After a long day at the office, I was enjoying my drive home tonight until I received a call from my wife that my oldest son had spewed in the car as they were driving to our youngest son’s guitar lesson.
Shortly after ending the call with my wife, I had looked down at the dash and noticed that there was a “dummy” light illuminated on the dash that I did not recognize. As I looked at the indicator, I was trying to remember if it had been there before or not.
Part of the confusion was because I have had the “Maint Reqd” indicator illuminated for a few hundred miles as I haven’t had time to change the oil and the light has been a constant reminder. When I had convinced myself that this new light had always been there as part of the maintenance light, I felt something a little strange as I changed lanes.
It was then that I realized that the indicator was the Tire Pressure Monitor trying to tell me that the pressure in one (or more) of my tires was below the acceptable level. By this time I was nearly home, so I pulled over to make a quick visual check that the tire was not flat and proceeded to drive the rest of the way home.
With the rain coming down, I decided to just pull into the garage for the night and I will deal with the tire in the morning. The timing works well as Wednesday is my day off from the full-time job so once I get the kids (although it looks like our oldest will be home sick tomorrow) off to school, I will give the tire a good visual inspection in the daylight and fire up the compressor to properly fill the tire.
Once I have the tire filled again, I will check for leaks and try to get the tire repaired if needed.
Much like my tire, I am feeling a little flat tonight and plan to call it an early night. Even though I thrive during the late hours of the night, I need to recharge my batteries and get more than three to four hours of sleep tonight.
My lack of sleep indicator light has been on for awhile and much like the maintenance required light in the car, I have been ignoring it for too long.
Ending The Day Flat
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Well after a hard day the worst thing that you want is break down of the car. I think it was wiser to park the car their in the night and come back next morning and then get it repaired.
I hope that your eldest son is alright. A detail,that got lost in the post.
We have a small group of friends who regularly jog or walk. We use the term “Today is puncture day” when one is unable to or not feeling up to the routine on any given day! Your post reminded me of this little joke that illustrates our state of mind!!
Recharging your batteries every now and then never hurts and I always advise against ignoring the importance of sleep. Even if it seems that you can get more done by neglecting sleep, it simply isn’t worth it in the long run.
Alan Johnson
You were probably tired from work in the first place. Sometimes fate do play with us. Just when you thought of a good day off’s rest, something came up to keep you on your toes. But that’s why naps are invented. Just make sure you’re not on the wheel. :-] I know how you fee.
Yikes sounds like my driving nightmares. I had the unfortunate misfortune of my cars alternator belt breaking on me right as I was making a right hand turn.Thankfully I didn’t make the turn into traffic. That happened during one of the coldest days we had last month too.
Although now I wish I had a tire pressure indicator light LOL. I usually have manual indicators like people that come in contact with me in the parking lot as I am either getting in or getting out of my car.
I’ve had so many mishaps with flat tires I can’t even count. They are such an inconvenience, but you’ve got to fix it no matter what.
I know when I need to recharge batteries. That’s when I open one website after another, and nothing seems interesting. Finally, I close all of them, stare at the screen for a few painful seconds, and then go to sleep, even if my brain does not want to call it quits.
@MPB :: In hindsight that is true, but I now have four new tires on the car and all is good again.
@HRS :: Yes, my son is alright. Once he got it out of him, he seemed to be better. We kept him home the next day to be sure and he was fine – not sure what caused it.
@Alan :: Very true – it is hard getting up at 4:00-5:00am for work when you are blogging until 12:00-1:00am. The hard part is that to get the recommended amount of sleep I would have to go to bed nearly the time I get home many nights.
@Joe :: Glad to hear your situation turned out okay without any serious problems. It looks like I picked up a nail in the tire on the drive home that caused it.
@How-to :: It wasn’t too bad but the timing of it all kind of sucked.
@Ling :: Good idea…good night! 😉
Good analogy there. I ignore my sleep shortfall at my own peril. I simply cannot function on less than 7 hours in every 24. I just feel too impaired.
oi vey I had a nail in my tire once
Derek, indeed, even if some people say that all they need is a couple of hours of sleep on a daily basis in order to be in top shape, they are not aware what kind of long-term results can come from such habits.
Alan Johnson
It is really frustrating to have a flat tire after a day’s hard work. But some things like that can’t really be avoided. Shit really happens. It’s a good decision that you just chose to park it and repair the following day.
Oh… That’s just teriible.
But I do hope you had a nice sleep and was able to repair the car after.
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Flat tires are really irritating and you’ve got no choice but fix them. What’s more irritating is when it happens to you in the middle of the highway and you realized that you got no spare tire. Whew!
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I remember when I had my first flat. It was horrible being stranded like that. Then I learnt how to fix one so that i wouldn’t ever be in that situation again.
The serpentine belt is really one of the easiest changes that can be made on a car. There are so many online resources which explain how to change a belt. All you normally need is the right size wrench and a long handled screwdriver or some other leverage bar. Also, many people don’t know that the belt diagram is normally on a sticker and is stuck under the hood.
The TPS is a good thing for consumers, but sometimes it’s misleading! Because your tires could be just below the required pressure and it will turn on that light. I think that there are still some bugs to be worked out in these systems… But they are great for women who don’t usually pay attention to their vehicle’s tires. It’s also important that whoever you take your vehicle to have the tires rotated; they reset your TPS’s to the right location because that will make the light go off too!