20080208

Life below -40.

First of all, if you're wondering if I mean Fahrenheit or Celsius, it doesn't matter, the scale of temperature converge at minus forty. Now, to the story:

I awoke in the morning, and as per usual threw on my clothes quickly to go start my car to let it warm up to something resembling comfort when I start driving to work by six-thirty in the a.m.. However, upon my arrival to the out of doors, I was astonished to see my car listing harshly to it's starboard side. This was not a natural position for a vehicle, that much was instantly apparent. A quick stroll around the car enlightened me to the problem: two flat tires on the right side of my car.

This did not instantly appear to be a show stopper as I had in my possession an air compressor and I sorted through the tools in the back of the vehicle, located it, set the psi gauge for automatic shutoff, and attempted to place the compressor on the tire stem. It didn't fit. At all. The cold had shrunk the compressor nozzle sufficiently to nullify my attempts to inflate the tires. I decided I should warm up the nozzle by running it under the warm tap. It worked, the nozzle fit over the valve and the tire began to accept air.

After breakfast, it was time to air up the second tire, as the compressor had shut itself off. I unlocked the nozzle and as the air started draining from the tire, realized that I could not remove it from the valve as the cold had shrunk the
nozzle again. While struggling to remove it, the stress and cold of the environment finally won over the plastic compressor nozzle and it failed. Now I am stuck left holding two pieces of my compressor and no way to inflate my tire.
Not a good position for one to be found in.

After considering the damage I would do to the tire, I decided to drive a mile, slowly, to the petrol station and filled my tire, which held air for me to continue my journey to work.

All in all, quite the mystical journey.