It’s All In Your Head

It started like this…  Me: “Your car is pulling to the left.”  Him: “Yeah, I noticed that, but you know how sometimes you think it’s in your head?”  Me: “No.  It’s either pulling or it isn’t.”  Him: “_____.”

In our defense, this was at 5am on the way to the airport, so we were both at least mildly put out for a handful of reasons, not the least of which was his 7am flight.  Over the next hour or so, that reason started to fade into the distance…  When we GOT to the airport, I looked at the tire, which had about an inch of air left in it.  Have a nice flight, I’ll go fix your tire.

I stopped at no fewer than 3 gas stations, only to discover that the new normal is to charge for air.  The days of pumping quarters into the vacuum and then filling your tires for free are GONE, my friends.  The going rate is $0.25 – $1 in quarters, which I do not carry, and those quarters go to Feed My Starving Children.  So if I HAD any quarters, I’d have to donate to a charity that I may or may not wish to support.  I don’t know anything about FMSC; I’m sure they’re really nice people.  At 5am, however, I want to feed my starving tire.

My last ditch was at the station right by my house which I know has free air.  Free air with an “out of order” sign taped to it.  I went inside and asked Caleb if he knew of a place that didn’t charge, but he did not.  I had on my sweats with mice printed all over them (hereinafter referred to as mouse pants) and a hooded sweatshirt and boots and heaven only knows what was happening with my hair.  He was very nice (cautious?) and tried to do a quick fix on the compressor, but sadly the city had come and cut the line because their system wasn’t “up to code.”  Read: “free.”

I waited until the tire stopped steaming (bad sign?) and first-geared it back to the house.  I’ll deal with it tomorrow.  I stopped back by that gas station to fill up my OTHER CAR on the way to work, and to thank Caleb for being patient with the crazy mouse pants lady at 5am.  Took him a minute to recognize me, which I guess is a thumbs up for how I look on my way to work.  I won’t think about what that means for how I look at dawn.

 
Next time we’re taking my car.