Proof I need new tires

I’ve known for a while that I need new tires on my car. I bought my car brand new in June of 06, so the tires aren’t that old, but in Vegas-time, it’s an eternity. Las Vegas is notoriously hard on car tires and car batteries. My two front tires are getting a little bald around the edges, and I’m able to break traction by running over a thimble full of water. But yet, I haven’t gone to get new ones yet and I don’t have a single good reason why not.

Today, as you may have read 1000 times by now, it snowed in Las Vegas. This, in itself isn’t exactly newsworthy. The difference today was the fact that South Vegas got snowed on; and it stuck to the ground. Normally the people in Summerlin get to post all the cool photos of their swimming pools and palm trees covered in a few inches of snow. But for us Southerners, we get to see the snow, but it’s a fraction of what they get up North and it RARELY sticks to the ground for longer than a few seconds. But not today. Today around 11:30am I saw the first few flakes of snow. None of it was sticking to the ground for the first two hours it was snowing. Then it started to collect on some bushes. And on parked car roofs. Then the grass and eventually even in the road. By the time I left the office at 5:30, it was still snowing and traffic was a mess.

When I got to my car it dawned on me. I’m in for a wild ride. My car tires are in poor shape and traffic is horrendous. This is NOT a good combo. I’m going to have to drive slow. So slow that I’m pissing off the grannies on their way to play bingo. I have no choice. It’s either inch along at snails pace or risk skidding off the road and picking up a palm tree as a hood ornament.

My normal 7 mile, 15 minute drive home tonight took just over 40 minutes. I slid to a stop twice. I kept it together nicely and got myself and my car home in one piece.

When I arrived at home I pushed the button on the remote to open the garage. It lifted effortlessly out of the way and I pulled in to the driveway. As my back wheels hit the incline, that was all she wrote. I was going no further. I spun my tires once, then twice and then a third time just for kicks. It wasn’t budging. I backed the car in to a spot on the street in front of our house and walked in. My wife pointed out that other people have to drive in the snow, too, and it may be a bad idea to leave the car in the street. This led to me shoveling snow off the driveway. We piled all the snow in one spot and turned it in to our very own snowman.

Tomorrow I’ll be using the wife’s car to get to work. Until the snow has melted and the roads are clear again, my car and it’s bald tires are grounded.

Click here to see some of the photos I took throughout the day.