My wife is a car enthusiast also, she's pretty car savvy. Here's one that's gotta be one in a million.


She's driving on a rural road today about 55mph. Would be going a little faster but Stuck behind some traffic. She 1st noticed a sound coming from her front tire area. At 1st she thought there was a rock stuck in her tire. She turned down the radio and noticed it wasn't consistent. Still in traffic she made a turn and it was making a popping sound that was more frequent even though she was going slower. She told me she was thinking CV joint (I was impressed). Going straight at about 45 she noted no slop and everything seemed ok but the popping sound continued.

She's perplexed.

After another minute or two she noticed that there was something falling out of the truth in front of her. The truck was a hazel nut truck hauling nuts. The nuts were leaking out and dropped out on the road in front of her. She was running over these and cracking them!

She was so focused on what was wrong with her car she missed the big picture. She was quite relieved it wasn't her car.
I could easily see myself doing exactly what she did. Funny if your not the one who owns the nuts.

Your fortunate to have a wife that enjoys driving older vehicles and can make a diagnosis on the run & not panic. I do my best to promote my granddaughters to do the same with their vehicles.

When I lived in Beaverton we had an orchard next yo us, was always great pickings. Thought the locals called them filberts.

Great story! So very true about missing "the big picture" sometimes while we drive our cars. Thanks for sharing.

You have to be careful with those nuts sometimes they get sucked up and collect inside the heat tubes then attract squirrels

Funny Story! Thank you for sharing. I have one, too:

I was driving one of my other cars - a MB300SE (W126) the other day going about sixty behind a truck, talking to my workmate who was travelling with me.
All of a sudden it started to rain. Big raindrops falling from the skies. I kept on talking (must have been a mens only topic, probably about cars...), switched on the windshield wiper and kept on motoring…
After a minute or so my workmate smiled and said: "It´s not raining man. The truck in front of us is loosing lots of gravel.
Outch. Luck for me those old Mercedes have very good paint and no harm was done to my car.

Arno

We do, but I "translated" so all would know. Our house where I grew up was in a filbert orchard and as kids we used to take our "wrist rockets" and have filbert wars. I got a few good welts. They are an interesting nut and I can understand the sound of them cracking under the tires would be odd. I was just proud to see her work the problem and explain it in that manner.
If she had just pulled over and waited for help or even made a turn before she realized what was going on, we'd be checking the car over and maybe replacing parts.

Too funny, probably a bunch of birds will eat the freshly cracked nuts once traffic dies down.

My then very pregnant wife had to go hit the orchard. Seems like they were good in Oct. Being a City girl she had no clue what poison oak was. It got bad enough that I ended up putting her on steroids to deal with the welts. Somehow she was mad with me for not telling her about the poison oak. Sounds like you did better with your wife than I did.

Always liked the area. After reading about the riots downtown this summer I am not sure I would want to move back.

BTW, like your firm. Have placed a few orders and am impressed with the way you do business.

I taught my wife to drive a standard on my 6, back around
1974. Tail shift 901...
Since then, she has owned VW’s, a 1970 911, a Sunbeam Tiger,
a Lancia, Mazda RX’s a 1990 ZR1 and now has a
1986 911 with a twin plug 3.0.. along with her current
Honda commuter car.
And she used to drive my early 930 all the time..
For what it is worth.... She really didn’t like the ZR1
Too big and heavy... That Car sits in my garage with 24,000 miles.

Since she is retiring at the end of this school year and looking
to buy her last “New” car.... I’ve been pushing for her to buy
a Honda Civic Type R....
Don’t know if she is buying it...??? But I keep trying...

My Spec Miata racing nephew bought the Civic Si instead of the R as a daily driver/commuter. Says it has great performance, much better mileage, much less money, and much more available.

I just put a set of brake pads in my nieces
2009 SI and it is the last year SI I would be interested in.
After that, they took out the 8000 rpm engine and put in a lower
redline Acura engine.
The Type R is a limited production car and would be a better investment
to me.. More money upfront, but I think it will hold value better over the years..

It's kind of like smelling some really good bar-b-que somewhere in the neighborhood and you cannot decide if it's beef, pork, or chicken. Then you realize your pants are on fire. Some of us are too smart for our own good.

Ansbacher