A Sheet of Ice

Well, a funny thing happened. I was driving to work and turned into the parking lot. There was what looked like about 1/2 inch of snow covering the entire parking lot. Thus, seeing the conditions, I took the turn much slower than I normally would have. I immediately began to slide and released the breaks completely. So, here I am, sliding around this slightly downhill slope, no touch my break so I will have control, and aimed right at the curb. My thoughts were as follows:

"Well, I have a few choices here... 1) I can try to drive over the curb, so I don't hurt my tire. No, that wouldn't work, I'd just get stuck in those bushes and probably dink up the bottom of my car. 2) I can turn my wheel a little to try to drive onto, but not over, the curb. I might be able to recover from the slide then. If I can't, then chances are I'll get a front and a back tire stuck up here and won't be able to get out... or I'll hit that parked car. 3) I can just leave my wheel parrallel to the curb so that it'll smack it and stop the slide, then I'll be fine. I won't hit that car, I won't get stuck in the bushes, and I won't be sliding. Hmm, I think I'll take option 3."

I straightened my wheel some, so it wouldn't slam in directly on the side and let myself nail the curb. Everything seemed OK until lunch time. I got in my car started driving, and when I hit 25mph, my steering wheel started to vibrate. I had no idea what was going on. I took it into the Firestone and it turns out I bent up the wheel (the actuall wheel, sometimes called the rim) pretty badly and had to replace it. Cost $70 to replace that part, and I decided to get snow tires for my front tires for an additional $150. So, I'm all good now.

The funny part about all this, though, is coming up. I was talking to the lead programmer today and he was talking about his "Midas Touch"... I still don't know why he was. When I asked what he meant, he said: "Oh, I hit the curb yesterday and bent up the wheel on my car". I couldn't help it. I split my side laughing. After a stunned second he said: "You did it too, huh?" I agreed with him and we had a good laugh wondering how many others had done the same thing. He got his wheel replaced today on his lunch break.

Great times, Great weather, Great cars.

I love Utah in the Winter!