So....1st day of vacation Monday, Mama & I took the '74 Corvette for it's annual State Inspection. From there, the PLAN was to run out to the shop, so the folks I werk with could see the real car....and know it isn't just a figment of my imagination(since I never drive it anymore). We leave the inspection place, and get on the freeway, headed to the shop. Aboot 5 miles down the road, I hear it....pass side rear tire lets loose.... Damn things are only 22 years old...WTF?? :head bang:
Got a spare....but I bet it's flat too. Plus...it's next to impossible to get the spare out of the tub with a flat on the rear of the car. So...I calls the Emergency Roadside Assistance # that is provided with my brand name classic car insurance. What a friggin joke. First female I talk to tells me I got the wrong number, even tho she acknowledged the service on answering. I got pissed and hung up after she suggested she could get someone else on the line "That speaks your language"...REALLY?!?!?!?
After I hung up, Mama calls the SAME NUMBER, and gets a different, but just as ignorant female. I tell her it's hard to hear, since we are sitting on the left side of a busy freeway, trying to keep from getting run over. Her response? "Ain't MY fault you sitting on the side of the road". After another 20 minutes of trying to tell this dumb b***h edzarchary where we were, I gave up....I was just too pissed to deal with the stoopidity any longer. I got out, dug out my OE, 1974 issue jack/lug wrench, and get started changing the tire myself. Even if the spare was totally flat, it should get me the 1/8th mile up the road to the next exit, and off the freeway. From there, I could decide what to do in safety. Get the tub loosened up, but have to jack the car up before it is high enough to get the spare out. That's when I find out for real just how stout the OE lug wrenches are...I bend the crap out of it loosening the lugs, but I get them loose, and finish jacking the car up. Of course, the spare is totally flat, but otherwise in good shape. I install the spare, insert the floppy, hole-filled road tire in the tub, and off we go. Call the shop to get info on a tire store close to where we were(Tanx, Julie!), and limp to the tire store.....where they inform me the only tires they have in stock my size are the crappiest, cheapest junk on the planet. No thanks...got something at one of the other stores/warehouse? Thankfully, the warehouse has some Cooper Cobras in stock my size, and they can send a lacky out to get them right now, if I want. Wull...YEAH...I want. I give instructions on how to start the car, and the road wheel is in the tub, put the spare(pass side rear) back in the tub and new tire on road wheel.....in one ear, out the other. I'm sure those guys were glad to get rid of me, by the time they were finished screwing everything up.
So...back on the road again, Mama says we still gots time to get to the shop, so off we go. Stop by the shop, visit for a minute or so, and off we go to a new-ish antique mall down the road. Run thru it fairly quickly, then head back home, stopping at another antique mall on the way home. Pull up into the parking lot there, and....that's when the driver side lectric winder decides it don't wanna play no mo....it decide it wants to just stay open/down. ARRRRRGH! I give up......to the house we go...right at the perfect time to hit the evening Dallas/Ft. Worth rush hour traffic. SONofab.......
Finally made it home, and put the poor beast(the car, not me) to bed. Still haven't gone out to clean it or put the cover back on it yet....I need to figure out the winder issue before putting the cover on it. Just to make things a little more interesting, I find the OE urethane front front bumper cover has split right down the center of the front....does the fun never end, or whut?
Vacation my ass.... :rant: