(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Top Comments: (Ir)rational Fears Edition [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-23 As I mentioned last week, Casa Brillig is a one car family until my Honda CRV Hybrid returns from its vacation at the body shop (rumor has it it may, just MAY, be “in paint” right now so hopefully soon!). Until then, Mr. Brillig, K2 and I are sharing Mr. Brillig’s Mini Cooper hybrid. It’s an awesome car, and the Mini community is a lot of fun. On Saturday we took part in a nationwide Mini Scavenger Hunt, driving around looking for things such as “a grocery store item with MINI in it”, “put GREEN into your gps, go to the nearest, and take a picture” etc. We had an absolute blast! One thing it also has, like all modern cars, is a tire pressure monitor ,and as I was picking K2 up from his job tonight it flickered into life. Unlike my car, the Mini lets you know WHICH tire is low. And thus I could see immediately that all four tires were about 5 PSI low. Oh good, that means it’s just the combination of a lot of driving, and the suddenly cooler temperatures. BUT... My Jan 2021 tire. Yes, that’s a HOLE in the tire. Back in January 2021, the night before K1 finally was able to return to Rochester to the apartment she hadn’t seen in a semester, I was driving K2 to practice at an indoor field an hour away and had a tire blowout. It was BAD, and thankfully I was able to get onto a pulloff on the expressway. Mr. Brillig drove the half hour south to get K2 to practice, and I waited in the cold w the car. This was during the pandemic, so getting a tow truck driver willing to transport ME in his cab was both luck and me breaking into tears because no one else could come get me. I swore never to tell his company he did this. My tire was fixed thanks to my dealership who stayed open for me when I called hysterically, and we were able to send K1 back to school the next day while leaving me with a car. All was good, right? Right. Except every time since then, when the tire pressure light goes on my heartrate skyrockets, I hyperventilate, and I call Mr. Brillig in a panic. EVEN when I know it’s likely (like tonight) weather-related. I know I’m safe, the car is safe, and back in the days when I learned to drive a tire was only an issue if we could SEE visually that it was low/flat/not like the other tires. It’s not rational, and yet here we are. It’s the same way every time I visit my dentist. I had a ten-year period where I was both too afraid to visit one and didn’t have dental insurance, so before I got married, I spent six months visiting the University dental clinic (1/3 market rate, but all appointments were 3hrs long because they were with dental students) getting many issues taken care of. I then shunned dentists for another decade until a root canal made finding one in my new city a necessity. Luckily an excellent practice is a few hundred yards down the road, and I’ve been a faithful every four months (covered by insurance because periodontal disease) visitor for two decades. Doesn’t mean I don’t have to consciously calm myself as I walk there, and I ALWAYS bring a squeezeball to clutch even for cleanings. Irrational fear but it’s mine and it won’t go away. I was talking to a friend tonight about this, and he said: [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/23/2201217/-Top-Comments-Ir-rational-Fears-Edition?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/