The summer after 10th grade, my mom made me take driving lessons with Mr. Wenner. He was sort of mean to me, and usually seemed a lot nicer to whomever else was in the car, especially if it was a girl. One day I remember parallel parking and I hit the curb with the wheel. I wasn't going to fast of course - 1mph? - but when I was done, he told me to stop and park the car, so I did, and he got out and kicked the hubcap on the tire.
I forget if I asked him why he did that or not, but he explained. He said that hitting a hubcap against a curb or something like that could make it pop off later when you weren't expecting it. I remember him saying something along the lines of "a sustained speed of 45 miles per hour" as an example of when it would happen, and I think he mentioned being on I-95 as well.
Since then, but getting progressively worse with time, I've been afraid of my hubcaps popping off while at a sustained speed of 45 miles per hour or higher. Sometimes I hit the toll booth curbs and for the rest of the drive I'm terrified that my hubcap is going to pop off. I know, shut up, I'm bad at toll booths. I have to parallel park all the time now though, and every time I hit the curb, I'm afraid one of my right tires is going to explode the next time I drive to work. I end a lot of my car rides with a good bout of kicking.
I'm also afraid that I messed up the axles between the wheels on my car. The first thing I did that I think screwed this up was driving off a curb in Avalon while looking for parking at 31st street which I thought was an exit, but was not, but I didn't feel like backing out and looking for another way out. Yesterday, I think, I was turning while backing my car out of a driveway and my wheel slammed down onto the road again and I was convinced I split my axle. I probably was tricking myself, but the drive felt different too. Things went okay driving today, though.
But yeah, with all those drives to and from DC recently, I spend a lot of time wondering if my car is shaking because the wheels are about to fall off, the axles are about to break, or if it's just what cars do. I also get scared when the car shakes when I use the brakes.
Apparently some guy in Europe recently used the wrong lug nuts on his hubcaps and all four of his wheels popped off simultaneously while he was on the highway, and he is suing someone (the nut manufacturer?) because of it. That's a little reassuring, sort of.
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In case you haven't noticed, I've been making a concerted effort to make my post titles wittier recently. Enjoy it. Yeah.
Peace out.
