* * * * *
                                        
            I hope this isn't an omen for the year that just started
                                        
I start the car up,  and immedately I'm alerted to low presure in the front
left tire—it's only 27psi (Pounds Per Square Inch) (or 1.9kgf/cm^2 (Kilograms
force per square centimeter) for those of you deficient in the Imperial
System of measure and weights) when it normally should be 35psi
(2.5kgf/cm^2). No problem, I thought. I'll just haul out the air compressor. 

Easier said than done (have to move the lawn mower to reach the tire valve
attactment, and I have to move several miscellaneous items to extract the
compressor unit, then find an extension chord, etc.) but I finally had it set
up, turned on, and started to inflate the tire.

After several moments, the tire pressure was lower than it was. Maybe I'm not
getting getting a good seal on the tire air valve, I thought. I tried several
times and … the tire pressure is now even lower. I kept at it until the tire
got to 13psi (0.9kgf/cm^2). I then decided to try another tire. It should
surprise no one that doing the same thing and expecting different results did
not in fact result in different results. Now I had two low tires.

Maybe it's something to do with the compressor, I thought. I examine the
unit, and indeed, it was something to do with the unit—I had forgotten to
close a valve on the bottom of the unit. All the air it was trying to
compress was blowing out the valve used to empty the compressed air from the
unit when you're done with it. I use the compressor unit enough to know how
to use it to reinflate my tires, but not enough to remember a valve that
needs to be closed before it'll work properly.

Sigh.

Welcome to the New Year everybody!


Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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