Val Tries to Help Herself

You may recall that T-Hoe has a limp. A tire that loses air. Hick took T-Hoe to the BARn a few days ago, and used his compressor to fill all four tires with 36 pounds of air. It's supposed to be 35, but when I looked at the two working tire sensors, they said 36.

T-Hoe's left front tire has been losing two pounds of air a day. While I was in town on Monday, I decided I would try to put some air in myself, at the Gas Station Chicken Store's FREE AIR hose. Val planned. The Universe laughed.

I was thrilled to see the lone handicap parking space open, so I hurriedly parked there and went in for my scratchers, lest some ne'er-do-well choose to take that space while I was pumping free air. I figured I could pull forward into the FREE AIR space when I came out with my tickets.

"Au contraire, you silly silly woman with gray lovely-lady-mullet hair!" said The Universe. 

The moment I hoisted myself into T-Hoe's driver's seat, a 4-wheeler came up the back alley, and parked all cattywompus in the FREE AIR space. Well. How long could it take to air up four tires on a 4-wheeler? It's not like there's a large area to walk around to get to each tire. So I wrote on the back of my scratchers, and waited for the 4-wheeler to leave. It did... 

Just as a white SUV came looping around from the back alley, as if unsure of where to park. I glanced to see if it had a handicap plate or placard, because maybe they wanted MY parking space, and I could just pull forward. But no. No handicap designation, AND that white SUV pulled sideways into the FREE AIR space. A man got out. Then the white SUV drove back into the alley. Did an awkward too-many-point turn, and came back down into the FREE AIR space, facing me. The guy got the air hose. 

I gave up. Went over to Casey's for some crossword scratchers. Got into a game of chicken, totally unwanted, with a pickup pulling a trailer who decided to leave the gas pumps WHILE I was already backing up T-Hoe. So I pulled forward again into my parking space, waiting for it to get out of the way. Yet that driver decided to also wait. That meant I had to rassenfrass at him, and turn T-Hoe off completely, and just sit and wait until he went away. 

Then I backed out, took the shortcut over the moat along the back alley, to get my FREE AIR again. Huh. That RumpusHole in the White F250 was there in the handicap space, with a copper-colored PT Cruiser parked beside it in the driving lane. No handicap marking on either, of course. Just an entitled guy and a road-blocker.

I was able to pull T-Hoe in nose-first toward the big dumpster, sideways across the FREE AIR space. I got out to a very tangled air hose. Of course the valve on that tire I needed was on the bottom. I stood on my head to put in air. Couldn't tell how much was going in, but gave it two tries.

When I got back in after hanging up the air hose, I saw that I'd put in exactly six pounds of air. Just right! After this ultimately successful effort, I've decided that Hick needs to get that tire repaired BEFORE FRIDAY! Because if not, I'll be stuck doing this until next week.

Surely Hick can fit my need into his busy schedule...