AIR

Because I am now Sleepless in Florida one of the burning questions I have in life is " Why DO we have to pay for air at the gas station?"

This past week a little light on the dash board of my car brought be out of my sleep deprived fog warning me that one of my tires was low on air. I immediately got out of my car, (I hadn't left the parking spot yet, thank God) and checked all four tires. None of them looked low but who can tell when parked in a spot filled with storm debris. (When is this new community going to get around to picking up all this stuff? Yet another burning issue to ponder at 3AM.)  I figured the low air issue was not at the level of Def Con 5 so I would be fine to travel the half mile between new condo and old. That was the last time I thought about it until I was half way to my appointment the following day and realized the little light was still on. When I got to where I was going I checked the tires again, fully expecting one of them to be border line FLAT but once again they all looked okay. HUM?
Now I have this light shining at me telling me I really should DO something. Being a woman of the 21st century I did not call for help but rather took the matter into my own hands.

The first gas station I went to did not HAVE air. How do you not have air???????  This totally made my day and the ensuing blog started writing it's self inside my brain. How do you NOT have air? A burning question when you think about it.  We have air all around us so how does the machine that pumps that air into my tire RUN OUT?  The sign on the machine said exactly that, "OUT OF AIR".
Not, "Broken", or "Electric out", (this was a week after a hurricane blew through and there were still lots of places without power), or even just a red circle with a line through it showing this was not a functioning machine. After I stopped laughing I drove on to gas station #2 which didn't have an air machine. How does a gas station not have a machine for pumping air into tires. It's a gas station for goodness sake? Shaking my head over that one I continued on to station #3. Ah Ha ! An air machine, and it's working and there is no one there using it! All my planets were in alinement except I had to PAY for this air!

I swear I stood there for at least a minute questioning my sanity and wondering why you had to pay for air. (I realize the station is using their electricity to power the machine but seriously, paying for air?) Now comes the question of, "Do I have any change to put into this dumb ass machine?", The search for four quarters was entertaining it itself, looking under the seat, digging through my purse, collecting the change from the little pocket on the console. No one I know carries actual money on them any more, no less burdensome coins. (With the exception of that little old lady at the check out at Publix who takes 20 minutes digging through her coin purse for the EXACT change while you stand there screaming in your head, "Use a credit card for God sake!) I also know I could have gone into the gas station and asked for change of a dollar but who has a dollar any more and changing a twenty just seemed a little rediculous. I did manage to come up with 4 quarters which I inserted into the machine with the result of it turning on so I could pump air into the tires. Sounds easy enough right? Some air machines, the ones I like, have a gage on the front of the machine that you set to the desired PSI, (which means pounds per square inch as I learned from my dad). You set the number and pump the air and when your tire reaches the desired inflation the machine shuts off. Nice !!  But those machines are the free ones. THIS machine had a tire gage on the nozzle so as you pressed the nozzle on the tire valve the gage popped out to tell you how much air was in your tire. You then would continue to pump air into the tire until the gage read the number of pounds you desired. As simple as that sounds it was a disaster. The gage would only pop out for a second or two and as soon as you took the gage off the valve the numbers would disappear. (I spent a good 5 minutes trying to keep the little stick on the gage out long enough for me to read it.) Being 72 years old it is not easy to get down to street level to fill a tire on a normal machine no less not being able to see the numbers because; 1. They were etched into the metal valve and therefor blended in so you couldn't see them.
and 2. I can't see anything that small on a good day no less bent over trying to keep from falling over while holding an awkward air hose and uncooperative nozzle.  It was a disaster ! Resulting in sweat, curses and less air in all my tires than I started out with.

At this point I decided I would do what I should have done when I first saw the stupid light on my dash panel . . . Take the damn car to my mechanic and let him put air in the tires!

The joke of all this is that when I brought my car to my mechanic they checked ALL the tires and NONE of them were low on air! None except the spare tire in the trunk. Yes, all that because the stupid spare tire was low on air and since it too is connected to the computer that runs my car the little yellow light was going to annoy me until I drove myself nuts.