"I'm tired, of pumping up tires"

Oh joy, my car is talking to me again! Don't you love that? And it always has some good news to impart, right? Right??

Here we go again: it's winter, it's cold outside, and the air inside my (and everyone's) tires contracts or condenses or whatever. A warning starts flashing on the dash display. It will not stop flashing until I boost the air pressure inside each tire, of course, and therein lies today's Problem.

Roughly speaking, tire air pressure decreases by 1 or 2 PSI for every 5°C (10°F) drop in temperature. Today is the coldest day of the winter, or as Homer might put it, "The coldest day of the winter SO FAR".

Is it a coincidence that I now have to go to a gas station and crouch outside my vehicle 4 times, one for each tire, in -10°C (14°F) temperatures, and did I mention it's windy? That toasty temp (for Canadians, anyway: I saw some maniac walking around in shorts this morning) feels more like -17°C (1.4°F) with the wind chill factor!

Ahh yes, the dreaded wind chill factor. Remember the howling wind sounds that lead into The Boomtown Rats' "Wind Chill Factor Minus Zero"? Sounded really cold, did it not? I recall CFNY-fm DJ Peter Griffin once saying that he used to think the weatherman was referring to the "Windshield Factor" - meaning it was cold enough for ice to form on your car's windshield, requiring you to scrape it off before driving anywhere. But I digress...

Tomorrow morning I'll drive to the gas station and use the coin-operated air pump (Oh baby, don't get me started on that! A society without free air is not free!) to inflate my car's tires to the recommended PSI. I'd better bring some coins so the clerk won't have to withstand my withering scowl as I ask for change.

Then I'll brave the windchill factor and curse winter, tires, and air until I'm blue in the face. Or bluer, I guess... did I mention it's cooooold out there?