Member-only story
The current gig I’m on has me working away from home M-F.
I drive to a place about 95 miles from home on a Sunday, and return home Friday after work.
I’m put up at reasonable accommodations, so I can’t complain.
I’ve worked under considerably less convivial conditions elsewhere in the past.
Most of the commute is freeways, for which I’m grateful.
The drive is usually uneventful, and the level of traffic depends on whether there’s been an accident. Which is entirely unpredictable.
When there isn’t I feel fortunate.
All it takes is one fender bender, one person running out of petrol or having mechanical difficulty to cause traffic to slow to a crawl — or sometimes stop — for miles.
I’m actually surprised it doesn’t happen more often.
I was paying attention to driving when I felt something a bit out of the ordinary. It seemed to be coming from the rear of the vehicle.
At 60 mph one travels 88 feet/second.
I don’t recall my exact speed, but I was keeping up with the flow of traffic and surmise I was covering well over 100 feet/sec.
At that rate there is little time to make a decision.
I thought I’d continue on, staying attuned to what I thought might be a problem. Sure enough, it became rapidly apparent there was a real problem with a rear tire. The ride became bumpy and I had…
