The General Chat Thread (2024)

TastyReuben said:
That sounds like a beautiful dream right about now!
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-6.7°C locally overnight, this morning. There's also dense freezing fog, but I guess it could be low cloud. But that means a difficult drive into Canberra this morning. And roads don't get gritted or de-iced here! So black ice gets added to the mix once in off the gravel roads.
 
I put a lot of miles on the cars I own. I often use the expression that I plan to "drive the car until the wheels fall off". But, this is the first time it actually happened. I had just passed 197,000 miles, fully expecting to see 200,000, when I started hearing a rattling. I was on the freeway, so I pulled off and checked the tires, thinking one may have been going flat. Everything looked good, so I got back in the car and kept driving.

Until the left front wheel fell off the car and rolled into a ditch. I had just exited the freeway, near my house. When I went to look at the car, I saw this:

1718745621843.png


There are supposed to be studs sticking out for the wheel to go onto. They had rusted and broken off after over a decade of driving in Michigan (which salts the roads and has a lot of pot holes) and many other places.

Note the low tire pressure warning...I wonder why?

1718745689396.png


The ditch the tire rolled into is about 10 feet deep, and filled with high grass. I went there Sunday to look for the wheel, but I couldn't find it. Yesterday, I bought a 2024 Ford Bronco, the first new car I've gotten in 15 years. It has 4 wheels...I already like it 33% better than my old car.

Thursday, the insurance claims adjuster will come over to take a look at the car in my driveway. Someone mentioned that my policy doesn't cover mechanical failures. HOWEVER:
  • I did go over some rough roads, including broken up pavement and bumps in the freeway.
  • They've happily taken my insurance premium for 10 years on this car, and I've never had any claims on it. In fact, I don't know if we've ever had any claims in the last several years.
  • If I weren't such a good driver, I would have put the car into the ditch along with the wheel, or into the other cars on the ramp.
I was traveling about 60 MPH when the wheel fell off, and the ramp is curved. Plus, my wife's mom and our son were in the back seat, and not buckled in, and so were our dogs. Instead of a calling for a tow, I could have been calling an ambulance.

I plan to explain all this to insurance adjuster...as calmly as I can.
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
I put a lot of miles on the cars I own. I often use the expression that I plan to "drive the car until the wheels fall off". But, this is the first time it actually happened. I had just passed 197,000 miles, fully expecting to see 200,000, when I started hearing a rattling. I was on the freeway, so I pulled off and checked the tires, thinking one may have been going flat. Everything looked good, so I got back in the car and kept driving.

Until the left front wheel fell off the car and rolled into a ditch. I had just exited the freeway, near my house. When I went to look at the car, I saw this:

View attachment 114931

There are supposed to be studs sticking out for the wheel to go onto. They had rusted and broken off after over a decade of driving in Michigan (which salts the roads and has a lot of pot holes) and many other places.

Note the low tire pressure warning...I wonder why?

View attachment 114932

The ditch the tire rolled into is about 10 feet deep, and filled with high grass. I went there Sunday to look for the wheel, but I couldn't find it. Yesterday, I bought a 2024 Ford Bronco, the first new car I've gotten in 15 years. It has 4 wheels...I already like it 33% better than my old car.

Thursday, the insurance claims adjuster will come over to take a look at the car in my driveway. Someone mentioned that my policy doesn't cover mechanical failures. HOWEVER:
  • I did go over some rough roads, including broken up pavement and bumps in the freeway.
  • They've happily taken my insurance premium for 10 years on this car, and I've never had any claims on it. In fact, I don't know if we've ever had any claims in the last several years.
  • If I weren't such a good driver, I would have put the car into the ditch along with the wheel, or into the other cars on the ramp.
I was traveling about 60 MPH when the wheel fell off, and the ramp is curved. Plus, my wife's mom and our son were in the back seat, and not buckled in, and so were our dogs. Instead of a calling for a tow, I could have been calling an ambulance.

I plan to explain all this to insurance adjuster...as calmly as I can.
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Glad no one was injured. Good luck with your insurance company, they can be a pain to deal with.
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
I put a lot of miles on the cars I own. I often use the expression that I plan to "drive the car until the wheels fall off". But, this is the first time it actually happened. I had just passed 197,000 miles, fully expecting to see 200,000, when I started hearing a rattling. I was on the freeway, so I pulled off and checked the tires, thinking one may have been going flat. Everything looked good, so I got back in the car and kept driving.

Until the left front wheel fell off the car and rolled into a ditch. I had just exited the freeway, near my house. When I went to look at the car, I saw this:

View attachment 114931

There are supposed to be studs sticking out for the wheel to go onto. They had rusted and broken off after over a decade of driving in Michigan (which salts the roads and has a lot of pot holes) and many other places.

Note the low tire pressure warning...I wonder why?

View attachment 114932

The ditch the tire rolled into is about 10 feet deep, and filled with high grass. I went there Sunday to look for the wheel, but I couldn't find it. Yesterday, I bought a 2024 Ford Bronco, the first new car I've gotten in 15 years. It has 4 wheels...I already like it 33% better than my old car.

Thursday, the insurance claims adjuster will come over to take a look at the car in my driveway. Someone mentioned that my policy doesn't cover mechanical failures. HOWEVER:
  • I did go over some rough roads, including broken up pavement and bumps in the freeway.
  • They've happily taken my insurance premium for 10 years on this car, and I've never had any claims on it. In fact, I don't know if we've ever had any claims in the last several years.
  • If I weren't such a good driver, I would have put the car into the ditch along with the wheel, or into the other cars on the ramp.
I was traveling about 60 MPH when the wheel fell off, and the ramp is curved. Plus, my wife's mom and our son were in the back seat, and not buckled in, and so were our dogs. Instead of a calling for a tow, I could have been calling an ambulance.

I plan to explain all this to insurance adjuster...as calmly as I can.
Click to expand...
Best of luck with that.

When rabbits literally ate our vehicle off the road, they refused to cover us despite the fact that the garden was down as being parked in a field. That's always what we recorded our made sure they were aware of. The rabbits had chewed through all of the abs wiring, tow bar wires, fuel pipe, brake pipes, hand brake cable and that rubberised foam that gets sprayed onto the underside of a vehicle (at the corners before anyone asks, so any bend was chewed to bare metal.). I'd asked the garage to investigate the oil leak we had because I could see oil under the vehicle on the ground, but the engine wasn't losing oil, so I was a touch confused. It turned out that the rabbits had finally (it took about 5-6 years) gnawed through the automatic gearbox as well.

We ended up footing the entire bill for a new vehicle ourselves. That one was chosen for what the underside looked like. We visited a car supermarket and literally lay under each vehicle, nope, they'll have a field day with that one. We narrowed it down to a VW Bora or an Audi A4. We went with the A4.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Best of luck with that.

When rabbits literally ate our vehicle off the road, they refused to cover us despite the fact that the garden was down as being parked in a field. That's always what we recorded our made sure they were aware of. The rabbits had chewed through all of the abs wiring, tow bar wires, fuel pipe, brake pipes, hand brake cable and that rubberised foam that gets sprayed onto the underside of a vehicle (at the corners before anyone asks, so any bend was chewed to bare metal.). I'd asked the garage to investigate the oil leak we had because I could see oil under the vehicle on the ground, but the engine wasn't losing oil, so I was a touch confused. It turned out that the rabbits had finally (it took about 5-6 years) gnawed through the automatic gearbox as well.

We ended up footing the entire bill for a new vehicle ourselves. That one was chosen for what the underside looked like. We visited a car supermarket and literally lay under each vehicle, nope, they'll have a field day with that one. We narrowed it down to a VW Bora or an Audi A4. We went with the A4.
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So is rabbits eating cars a common thing in Oz?
Or do you just have phenomenal number rabbits?
 
Blimey I did not realise how tired I am.
Slept until after 8am (10 hours of semi broken sleep but 10 hours all the same) got up did a couple of jobs and felt overwhelmingly tired again.

Lay back down at about 11am and woke up 2 1/2 hours later!

And I really feel I could do with going back to sleep!

I'm very lucky to have the opportunity to take a moment to recoup from life's stressors, I don't think I would have recognised it myself.
 
Hot, sunny, heavy day. Possibly around 33c, 34c.

I had the privilege of helping a senior lady who felt dizzy.

As I came to the tram station, she was sitting and another lady was talking to her, I could not overhear. So I suggested that I call an ambulance. If she wishes. She agreed.

She felt dizzy in the tram but managed to hop off and sit down. It had already laste 30 min. And had not stopped.

So I called. They agreed to drive to the spot and pick her up.

She is 81. Her eye popilles were very large, last week she had a vein burst, had to be sewn up in hospital. She has no family in the city. Her daughter is miles away in Germany.

She had no breakfast, was on to her rtg appointment, but could not make it.

So I disregarded my train, texted the secretary that I may be delayed...

And stayed talking to her. Encouraging. Suggesting she takes sips of water.

The ambulance came in 25 minutes, the two paramedics helped her to the amb van.

She was so grateful. May God protect her.🙏
 
karadekoolaid said:
Love it ! All the Doom mongers proven to be blithering idiots :laugh: :laugh:
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I don’t appreciate the insult.

I really didn’t want to get into this as it appears some people’s minds are made up, but the stats cited above are straight-up false.

You don’t have to personally believe in science for it to be real. Myself and others will continue to do the work to solve the problems that humanity has created for ourselves.

And that’s all I’ll say on the subject.
 
Timenspace said:
Hot, sunny, heavy day. Possibly around 33c, 34c.

I had the privilege of helping a senior lady who felt dizzy.

As I came to the tram station, she was sitting and another lady was talking to her, I could not overhear. So I suggested that I call an ambulance. If she wishes. She agreed.

She felt dizzy in the tram but managed to hop off and sit down. It had already laste 30 min. And had not stopped.

So I called. They agreed to drive to the spot and pick her up.

She is 81. Her eye popilles were very large, last week she had a vein burst, had to be sewn up in hospital. She has no family in the city. Her daughter is miles away in Germany.

She had no breakfast, was on to her rtg appointment, but could not make it.

So I disregarded my train, texted the secretary that I may be delayed...

And stayed talking to her. Encouraging. Suggesting she takes sips of water.

The ambulance came in 25 minutes, the two paramedics helped her to the amb van.

She was so grateful. May God protect her.🙏
Click to expand...
What you did was a beautiful thing. The world would be a better place if there were more people like you. :)
 
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