23 March, 2010

Hands Off!

So, I was driving home last night from a Bee meeting when a warning light started flashing on the instrument panel of my car, a lighted symbol that looked like this:I had no idea what this represented but I knew I'd better check it out immediately. I pulled into a church parking lot and got the manual out of the glove compartment. This symbol is the tire pressure monitor. Groan. I got out and inspected all four tires, they looked fine to me, no low pressure that I could detect. I drove less than a mile and thought I could sense a sound, a thumping noise... maybe? I pulled over a second time, at the entrance to the water treatment plant, and did a second, more thorough, inspection. This time I felt the tires, all around, with my hands. Why? Who knows. Now my hands were black and greasy and I still didn't know any more than I did before. (Except not to manually inspect tires without a rag in the car!) By the time I got home (another few miles) I was imagining all sorts of horrible things regarding the car/tires as well as trying to convince myself that the warning light was malfunctioning. I pulled into the garage and looked at the tires under more sufficient overhead lighting. Yep, I had a low tire alright. I came in and told my husband, he looked first at me and then at my hands and asked me what I had tried to do. I told him that I had gotten out and felt them; which, in hindsight, seemed really silly when I tried to explain it. I'm grateful he didn't laugh at me. He took the tire off this morning to find a decent-sized screw (with a washer attached) embedded deep in my tire. All is well again, the tire is fixed. A word to the wise here: (from the now wiser) the warning lights on your vehicle can be trusted and you really can't tell a whole lot by giving a tire a rub-down with your bare hands!

Life is Good!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I would have done the same thing! No need to laugh!

Quiltdivajulie said...

Me, too ... and DH would have SO rolled his eyes at me. Glad you made it home safe and sound before the air really went out of the tire!

Paula, the quilter said...

Ah, the ole tire massage trick *smile*. Glad you made it home safely, tho.

Libby said...

Well, why not feel it . . . . if it's low is should be mushy, right? *lol*

Nane said...

In your defense, its really tough to see low pressure in some of these new low profile tires.

Salem Stitcher said...

At least it held out until you got into your own garage and didn't decide to poop out on you on the road home. Glad you arrived safely!

(tire massage...waahhh haha...Paula cracked me up.)

Domestic Designer said...

Glad everything worked out alright. You did just what I would have.

Meggie said...

This reminds me of stories about men looking at cars, & going about kicking the tyres! The kicking proved nothing, but they thought it made them look 'knowledgable'!!
Glad your troubles were easily sorted.