The Newtown Pentacle

Tuesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My car is still kind of new, and the warranty agreement with Toyota is obliged by bringing the thing into the ‘stealership’ about every 5,000 miles, to have the tires rotated and all of the vital juices and jellies in the engine and power train examined, or changed out, or replaced.

Imagine my surprise when the mechanics told me that I needed new tires, on a factory new car which I took delivery of in October of 2022 and that only has 25k miles on it. It was undeniable, they showed me the tread depth with a special PA. approved tool, and then they did the penny test as well. They told me about a sale they were having in October, but one of my tires began losing about 5 PSI of pressure every day, so I had to get the process going a lot quicker than I would have liked.

The penny thing is kind of interesting to me – from a folk knowledge POV. You take a penny coin, turn it upside down, and then insert it into one of your tire treads. If the tread isn’t touching Lincoln’s head, then you need new tires.

That’s how and why I found myself back in Homestead, in a Costco parking lot, with a couple of hours to kill while the Costco mechanics set the MOP (Mobile Oppression Platform) up with a new set of shoes. Luckily, I’m remarkably self entertaining and ‘kicking dirt’ is a specialty.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The tire guy was actually stunned that I’d gotten about 25,000 miles out of ‘OEM’ (Original Equipment Manufacturer) supplied tires, and he said that normally he sees new car owners by 15k.

It was implied that the same tire molds were used for the supplied tires as the commercial model, but different materials were used to manufacture the things which aren’t as robust as the commercially available and consumer facing products. The OEM tires are sold to the manufacturer at a loss, with the inherent gamble that the end customer is likely to just buy a set of the exact same tires as replacements. Grrr.

This banged me out for just under a thousand bucks, in the end.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Time to kill, nowhere to go, God’s lonely man… all that.

I headed towards the walkway leading to the off ramp of the Homestead Gray’s Bridge, connecting Homestead across the Monongahela River with Squirrel Hill, and other residential neighborhoods on the other side. It is set fairly high up, the bridge, and provides interesting views.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This POV looks roughly south, towards the community of Homestead.

I’m told things get pretty wild up in those hills at night, but until I’ve witnessed something personally it’s just heresay. Especially so, now. Don’t believe anything that you don’t personally observe, these days. All is false, lies, and deceptions. Pay no attention to the men behind the curtain.

Luckily, there are multiple lines of railroad tracks which are leave behinds from the age of steel found here. Lots and lots of railroad tracks, in fact.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

CSX #6025 appeared. It was heading southeast.

Vehicle traffic was unusually heavy on the bridge, due to a cataclysmic fire in Squirrel Hill that decimated a high occupancy apartment building found fairly close to the entrance of the interstate. That exit was closed, and detours were sending all of that traffic towards Homestead. Yikes.

I decided on Costco for the tire replacement, incidentally, for a combination of their warrantees and price on the job. It was also convenient, which is always a factor that I ‘price in.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

On my looping path back to the tire center at Costco, I spotted a Norfolk Southern locomotive just sitting there, idling. The pickup sitting next to the train indicates that there was likely a crew change or something ‘official’ going on.

No trip to Costco is complete without a foot long hot dog, so I scratched that off the list while waiting for the text that my car was ready.

I ended up buying Michelin Cross Climate 2’s. All season tires, warranteed to 40,000 miles, and their unique tread pattern qualifies the things to be embossed with a snow tire seal. Haven’t taken much of a hit on mileage yet, so seemingly a ‘win.’

Back tomorrow.

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