Miss Information's adventures in car ownership
Miss Information's car is 2 years old and a couple of weeks ago she took a day off to have it serviced. The service people assured her that everything was fine. Perfect, they said. They mentioned checking all the fluids and things and stuff and junk. Miss Information isn't clear on those sorts of things. Because it was suddenly teeming rain, she went right home.The next day, she went to the gym. After that she had plans to drive on the highway for awhile, because she likes that sort of thing. Shortly after merging on to the highway, a warning light appeared on her dashboard--an exclamation point inside square brackets. Miss Information has seen this one before. Something is off with the tire pressure. She exits the highway and goes to a nearby parking lot where she looks at the tires. It is now pouring rain. They seem fine enough. Is that driver's side one kind of low? Hm. Maybe it is.
Miss Information drives to a gas station to check the air and put in more. (Miss Information does not have a working tire gauge but she's been driving around with a completely useless one for as long as she remembers. It's tradition.)
At the gas station, thanks to Miss Information's ridiculously literal interpretation of the car manual's picture showing where the location of the tire information sticker, she has no idea how much air should be in her tires. Not one to let a detail like that stop her, Miss Information puts a little air into the tire that seems low.
The next day she goes to a local garage that is open on Sundays to get them to check the tire, because, well, the tire was fine on Friday at the dealership, it must have a leak, right? The garage is busy and tell her to come back another time. She hates that place, why does she always go there?
Miss Information spends the rest of the day anxiously watching her tires. On Monday, she starts to think that one of the tires on the passenger side seems low. Because it's raining again, she goes to a gas station and puts a little air in that tire. Please note, Miss Information now has found the sticker that tells her how much air to put in the tires. Also note that the air hose at the gas station doesn't have a working gauge. Once again, Miss Information guesses. All the tires seem the right shape. Phew.
Miss Information decides to go shopping. She thinks about when she last saw the warning light. As she recalls, it was right before she took her car for its one year service. So, about a year ago. In fact, Miss Information remembers that it was exactly a year ago, practically to the day. She checks her records. She'd picked the car up at 3 pm on October 26, 2012. The warning light went off at exactly 1:15 on October 26, 2013. Miss Information clues in that warning light might be less of a report of an actual problem and more of an annual reminder.
Miss Information goes into the settings menu. It wants to know if her tires are ok. She says yeah. The warning light goes away.
Miss Information makes a note not to panic next year.
