Last night Norm, Jan, Sukie and I were traveling to Chinatown in NYC on I-78 around Newark Airport when the left front tire of Norm's car blew out. He brought it to a safe stop, but there were only inches between 65+ mph traffic and the wounded tire that we needed to replace.
The sky was overcast, visibility wasn't great and drivers were occupied by an upcoming interchange - not a safe mix.
Sukie jumped into action with her bright yellow umbrella. She walked about 100 feet back towards the oncoming traffic and held out the open umbrella to warn the drivers.
It obviously worked.
So two morals. Don't have a flat tire in a congested area like this and carry a bright yellow umbrella.
My first new car was a bright yellow VW Rabbit. The color does an outstanding job of being visible in overcast situations. One wonders why there aren't more yellow cars..
The image used is a different umbrella. We have the Rainkist bright lemon yellow folding umbrella, and that is what we used yesterday, but there is not a public domain image of that product.
The umbrella is itself has long been my favorite because even though it is not the easiest to use umbrella that we have it has lasted three to four times as long as any other in all conditions. Now we have an additional reason to enjoy it since it likely saved our lives.
A few minutes ago I ordered two more of these bright yellow folding Rainkist umbrellas through Amazon and left a comment in Amazon's rating section. We will probably also have one waiting with the spare tire from now on.
Posted by: Sukie Crandall | December 09, 2012 at 14:18