Blowout!

Picture I-10, westbound in moderate traffic just at sunrise this morning. A heavily-laden truck rolling down the road in the slow lane, minding its own business. A strange sense of foreboding. The soundtrack welling up in the background, with the strings section providing sharp, dissonant notes.

Boom!

Suddenly, the truck weaves right, then left as one of the eight rear tires explodes. Rubber debris fills the road. Other cars and truck swerve, slow down, speed up -- whatever it takes to avoid becoming part of this event.

Brake lights now, and the squeal of the brakes themselves above the hissing of the air valves. The noise of the Jake brakes and engine working together to assist. Tenuous directional control is regained and the damaged beast is brought over to the right side and out of the traffic lanes. Finally, it shudders to a halt.

Okay, so the real thing wasn't anywhere near as dramatic. I'm minding my business chugging down the freeway when I hear a booming popping noise and I feel my trailer tugging a bit at me. Directional control wasn't really a problem, and I pulled it over quickly and easily.

The tire, as you can see, is done for:

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The tire folks called in by our road service department were here in about an hour, and after about 30 more minutes it was taken care of.

Cue the end credits.