et non: la défaite

So I drove over to Wal-mart this morning, not even thinking that I'd need to call first since the rain wasn't coming down that hard. When I got there, though, I saw that the Tire and Lube section was closed, and wooden cargo pallets had been piled high in front of each garage door, creating a forbidding ambience. A lady waddled out from the main store and waved me away, shouting unnecessarily: "We're closed, honey!" Yeah, I gathered that, Missy.

Out in Appalachia, you get a lot of "honey"s and "darlin'"s. It's cute.

I'm not sure, though, whether Wal-mart's Tire and Lube Center is closed because of the weather, or because it's Monday. I guess the proper thing to do will be to call tomorrow before I try heading out there one more time.

Meanwhile, I bought a tire gauge after lunch, drove over to the local Martin's gas station, filled up the Fit's tank, and pumped up a tire that, according to the gauge, was down to a scary 15 psi. Here's the thing, though: as soon as I applied the air nozzle to the tire-- it's the kind of nozzle that has its own built-in pressure gauge-- I saw that the tire was already at 30 psi, which is close to the required 32 psi. So I filled the tire a bit, checked the pressure with my own gauge again, and got a reading, this time, of about 32 psi. Satisfied, I capped the tire's valve and trundled on home, but was still a bit disturbed that I'd gotten a possibly false reading off my new gauge.

Upshot: no new tire(s) today. I'll call the tire wizards tomorrow and see whether they're open or whether, like the French, they're using any excuse to close.


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