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June 2,1998
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noisy wheelsWhat's that old aphorism? The squeaky wheel gets the grease? Well, squeaky doesn't even begin to cover the noise coming from the rear wheels of the Auntmobile last night. It sounded like a thousand banshees wailing. I crawled under the car to see if something was dragging, but could find nothing. The kid next door asked what was wrong with my car. I had to answer "I have no idea". I dared not drive it anymore last night. First thing this morning I called the Honda Barn and asked if I could bring the car in. They said: "OK but can you leave it til tomorrow?" so I called Enterprise Rent-a-Car, who informed me they were out of cars this morning. Since I had an 11:00 appointment with my therapist and Enterprise was expecting some cars back at 11:00, they suggested I call back after 12:00. Funny thing though. When I went to drive to therapy, the wheels made no noise other than the usual wheel sounds. No hundred screaming banshees. I felt foolish, but since I know the rear end is way out of alignment and the right rear tire is dangerously bald I figured I'd better head to the Honda Barn after therapy anyway. When I got there, I told the Honda Barn folks that Enterprise had no cars and my car had stopped making the noise, but here I am anyway. They decided to take a look at it while I waited, so I headed upstairs to the waiting room - actually I think they call it the customer waiting lounge so it sounds less like a doctor's office - and settled in with the newspaper. Another customer came in and turned on the tv. Neither of us had watched much in the way of soap operas before and we couldn't believe how bad the dialogue was. Who writes these things? The TV only had one channel, so I started reading old magazines. Finally the service manager came upstairs and told me they'd checked out my car and didn't find the source of the squealing - their theory is a rock got under the brake somehow but then worked itself loose - but did notice that the steel belt is showing through the right rear tire and recommended I get new rear tires and an alignment immediately. I asked for a recommendation of where to buy the tires and he asked where I got the old ones. Sears. So I decided to drive to Sears. A little ways down the road, I noticed a Midas shop with a display of tires outside and since I hate Sears and it's all the way in Peabody anyway and Midas is right in North Reading not far from the Honda Barn, I pulled in. The guy there looked at it and pronounced that I needed 3 new tires and if I couldn't get the same kind as the left front (which I just replaced recently) I would need 4. He had the car up on the lift so I went and looked at it. Yikes. The outer edges looked hardly worn at all, but the inside edges were bald and like I said, one even had the steel belt showing. Since I am rarely under the car, it had escaped my notice how worn the tires were. After much discussion, I ordered 4 new tires to arrive tomorrow at 2:00 PM. Here's hoping the present tires last one more day. noisy birds 1I got back from Midas just in time to go walking with Joan-east and Priscilla. In fact, for the first time I got to Priscilla's house before Joan did. We walked for about a half hour, basically in a loop around her neighborhood. As we were walking two orioles flew past us chattering like crazy giving the alarm call (not the "flute-like" song). I couldn't figure out what the cause for alarm was, as it appeared to be one oriole chasing another. I saw a somewhat similar thing yesterday but it was much much weirder. I saw an oriole and three grackles and some starlings mobbing a crow. The oriole was in the lead and making that same alarm call. I'd just read about mobbing behavior in starlings, and knew that other blackbird types did it, but I had no clue that orioles did. And what was the oriole doing leading the charge? And aren't they supposed to mob hawks? What's with chasing the crow? Anyway, in both cases the orioles made very loud raucous chattering calls that I had not previously associated with orioles. They sounded as obnoxious as blue jays! Joan-east wanted to know if I had taken pictures of the starlings. I wish I could. I can't figure out how to get a camera in there. Wish I'd ordered that Bird Cam thing I saw advertised. noisy birds 2Back at home, the starling youth are louder than ever! I think there are 4 of them but I can't really tell. I actually saw one this afternoon though. I was peering through the crack when the parent arrived with grub and saw a huge gaping yellow-orange maw right under the crack. The one nearest the crack did not get that particular food item and so was peeping even more loudly. Unlike the squeaky wheel, I guess the squeakiest starling chick doesn't get the grub. |
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