Kix 'Cool Kids'

I’m slowly getting into the rhythm of normalcy here and I’m managing to reconnect with my friends that wonder… “What in the hell happened to that goofy-ass S.O.B.?”

Lets get to something that I didn’t get to on Sunday… My “near death” experience from last Thursday.

I was told the day before that I wouldn’t be needed for the meeting on Thursday. As it turned out… They needed me for something. I got the call to join the meeting. They didn’t really need me for anything important… They needed me to follow someone to their business, pick up some banners, and take those jokers to our banner makers in Asheboro. Not a problem. Just another cog in my machine of a day.

“How big are these banners? Are they too big for the KZL Nissan?” I asked.

“Just take the white van,” I was told. But the white van was being used by a coworker. So I ended up taking the Rock 92 van. And as it turned out, all I really needed was the Nissan. No complaints. I was just thinking about fuel consumption.

I’m driving down Highway 220 towards Asheboro when I noticed that the right rear could probably use a good balancing. It felt like there was a paint shaker where that wheel should be. There was a lot of shaking, but it was manageable. I would just add that mofo to my “To Do” list. No biggie.

As I was passing under Spero Road, I was in the fast lane doing about 70mph and getting past a slow moving white sedan. The shaking got more violent and I said out loud, “Wonder what’s going on with that right rear?”

Before I could get the word “rear” out of my mouth, I heard something that sounded like a shotgun blast in the back of the truck. My anus clenched tight enough to bend a penny. The Rock 92 van felt like God himself was pushing the rear end from side to side.

I didn’t panic. I just got my foot off the gas pedal and kept it away from the brake pedal. I looked in the right side view mirror and saw metal, rubber, and wood being scattered across the right lanes of Highway 220. The white sedan had gotten ahead of me and there was a trucker in my rearview flashing his lights to let me know that it was okay to scoot over to the breakdown lane.

When I got out to survey the damage to the right rear tire… I found that not much of the tire was still there. Half of the tread was gone and the tire wrapped around the wheel was nothing more than wadded rubber. I knew right then that things could have been much uglier than they were.

I’m not an easy person to startle or scare. I’m usually pretty good in situations that drop on you like a ton of pianos. I was thankful that things didn’t get ugly and I was thankful that someone with less experience wasn’t driving the van when that tire decided to go to Goodyear Heaven. It could have been very ugly indeed.

My day got longer, but I didn’t mind. I was alive and no one got hurt. I was very thankful.

I called up Ray Harris Towing and Chad was there in no time at all! He rolled up the van and headed toward Hall Tire on MLK Drive.

They called me out to show that the tire tread had folded up the solid metal mud flappie type thing. The explosion was so violent that only did that flap get rolled up like a cold cut, but the floorboard made of wood in back was blown out!

If you’ve ever seen a NASCAR race where someone blows out a tire and the tread whips around… It tears stuff up. That’s exactly what happened when my tire exploded.

Here’s the cell phone pic of the flattened tire once it got rolled onto the Ray Harris Tow Truck:



And here’s the pic of the blown out piece of floorboard. I threw my keys in there to give you some perspective on how big the hole is:



Here’s a video of “Cool Kids”, the title track from today’s musical selection. By the way, Kix are a highly underrated band with two fellow West Virginians (Donnie Purnell-Bass guitar & Steve Whiteman-Lead vocals). Enjoy.