Simple savings, Hanging, Autopsy

I forgot to mention the other day that I managed to save nearly 40% on my car insurance this week. I have been pissed off about my car insurance situation for awhile. I originally switched from being a long time AllState customer to Travelers to save a nice amount of money. On my first annual renewal they jacked the prices back up and have been raising them steadily ever since.

I remember when I was younger my mom telling me how cheap her car insurance was and me making a mental note of how I looked forward to that day as well. The thought process is logical, the older you get the less risky of a driver you become, the less your insurance is, or should be. That has not been the case, obviously. For my two vehicles I was paying close to $4000 a year, insane. Keep in mind I have had no accidents in the last 30 years plus.

So last week I was contacted by the agent that does my homeowners insurance, asking if I would like a quote for auto as well since there would be a discount involved. I said sure, why not, not expecting any significant savings. Instead I got a quote that would save me four figures a year which I was happy to accept. Now time will tell if the same game will be played where this is a one year reduced rate to suck you in. If so I guess I will keep leap frogging around if needed.

Last night I tried a move I had not for a very long time on my pull up bar called Skin the Cat. An odd name, yes I know. You start in a pull up position but then rotate around threading your feet between your arms, finishing in a hang. It is a dangerous move that tests both your shoulder strength and mobility. It honestly is something I shouldn’t do. I was able to do the move although the lower height of my pull up bar and my long dimensions make it harder to extend my legs fully but it was close enough.

I was able to reverse back out of the move cleanly without feeling any significant shoulder tweaks so I felt fortunate. Dawn, who is very competitive and recently installed her pull up bar at her new house saw my video and felt like she needed to see if she could do it as well, she did.

The rest of my night was spent working on the Master that I crashed on. I needed to see the scope of the damage. It turns out to be relatively minor with only two parts that I can tell which will need replacement, neither being a big one, the headlight and rubber top cover.

I also pulled the motor to remove the tire, allowing me get a look at the failed inner tube that almost killed me. The stem was ripped cleanly from the tube with a nice hole left in it’s absence, explaining the instant pressure loss.

The other thing I checked was the valve stem hole in the hub. I was suspicious that it had a sharp edge on the tube side which could have cut into the rubber. It was actually chamfered and smoothed out to prevent tube damage so there went that theory. I am not sure if the tube was just bad and failed or if the tire pressure was low enough to allow it to shift and rip. I left the Master disassembled with tools strewn everywhere, something I don’t enjoy. This weekend I hopefully will at least get the new tubeless tire installed and then will only have to replace the couple damaged parts when I get them.

In addition to wheel repairs and pickleball this weekend I do hope to get out on at least a short ride on a wheel, just to say I did it. I don’t feel fearful of doing so but there has definitely been some sort of mental impact/shift since my accident. I’m curious how/if it will manifest itself riding.