Thursday: Flat Tire

I can’t imagine anything more horrible than a flat tire. First, I don’t do tires. I seldom do cars. And fixing a flat tire sounds too much like manual labor. And like I tell my husband Mark, manual labor begins with MAN. I do not know what in a day and age like this of scientific invention and desires for financial rewards that someone has not invented a tire that would not go flat.


Duh! Of course, I know why it has not been invented. It would mean a tire probably would not have to be replaced as quickly if at all. The Firestone estate lies behind my property. I would not be able to watch their horses run so freely through the pasture if it were not for rubber and air. So I guess there is some value in having to buy new tires at least for those who sell them.


Of course, there is that wonderful product called Fix-A-Flat. When a tire goes flat my husband goes to the trunk of the car, opens it, removes a can, sticks a thing in the thing that in the tire and inflates it. The only problem with that is it doesn’t last very long and you have to go get your tire fixed or buy another one. Only you can’t just buy one tire, you have to buy two or they will be out of balance and wear out sooner. At least that is what my husband tells me to justify charges on the credit card. This just doesn’t seem to make any sense to me because then he explains you have to rotate the tires and have them balanced every so many miles that you drive them so that you get better gas mileage and your tires last longer and you have less chance of getting a flat. Another charge on the credit card justified to prevent a flat tire interrupting one’s life. The final charge that put me over the edge was when he said the real thing that he needed was a tire inflator that would plug into the cigarette lighter port in the dashboard.


Well winter is upon us and from what Mark tells me he will have to be checking the tires more often because when the temperature drops drastically there is an increased probability of the tires loosing air which could lead to another flat tire.


I think I will just have another cup of coffee and keep on writing while he scurries down to the gas station and checks the air pressure on the tires and puts a hundred dollars worth of gas in the tank. We would not want to have to waste all that precious gas keeping me warm in the car while he fixes another flat tire.