On our River 96.7 morning show, my co-host Dave and I play a game show called 'What Are We Talking About,' where we give a series of pretty generic clues and encourage people to call in to guess -exactly- what we are talking about.

In that spirit, the thing I am talking about today is:

- Located at the gas station
- Always working when you don't need it
- Becomes an endangered species when the temperature drops
- Usually free, but some places charge for it
- Usually requires an extra tool to use (unless you go to Kwik Trip)

Have you guessed what I am talking about?

I am speaking about the good old air hose. The other day the temperature dropped to 25 degrees below zero so, naturally, one of my tires lost pressure.

While I don't have a fancy enough car to actually tell me how low my tire actually is, it is fancy enough that it shines an orange light to alert me to the situation. So I set off in search of an air pump.

The first place I stopped wanted a credit card to use the air, which is a non-starter for me. The second place I checked was Kwik Trip- in my opinion the best because of the built-in gauge- but it was out of order due to the extreme cold. Fair enough!

The third gas station I checked didn't even have a hose outside, just a lonely nozzle sticking out of the side of the building.

As it turns out, the moisture inside the hose can freeze when left outside, which obviously makes them unusable. In some cases an employee will bring the hose inside to warm up or thaw instead of just leaving it outside to work itself out. In some cases they can be made available upon asking inside the store if indeed that's the problem.

With the cold weather set to return (and stick around a while), today might be a good day to swing by and double-check the pressure of your tires before these things go out of order!

Otherwise it's just another quirk of living in Minnesota during these cold months! Might be time to get a compressor for the garage...

 

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