Dissociated Thoughts

Spiked

         While times have been rough for me of late, yesterday was even more so. The day began like normal: coffee, news, more coffee, followed by a trip to the pharmacy to pick up the prescriptions that were filled for this week. It was a gray, drizzly morning so I chose to go through the pharmacy's drive-thru rather than go in to get the meds. I never left my vehicle while on that trip into town and pulled into my garage as soon as I returned home.

I tell you that so I can tell you this (as my darling husband likes to say) - When it was time to leave again, this time for work, I put the Jeep into reverse and began backing out of my garage. I heard a "clunk, pause, clunk" as I emerged from the garage onto the drive. It sounded like there was something stuck under the Jeep, so I put it in park and got out to look underneath. I didn't find anything under there, so I jumped back into the driver's seat and put the gear back into reverse. That's when warning lights appeared on the dash and warning dings started sounding.

I decided to check the limited information that my Jeep puts on the digital dashboard to see if that might tell me anything. The tire light was one of the lights that had appeared, so I checked the tire pressure readout on the dash. It said my front driver's side tire only had 18 PSI. It didn't look flat when I went into the garage to start the vehicle. (Yes, I checked. I check every time I have to drive anywhere. I've been stranded because of problematic tires before.) Well, I got back out and looked again. Sure enough, the tire was flat. I got a huge knot in the pit of my stomach. What the hell could be wrong? I've gotta get to work and Mark is out of town for the day. Damnit!

Tires don't just magically go flat. I had just driven the Jeep earlier, and the tires felt and sounded fine on the road on that trip. No "clunk", no pull to the side that the tire is on, which would have happened had the tire been flat or even low on that first journey into town.

I thought I might have hit a nail or something while I was backing out. It wouldn't have been the first time someone's road fodder (or my husband's misplaced junk) ruined one of my tires. So, I ran my hand around the tire to see if I could feel anything stuck in the tire. Something poked my hand. What the Hell! I'm bleeding! What is that? Whatever it was that was stuck in my tire was more to the inside, and it was spikey. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and maneuvered it back there so I could take a picture of the mystery object and maybe get an idea of what it might be. I had no idea what I would find.

This wasn't anything of my husband's. It wasn't road fodder either. There was a homemade tire spike in my tire. Someone had taken nails and welded them together, sharp side out, in a manner that resembled a jack (remember playing jacks as kids?). Someone deliberately made this object to ruin someone's tire - and I was the unlucky recipient.

What do I do now? I tried to call my husband, but he didn't answer. Tried again, still to no avail. Then I phoned my boss and told her what was going on and that I would most likely be late getting to work. I didn't hold back with my frustration, and more than a few F-bombs escaped my mouth while I was on the phone with her. She started to laugh. I told her I was serious and she said, "I know. It's just that I have never heard you say 'f*ck' so many times in one sentence!" (Well, I'm glad that gave her a chuckle. I was still none too happy about the situation.) She told me she was sending someone to pick me up. At least I had a ride to work. I left my Jeep parked in the drive and locked it up when my ride arrived to take me to work.

Well, with that taken care of, I tried calling my husband one last time and finally got hold of him to tell him of the whole damned issue. He was incensed, certain someone had come into our garage and placed the thing under my tire or left it on the driveway for one of us to run over. Whether it was actually meant for one of us or not, whoever made the thing did so with the intent to cause damage to someone else's vehicle/tire. I mean, I doubt (and seriously hope against) anyone around here would be making bombs, which is the only other reason one of these not so little quad-spikes would have been made.

Yeah. I'm fine, made it to work on time, and my tire has been fixed, but I still don't feel too safe on the road now. Ugh.