Flatland

Dec. 27, 2012

I have one of those dashboard lights that comes on if your tire pressure is low. I looked and saw that one was a little low and mentioned it to Mike. He has an air compressor now so he blasted some air into the tire--problem solved. Or so I thought.

The dashboard light remained on, but that had happened in the past with other things; if the dealer doesn't fix the issue and go into the computer to turn off the light, the light stays on (sometimes). I didn't think too much of it.

Well, this night we went out for dinner kind of far from home. We were low on gas but Mike wanted to eat first, so we went to the restaurant, ate, then got back in the car to find a gas station. It was cold (for Florida), so when the car didn't feel right I wasn't too worried. When I drove out of the parking lot though and the car was fwumping* I knew it wasn't good. Mike told me to pull off the road. Luckily we were along Butler Plaza which is a long string of stores and parking lots. I turned off the main road and into a parking spot. Sure enough, one of the back tires was completely flat.

At least we had a spare and the tools to swap the tires, and a handy teenager to do most of the heavy lifting ;)

Seth had plenty of practice too--he had to swap all 4 tires on his car a few months ago.

I had the tire patched the next day. There was a nail in it--not a roofing nail, surprisingly.

*fwumping is the sound a flat tire makes when you're stupidly driving on it.