I slowed down to what I thought was a safe speed to go from I-405 south to the ramp for NE 8th, to get to Bellevue Square. There is some familiar metal plate in the ramp that is for access to the storm drains or something. I did a slight jink to the right to avoid it.

My car went into a spin to the right. I couldn’t believe it. I turned the steering wheel into the spin, but it went out of control. I admit I kept my foot on the brake instead of pumping it, but the car has anti-lock brakes. Anyway, as the car did a full 180 and I saw other cars on the ramp avoiding me, stepping on the gas pedal might have been inadvisable.

After another 90 degrees, I might have tried the gas a little, I don’t remember. But I felt the back of the car scrape the concrete barrier on the right of the ramp. That’s probably what slowed the spin. I managed to stop the spin at about 360 degrees, but because of the curve of the ramp, the car was still angled a little into traffic. I immediately put the flashers on, restarted the engine (it had probably stopped in the 180 position, so it didn’t matter if I had tried the gas), and moved it a little farther so other drivers would have time to see me as they came onto the ramp.

My immediate thoughts were on how much it would cost to get a rental car as my car was being fixed. 

I got out into the rain to see what I expected to be the mangled rear bumper. I was astonished to not see any damage. Closer inspection showed a scrape about the size of the palm of my hand, revealing tiny specks of paint had come off, showing the primer underneath. Further inspection showed no other damage.

It drives straight, and nothing odd happens when I take my hands off the steering wheel to brake on level pavement. My view is the scrape against the barrier was providential, since otherwise I could have gone beyond 360 and had the right front end of the car hit, and that would have been bad.

At the Bellevue Square parking lot, I found the right front tire had ten pounds lower pressure than the others. This confirmed my suspicion it has a slow leak, losing ten pounds in somewhat over a month.

Oddly enough, this incident didn’t really bother me the rest of the day. What bothered me was going to the Panda Express at Bellevue Square, having to find a place to sit in the lower part of the mall, realizing I hadn’t gotten a fork, then packing my lunch up to go back up the elevator to get one.