A Long Day Before It Even Begins

First Time In The Office In A Couple Of Weeks

Been busy. It was 100°F+. I melted my catalytic converter. Went out of town. Had company. You know, what with not teaching during Summer I/II, the usual. Of course I knew that when I did make it into the office, I'd spend some time fighting with my computer because everything, no matter what settings I actually give it, ABSOLUTELY HAD TO UPDATE AND RUN MASSIVE SETUP PROGRAMS RIGHT NOW!!!!! So everybody collides and no one, especially the poor sop who owns the computer and would, silly me, actually like to get any work done on it, gets anything done in a timely fashion.

Add In The Laugh Track

So naturally, when I went into the garage to load up, back out and drive off, I was struck that the 1996 Blazer looked a bit... odd. Not tall enough. A quick inspection showed that, naturally, the left front tire was flat.

Now long time readers will note that I have this odd relationship with vehicle woes, in which I comment that sometimes these things happen at just the right time. Serendipity if you will -- big believer in it. Oh, you won't be disappointed here.

This is a two car garage and the right side tires are right up against the east wall, so that there's no way to get to them short of backing out. But it was a left side tire, and Mrs. Dr. Phil was long gone, so other than moving the recycling bin a few feet, the tire was perfectly exposed.

And the valve stem was up on the top.

And my AC powered compressor was still sitting on the side desk and easy to pick up, set it on two toolboxes sitting next to the tire, plug into a power strip sitting right there and hook it up to the valve stem.

Tire pumped up from flat pretty easily. Indeed, it wasn't completely flat, starting out around maybe 6 psi gauge pressure. I took it up to 40 psi -- recommended is 36-38 psi -- and while I could hear a slight hissing sound with the compressor off and disconnected, a hiss isn't going to drain a tire in five minutes.

So it was easy to go off to Chevy and pull it into the entry bay. There, one of the usual guys came over with a spray bottle -- he could hear the slight hiss as soon as I shut off the engine -- and spraying around, found the leak right about in the center of the tread area. Didn't even have to rotate the tire to find it.

Choice between putting on the spare and coming back for the fixed tire tonight, or just fixing it Right Now. The latter was estimated within a half an hour. Turned out to be a moment longer, but only because they took care of some corrosion on the aluminum wheels, so I won't have a bead leak on that wheel in the near future.

So now I'm running later than planned, but I'm up on I-96. I knew there was some kind of construction on US-131 through the heart of Grand Rapids, but decided to chance it anyway. One lane down from Leonard to 76th Street, which is most of G.R. But traffic was light and we moved at the appropriate 60 or 45 mph, as needed, and so really it was no bother at all.

The next-to-the-perfect parking spot was open when I got to Lot 61.

So yeah, it all could've been much, much worse. Still annoyed that I had to get any work done, but it all went swimmingly. And much, much better than if I couldn't have held the tire pressure on reinflation, had to call and wait for AAA to change the tire, take the flat into the shop and pick it up later.

And of course the computer has settled down after I left it have all its hissy fits, while I played Solitaire.

Serendipity.

Dr. Phil