I am back home. It was a tense trip because my front driver side brake began to make a noise while I was visiting. Tim listened to my worried phone call and assured me that he'd checked the brakes, and I was good for the drive home. I was. We made it. He was waiting when I pulled in the driveway. He pulled the tire off and found that the pad was gone and it had gone to metal on metal. He's ordered the rotor.
William's been a bit of a fusspot lately. I suppose it is something that you can expect when the teenage years start closing in. It was a long car ride home for him. His tablet wouldn't take a charge and he was pretty upset about that. We had a long talk about his obsession with electronics. He doesn't feel that he has a problem. I do. So...there are new rules, and they will be firmly adhered to.
The latest on Michael Burham is that he is believed to still be in the immediate area. He is believed to have had help. There was talk of a drone in the area as he made his escape which supposedly happened in a matter of seconds. They found a stockpile in the woods which is believed to be associated with him and his escape, which means he has had some help. They also said that at this point he is believed to be armed.
It is hard to understand why he is so hard to find. Part of that is because we live on the edge of the Allegheny National Forest. This is over 514,000 acres, most of it heavily forested and not accessible by vehicle. I can understand why he is so hard to find. They are using helicopters with infrared cameras to search the area as well as the islands in the river.
I guess that I will never understand how he managed to escape to begin with. It's not just that he was in an exercise area at 11:20 at night. The claim is that he was being watched by video camera. I also question how one man could manage to take that many bedsheets without being noticed. There were holes in the fencing. It seems as if they were aware of that. So my question is, why wouldn't they have an armed guard in that area?
Hindsight is always 20/20, I suppose. The thing is that in the end, he will be caught, but hopefully, it happens before he hurts anyone else.
So did Tim check the brakes? We will never know!
ReplyDeleteIt must be worrying living with a felon on the run.
They are ripped apart even as we speak. The driver side brake shoe was completely gone, which necessitates a rotor. It is ordered and on its way. (Shout out to Rock Auto!) He had the brake shoes. He didn't think that I needed them yet. He thought wrong, which is generally something he doesn't do.
DeleteI like this new word fusspot. If Tim's having those medical memory "hiccups" it's possible he thought he really did check the brake. Hmmm. Might want to have it checked out by a mechanic after Tim's done with the repair. Why would one wear down to the metal and the opposite tire not have as much wear? I've usually had both on the same axle changed at the same tire. Goodness! I hope they catch the criminal. How nerve-wracking! Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteHe has the shoes. He knew that they were worn. The most logical explanation is that the driver side brake caliper 'stuck' on the drive out. 300 miles of uneven wear will do that. He's ordered two new rotors and will replace the whole works on the both sides. He will also insure that the caliper is operating properly. Tim knows what he's doing as far as that goes. He's really quite mechanical.
DeleteI am so glad to know you are home. I think Tim knew what he was doing on the brakes. He would never have let you start out before fixing them if he had doubts.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it is nice to be home, even with a fugitive on the loose.
ReplyDeleteSometimes brake shoes or pads will have a built in warning that will make a scraping sound before the costly scraping sound is heard. It used to be that a brake disc or brake hub could be machined smooth a couple of times before they became too thin and had to be replaced. Now, just throw it away.
Known as "a squealer" here. The problem came because I was 300 miles from home. I called Tim to see if I should try to take it somewhere. He felt it was okay. It wasn't.
DeleteOccasionally we get a police helicopter circling round for ages and that always makes me feel a bit unsafe, wondering who they are looking for, must be very worrying to actually know that someone is ' on the loose' and possibly desperate!! Stay safe.
ReplyDeleteI heard them the night he escaped, before the new release. That was scary because they were low. I imagine it was even MORE nerve wracking once people knew what was going on.
DeleteChildren spend so much time with screens. My son is thankful he is just old enough to have missed it. Daughter didn't. A lot of parents who work in Silicon Valley ban them entirely but that's hard when children attend ordinary schools.
ReplyDeleteI really had to get pretty stern with William. He was fighting me on the limits.
DeleteWhen you got home, you said to Tim, "Just give me a brake, man."
ReplyDeleteLol. As soon as I pulled in the driveway, he was out there. He took the car around the block and pulled back into the driveway. He had that on a jack and ripped apart in minutes, on the phone to Rock Auto in a half hour. Then he took a break.
DeleteLast night on the news, they showed a recent video of him as he was walking out of town into the woods. Sounded like he was coming into town at night to resupply and hiding out in the forest by day.
ReplyDeleteA day or two ago, I heard a comment about how they were doing some remodeling of the jail that perhaps made it easy to escape from at the time. I tuned in on the tail of the discussion so didn't hear all the details and hadn't heard it mentioned anywhere else.
The way I understand it is that the jail needed some repairs. They were aware of problems. To be honest, I think that would warrant the physical presence of an armed guard vs watching him remotely. They say that the prisoners exercise in shifts, but after 11 pm? In an area with "a broken beam which created a gap in the fence"? Mostly, it is those bedsheets that bother me.
ReplyDeleteSorry. Did not mean to hit publish. He had the bedsheets tied together and ready to go. How on earth is that not noticed. If you look at the picture, there is st least a half dozen bed sheets there. That is NOT a small armload. They have investigated themselves and determined that it was not their fault. The escape happened in 10 seconds. My point is that accumulating the bedsheets should have never happened. He should not have been able to get that pile of bedsheets to the exercise space. He should NOT have been allowed to exercise after nightfall in a space with known gaps. The drone is also fascinating. He had an accomplice.
ReplyDeleteTo change the subject, not surprised that William is being a bit of a fusspot and antsy...teenager, long journey...been there 😎😄
ReplyDelete"Home again, home again, two fat pigs" is what Pirate says..nursery rhyme?
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog. Home again, home again, jiggety jog.
DeleteTo market, to market, to buy a fat pig. Home again, home again, jiggety jig. 😃 (we always said both, in tandem)
DeleteUK press has the story that the drone was flying around 8 pm by a fellow who lives next door to the courthouse/jail. His son brought it while visiting. While he was entertaining the neighborhood kids, his father asked him to take it around to check his new gutter system. He was shocked to hear that drone mentioned in a news release. He points put that the drone can't be flown near the jail. A warning comes up on you phone. They know that, and hadn't been near the jail at all.
ReplyDeleteSome of these cons are smarter than we are. I hope everybody stays safe.
ReplyDeleteHe's shrewd.
DeleteThe national CBS news showed just a very short clip of him, walking under some overpass...and they said he's been seen recently in same area as before and still at large. So sorry you have to deal with threat of a jailbreaker as well as teenager and the pull of electronic worlds. Please keep firm with your resolve. It may pay off by his finding other kids who also have to stay out of the web for a while, and may even socialize. I know that's a bit IF.
ReplyDeleteHe will be dropped off at the pool every Monday, and dropped off at the Roller Rink for two hours every Friday night. He loves both activities and he needs to start interacting with others. Both areas are 'lockdown' areas, meaning he won't be able to leave. Both of them are supervised areas. He needs to be forced from his shell and that's not going to happen with us around.
DeleteIt IS confounding how he managed to escape again, having already done it once! That's what blows my mind.
ReplyDeleteThe prison (140 capacity) had 87 incarcerated. So it is not that they were over inundated w/ work. Burham certainly was the most dangerous fellow in there. Perhaps watch that fellow more closely?
DeleteAll of the above notwithstanding (love that word) welcome home and good luck with William's new regime.
ReplyDelete