I wouldn't even know how to deal with a small but big annoying problem, such as the light on the dashboard telling Wife she had a low tire on her car if we lived back home. Back then, when I lived there, I drove my parent's truck working with my uncle roofing in the summer and I would get nails in my tires like once a week, but I didn't know well enough to worry. I would put one of those Walmart patches and keep going. The truck never left town and it did not run at high speeds, so it never seemed like a problem.
Yesterday was one of those times. We were going to run around with no particular direction, I wanted to go test drive some cars and Wife wanted to go to At Home, the old Garden Ridge store to look for discounted Christmas and/or Halloween decorations. We got as far as outside our community when the light came on and Wife quickly came back in through the second entrance and parked her car. We couldn't outright tell which tire was low but it was before it got cold, so it wasn't one of those barely low because of temperature things. I decided I would get up early and take of the problem before Wife and the gang got up, by morning the rear passenger side tire was definitely lower. I ended up going to nap around 9:30pm, woke up at midnight and stayed up until 4:00am. I then slept until 7:30am and decided I would strike early and get the tire fixed.
Apparently, about a dozen other people had the same thought and they got up earlier than me. By the time I got there, it wasn't even open yet, but there was already a mass of people outside just standing in the cold. It took another 5 minutes for them to open the doors, and then I was in line for another good 10 minutes. The guy I talked to did the standard walk through, I know the tires are only about a year old which meant I shouldn't need new ones, so then it was a matter of waiting for the car to go in and have the tire plugged. It took almost two hours, I scanned through one magazine and then I said "screw it" and fell asleep.
The store clerk called me at almost 10:00am to say the car was ready, and that they found a nail in the tire. I feel better to have them do the work. Wife runs back and forth all the time and she is alone most of the time, so I feel better that an expert does the work. I would feel shitty if she ever ended up stranded somewhere between work in La Pryor and us over here in Austin because I used a cheap $2 patch.
Tomorrow, I plan on getting up early again and taking my Excursion to Ford to get the oil changed as they have been advertising Sunday hours through text and e-mails. Again, I find this a convenience of living in a big city. What I understand, my folks have to drive about 40 miles to the closest city with a dealership where they get their oil changed. There might be a place that will change the oil in Crystal, but then again, I remember my brother doing that and they managed to screw it up and he needed a new engine which the oil change place paid for, but the truck was never the same.
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