b flat

[helen99]

Wellp, this morning aekiy, who has been temporarily using Smurf in order to keep the car running and until he can get himself a better car, discovered that Smurf's left front tire, which had been fine the day before, was flat. We proceeded to put the donut on it whereupon he was able to drive off to his eye doctor appointment.

Already slightly delayed by the unexpected flat, I tried to go to work - but after driving a few feet, I realized that one of my tires was flat too. So for the second time this morning, I changed a tire. I drove to the corner gas station to see if the tire was ok - I hadn't driven on it, and didn't see any noticeable tears so I was hoping some jerk just let the air out of it. But No, when they looked at it at the gas station, they determined that the tire had been stabbed with a small knife.

Luckily rialian's car was parked in the driveway, so his tires were ok. This on top of the mushroom allergy event would have been a bit... much.

I'm thinking that next time they might be planning to stab multiple tires on each car instead of just one on each (unless they get caught and mangled first - I filed a police report so I can fantasize a bit). I'll be parking in the driveway from now on.

aekiy, the Getty station a block away from us will order a new tire for you if you leave the tire (not the car) with them. Then when the tire arrives and they're ready to put it on, it'll only take a few minutes.

Unbelievable.

Comments

[aekiy.livejournal.com]

I knew it.. those tires had been perfectly fine before, no sign of leakage, I hadn't run into anything nasty.. I figured it was a slash. Especially since Smurf's been beat up before..

I guess I'll see about leaving the tire there tonight.. or in the morning if I can't do that. How long would it take for the tire to arrive though? I'm not sure how well the 'donut' will hold up..

[helen99.livejournal.com]

They said "a couple of hours". If you took it really early (not sure what time they open), there would be a better chance of getting it before 11. However, you may have a better chance of getting it done right away if you just take it to a tire place (such as "Just Tires" or somewhere like that). I'd have to look up the locations of those places but there are a few relatively close to where we live. The only reason I took it to Getty was so I could walk home in case they could do an oil change today (they couldn't).

I'm not sure how well it will hold up either, especially on the beltway. It's not adviseable to go over 50 with one of those things, because the car isn't balanced. I'm working from home today in hopes that I can get a real tire on mine before actually taking it anywhere.

[aekiy.livejournal.com]

:noddle: Will have to see.. sadly will not be able to take care of this tonight, unless I get out real early. Which is possible since things are very slow here today, but wouldn't count on it.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

btw, I realized I had two jacks in my trunk. The jack that originally came with my car was tucked away and attached by a wingnut to a little recessed area under the trunk's rug, and I'd never seen it - I thought my car didn't have a jack. So before you moved down here, I'd taken smurf's jack. The jack we used this morning is actually Smurf's jack. I'll make sure to give that to you tnight. Meanwhile we'll have to think of somewhere to park your car so it'll be safe(r). I'm afraid that whoever did this might be back.

[aekiy.livejournal.com]

Okay! Ya.. not sure what to do about parking, since there isn't enough room in the driveway for three.. I could try parking on the other street, though I don't know if that would actually help at all.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Probably not, since it would be singled out for its unique beauty wherever it was parked...

[aekiy.livejournal.com]

hee.. (^*^); mya..

[per-akh.livejournal.com]

Well that really fucking sucks. We had a rash of tire slashings in our neighborhood too--the same punks who did that also icepicked the neighbor's pool for the third or fourth time.

Good luck. And I'm terribly sorry about the mushroom allergy, we'll keep Ri in our thoughts.

~Duo

[aekiy.livejournal.com]

Ouch.. that's really horrible. We need to start setting up cameras or something..

[technobushi.livejournal.com]

You could also install trip wire around your house. Or ponji traps.

[aekiy.livejournal.com]

ehe.. I don't think we can legally install that over the sidewalk in front of the house, or across the street itself (it was the side of the car facing the street which was attacked).

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Besides, with my attention span, I'd walk right into my own trap.

We've been fantasizing about setting traps with various virulent or lethal consequences for years, involving poisons, hot pepper, acid, electricity, invisible wires that slice the victims in half. In the absense of the proper materials to construct these traps, we'd settle an intricate network of video cameras that would get the whole thing on film and prove who did it...

All to no avail. Aside from being illegal or too expensive, like I said, I'd be the first victim (mornings aren't my best). The best thing that can happen is if some cop happens to be in the vicinity and relatively invisible and catches them. They were hiding out in the creek for a while to catch drunks, so it's possible...

[technobushi.livejournal.com]

*snicker* If you decide to dig ponji traps, make sure you smear the bamboo spikes with human feces. That way, even if they do escape, the infection will kill eventually.

There is probably a way to install surveillance. The trick is knowing where and what to research. I can look around if you want.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Sure, why not. With my luck I'll probably get videos of drunks urinating. They use my front fence for a rest stop occasionally, thinking nobody can see them through the foliage. However, they're perfectly visible from the house and yard. Unfortunately.

But on the bright side, maybe I'll get lucky and catch a vandal.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Each time they do something like that it costs a lot to fix it (out of already thin budgets), and then they come back and do it again. A few years back they went after mirrors. Smurf had its mirror snapped off twice before aekiy came down and took over its care and feeding, and another car I had got its mirror messed with constantly and then finally snapped.

The cops are pretty vigilant in my neighborhood of late (the number of drunks in the creek has diminished), but they can't be there all the time and I wouldn't really want them to have to be. Reporting it every time sort of gives them patterns to watch out for though, so I'm hoping they'll nose around at night a little more often and maybe catch some of them redhanded.

[ransim.livejournal.com]

Had that happen when I lived in Silver Spring, unfortunately I know who the culprit was, whether I could prove it or not, never understood petty vandalism like that, its more annoying then anything, and doesn't do anyone any good.

[aekiy.livejournal.com]

Ya.. and these are likely not even people we know. Just people wandering by.. certainly no one I know, in any case. It really kind of breaks the brain to think of the sheer senselessness of it.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

When I was about 9 I went through a phase (fortunately short lived) where I just wanted to mess with adults (my cousin was a horrible influence on me - that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it)!

One day we broke some jars and placed the glass on the neighbor's driveway. Fortunately they saw it before they drove on it and didn't get flat tires. However, they were a bit annoyed. Of course everyone knew it was us, because this was just the last in a string of similar activities. We got in appropriate trouble for it and never did anything like that again.

Then one day a vandal sneaked into the yard one night and cut my dad's hose in half. My cousin immediately got blamed for it, but to this day he denies everything...

A lot of the kids in my current neighborhood come from families that are much less benign than mine was, so I can imagine that if they go through a phase similar to the one I went through (let's mess with the stupid adults), it could get pretty damaging, especially if a car looks 'different' (as Smurf does, since it's 19 years old). My yard is also very different - most of it is either wild or vegetable garden - not a speck of lawn in sight. A lot of the kids think it's a "witches house" without knowing anything about us, so I suspect we might as well have a big target painted on the cars. Or it mayh have been a semi-random thing.

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Any idea who did this?

[helen99.livejournal.com]

no clue. Probably just some punk

[animelily.livejournal.com]

Not to make light of pain, but in Japanese to have a flat tire is パンクするPANKU suru, to PUNK. (Actually it's based off of the English word "puncture" but one can't help the irony.)

Still, it sounds like everyone has been having a sucky sucky week.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Hee! Interesting how words kind of migrate across the globe..

[laurelindel.livejournal.com]

Well... shit. Here's hoping whoever it was moves on to another "project", hopefully one that takes him far, far away.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Yeah, maybe to a new project like painting license plates...

[aireathiel.livejournal.com]

Oh ya...Rome burns while Gov cranks up the frankenfood and growth hormones in their food to make em even Meaner!............i...almost..wish..it was total Earth cleansing time come now and get it overwith already :( First it was the headlines and news casts that made my heart sick, now..it's everyday life on the street.
*Hugs* Maybe tomorrow will be better luv...we can Hope.
(moi refuses to surrender Hope to them just yet)

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Ya. Speaking of heartburn, I put you on my political peeps filter. If you don't want to be on there, just say the word and I'll take you off (why court more aggravation than you already see all around you)...

[aireathiel.livejournal.com]

Tis fine by me :)ty
Um...*feeling kinda dumb atm* what is a political peep anyway?