I’m In Love With My Tires
Did you catch the reference? Yup, to one of Queen’s album tracks that we know by heart from their greatest album, “A Night At The Opera.” “I’m In Love With My Car”…my favorite lyric is “string back gloves in my automolove”…how’d Roger Taylor come up with this stuff?
And I can’t get the song out of my head, because I’m truly in love with my tires.
Not my car. I’d love to replace it, but it’s paid for. It only does one thing well, drive. It’s got no tech, it’s noisy, but it’s turbocharged and four wheel drive and except for having to push the clutch in and out in traffic jams it’s heaven in Los Angeles, where the roads are twisty and turny and you’re constantly going up in the mountains and down in the canyons to meet the people in Billy Joel’s song.
But the problem with four wheel drive cars is the tires don’t last. After 20,000 miles you’re taking your life in your hands. And the tires the car came with were an abomination, I will never buy Bridgestones again, they drowned out the radio, never mind lost tread and needed to be replaced at 12,000 miles.
And the Pirellis I shod my machine with after were much better.
But these Michelins are it!
They’re so quiet, and so smooth, and the handling is incredible, and like I said, that’s all my car’s good for.
And getting them was such an ordeal. The discount for the previous set that wore out, the dealer ordering the wrong model, aligning the car and leaving the apparatus attached. But as soon as I got behind the wheel it was heaven, it was nirvana, I know, it sounds stupid, but it’s the little things in life that keep you satisfied.
And I’m cruising along thinking about my father, who switched to the French tires back in the sixties, testifying all the while. He bought the branded model, but most people knew them as the Sears tires that had no problem scaling railroad tracks, an iconic commercial when we all still watched them, before everybody had a clicker, never mind cable or Netflix.
And they’re more expensive.
But they’re worth it.
And there you have the story of life, you get what you pay for. And despite good being good enough, there’s such satisfaction in excellence, like someone cared enough to get it right in a world where so many are cutting corners.
And there’s so little we can control. Obstacles are around every corner. To be able to get just one little thing right makes me smile.
