Last week, the low tire pressure indicator in my car came on, so I filled all the tires and went on my way. The indicator came back on a few days later, so I found out which tire was low and filled it up. I figured at that point that the tire probably had a slow leak so I kept adding air as needed and got it patched this morning. I’m glad to have that behind me but it did get me thinking about several things.
For starters, I stayed on top of this situation much better than I did in a similar situation two years ago. My failure to properly address a leaky tire at that time caused a massive blowout that also damaged my car during a road trip. It took away a lot of my time and cost me a good bit of money to replace the tire and repair the damage. Ever since then, I’ve been scrupulous at keeping my tires properly inflated so that I don’t have to go through any of that trouble again. I learned the hard way that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and that’s a lesson that I’m not going to forget.
My other thought on this concerns what happened last night. After I got off work, I was adding air to the leaky tire when my portable air compressor broke down. I’d had it for years and used it many times, so that plus the fact that it was relatively cheap means that I probably got my money’s worth out of it. Still, it surprised me and made me a bit frustrated. I tried seeing if the car place across the street could fill or patch the tire but it could not. Then someone at the nearby convenience store told me about a place a few blocks away that might be able to help me; the place was closed by the time I got there. Fortunately, a nearby gas station had an air pump and, after buying something in the store so I’d have some change to use at the pump, I refilled the tire and set off for home. Even though I got discouraged and frustrated a few times, I mostly stayed focused on solving problems rather than complaining about the situation. As a result, I got the problem solved fairly quickly and I’m not dwelling on that experience like I would be if I had gotten too emotionally invested in it.
I think the fact that yesterday was my fifth straight day of floating helped me a lot, both in last night’s situation as well as in every other area of my life. I’ve felt much more calm as of late and I can slow down and think of different plans to address unexpected difficulties instead of getting overwhelmed by them and becoming paralyzed from indecision. Taking a calm, positive approach to whatever happens has done me a lot of good and, although floating every day for almost a week now has helped remind me of this, I hope I’ll figure out how to remember it and live by it every day whether I float or not.