Preventative maintenance

OK if you know me, and by now you probably do, then you know "preventative maintenance" is one of those things you do when you have extra money you need to spend. Sort of like "working out" is what you do when you have absolutely nothing else to do.

But this past weekend my "low tire pressure"light came on. So I looked at the tires and none of them looked any flatter than any other one so I drove to the local gas station (which is ~15 miles away) and pulled up to the air pump.

Air used to be free, but apparently now they charge a buck for it. Really a frigging dollar, what the hell? So I put my 4 quarters in and the proceeded to fill my tires. Of course though I can read the legal disclaimer, the size tire and even the brand, no where do they have how much air to put in the damn thing.

So after my 3 minutes of free air was up. I decided to look in the manual. I remember that one came with the car and since I've never opened it, figured it must be in the glove box.

By they way why do they call it a glove box? I mean maybe a pair of Florida gloves would fit in their, but in Maine gloves are designed to keep you from losing a finger. They are big and bulky and have no chance of fitting in the little compartment there, but I digress.

Sure enough in the manual it told me to put in 38 pounds of air pressure, or 35, but probably 38. I went with 38. That of course cost me another dollar....

The good news is I was getting 42mpg in my Jetta TDI which for you poor bastards driving an Escalade sounds like a made up number, but for us TDI owners is actually not great. Now after putting in the correct amount of air, is back up to almost 45. Hopefully I can make up my $2 for air in a few weeks...