Almost dead in my 2000..

..... I lost my situational awareness...

I think you hit it on the head here. We all have occasion to get mind
clutter and get a little out of touch with our surroundings, that's just
dangerous. I agree with Lanny, it's all about defensive driving. I think
riding motorcycles growing up has really helped me on this. I drive the
miata (and any car for that matter) the same way I rode, assume people are
not going to see you and have your escape route ALWAYS ready for every
situation. Do I slow down every time somebody might pull out in front of me,
heck no, that would make me dangerous to traffic behind me and tend to make
the person pulling out / over more likely to go ahead and go but, always
have the escape route in mind.

I too am glad you made it!
Chris
99BBB

zenmartini wrote:
>
> as the car came to a stop I was now perpendicular to the flow of
> traffic facing east. I watched out the window as 1 car went around me
> and cars were slamming on their brakes.
> Fortunately I didn't get hit. I was able to do a k turn and pulled off
> the parkway. I checked the car out after I stopped shaking. I then got
> my tire guage out and checked the pressure... and they were all around
> 38-40 pounds. I know the pressure should be 25 based on the door
> sticker...and I was quite angry with myself for not checking the
> pressure when the tires were replaced two weeks earlier.

Every single time for the last twenty-five years I got new tires, they
always overinflate them to 40 or so pounds. I have no idea why the
professional auto repair industry is so fond of overinflating tires by
sixty or seventy percent, but the fact is they are. It's right there on
the door sill what the manufacturer's recommended pressure is, but even
though it says right there to use 26 psi, you get 40 psi anyway.
Naturally your car handles all noisy and wrong.

Not only that, but even when I take it in for oil changes, half the time
they do the same thing. I really wouldn't have expected them to mess
with the tires during a $25 oil change, but I guess they're motivated by
the desire to give extra-good service so they fiddle with the tires as
well. And they overinflate them by sixty percent. And this was at a
Mazda dealership, where the factory service manual is right there
on-line.

So every time you let a garage mess with your car and it's out of your
sight for a minute or two, make sure you check the tire pressure
afterwards.

Well anyway, when you make it to Tampa, at least you won't have to worry
about any accidents at speed, because every f***in road in f***in Tampa
is f***in backed up all mother f***in day long. &^#$%^&@#$%#*, &^%#$!!
&^%$%$$%^&!!!!!

yrs WDK from Lutz

On Apr 19, 10:24 pm, johnny phenothiazine >
wrote:
> zenmartini wrote:
>
> > as the car came to a stop I was now perpendicular to the flow of
> > traffic facing east. I watched out the window as 1 car went around me
> > and cars were slamming on their brakes.
> > Fortunately I didn't get hit. I was able to do a k turn and pulled off
> > the parkway. I checked the car out after I stopped shaking. I then got
> > my tire guage out and checked the pressure... and they were all around
> > 38-40 pounds. I know the pressure should be 25 based on the door
> > sticker...and I was quite angry with myself for not checking the
> > pressure when the tires were replaced two weeks earlier.
>
> Every single time for the last twenty-five years I got new tires, they
> always overinflate them to 40 or so pounds. I have no idea why the
> professional auto repair industry is so fond of overinflating tires by
> sixty or seventy percent, but the fact is they are. It's right there on
> the door sill what the manufacturer's recommended pressure is, but even
> though it says right there to use 26 psi, you get 40 psi anyway.
> Naturally your car handles all noisy and wrong.
>
> Not only that, but even when I take it in for oil changes, half the time
> they do the same thing. I really wouldn't have expected them to mess
> with the tires during a $25 oil change, but I guess they're motivated by
> the desire to give extra-good service so they fiddle with the tires as
> well. And they overinflate them by sixty percent. And this was at a
> Mazda dealership, where the factory service manual is right there
> on-line.
>
> So every time you let a garage mess with your car and it's out of your
> sight for a minute or two, make sure you check the tire pressure
> afterwards.
>
> Well anyway, when you make it to Tampa, at least you won't have to worry
> about any accidents at speed, because every f***in road in f***in Tampa
> is f***in backed up all mother f***in day long. &^#$%^&@#$%#*, &^%#$!!
> &^%$%$$%^&!!!!!
>
> yrs WDK from Lutz

Do you work on your car? Do you know of a shop around here?

When I would have service done to my plane... oil change etc... I
would always do the run up then shut down and get out and wait for the
oil to pour out the bottom of the engine... never did.. but gave me
piece of mind. Once I had a standby vacuum pump put in (if u fly ifr u
want this) and the very next flight my vac pump failed.... so,,,,
nothing ventured is nothing ventured.

> Well anyway, when you make it to Tampa, at least you won't have to worry
> about any accidents at speed, because every f***in road in f***in Tampa
> is f***in backed up all mother f***in day long. &^#$%^&@#$%#*, &^%#$!!
> &^%$%$$%^&!!!!!

That's funny, because I was down there at the end of March and I saw a Miata
crunched into a guard rail. =:O There was a lot of traffic, tho...

miker