Problem Solving

 

Turns out it wasn’t about tires at all.  When my neighbor asked me to go tire shopping with him, I asked him why he would be putting new tires on the new car he had just bought.  He said that when he was pulling into his garage, he noticed his car shaking quite a bit.  “I’ll be right over,” I said. I want to take a look at your driveway and your tires.”

The moment I reached his driveway I could see the problem.  “Did you do laundry yesterday?”  He said that he washed a bunch of his wrinkle-free shirts, after which, he pulled his dryer outside and shook it upside-down to dump all of the wrinkles out of it.  “Well, they have all gotten into your driveway, and now you’re driving over them.  It isn’t your tires; it’s those stupid wrinkles from your shirts.  I have an industrial steam iron; it is good for both concrete and asphalt. I’ll bring it over.”

By mid-morning we had his driveway smooth as glass.  I suggested to him that whatever those shirt manufacturers were adding to their shirt material to keep wrinkles from sticking, he should get some and sprinkle it on his driveway, to keep this from happening again.  He agreed and I headed back home with my iron.  It was still a little warm but not too hot to hold.

         I felt good having helped my neighbor.  He would have bought four new tires and still had the same problem when he drove over those wrinkles in his driveway.  As I sat there thinking about that, a thought occurred to me.  Maybe along with a lint trap in clothes dryers there should also be a wrinkle catcher.  Something easy to clean so people, like my neighbor, wouldn't be dumping them outside.  Maybe I'll draw something up and see if I can get a prototype made.  I was hoping this plan of mine didn't have a wrinkle in it.