Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Wheels

I have been in some interesting winter episodes with Herbie, the beloved Miata. With true winter tires, it was a good car, but definitely the pint-sized go-cart was not in the same weight class as Old Man Winter.

Today, Rowdy, the Honda Civic, was given a beat-down by winter, under comic circumstances. It was stuck in about 1 cm of snow. The Civic is no SUV or Subaru but certainly a step-up from the Miata: heavier, and front-wheel drive.

Alas, last night I parked in some divots in my local parking lot, and the poor car couldn't be extricated this morning (you would have to see the parking lot to understand -- imagine the front-wheels in an inverted speedbump).

Thankfully, a Salt Squad (assault squad?) scrambled to action tonight. The Honda greeted the team as liberators.

It is a concern, though. Winter has barely started, and this ain't Saint Louis, where it is 17 C / 65 F, once a week, by municipal law.

The first call to action is new tires, which is not going to be cheap or fun. The second call to action (though surely not this year?) is a new ride. There is a hot Subaru out there with my name on it. Old Man Winter would be in a fair fight.

CC

2 comments:

PEICycler said...

I would suggest that it is time for you to pick up a couple bags of traction sand. I believe Kent has it on sale this week. Driveway salt would work as well.

M Easter said...

Noted! Thanks for the tip, but I do have some salt from the recent liberation.

Vic recently voted to "get rid of that toy", a unique criticism of a Honda Civic. He may think I still drive the Miata, which is understandable: I can't park near his house for fear of getting stuck in his driveway.