Can I get some air please?

For the past three weeks I've noticed that Stella's tires are not as full as they should be. Now usually I'm lazy and just ride on them even if they are a bit flat. The only problem with doing this is that as bike tires become flat, it becomes increasingly more difficult to ride the bike (especially up hills). So, this week I decided I should fill them up (mostly because I was having to gear down so low to get up the hill to my house that I was embarrassed for myself).

(an example of a flat tire like mine)

On Monday after work I biked on over to my favorite local gas station (the only one that I'm aware of in the area with a free air pump). But alas! They had their pump disconnected because they are repairing the car wash. (I honestly don't understand why the air pump has anything to do with the car wash, but I've learned not to mess with Bostonian logic). So, I decided to bike a little bit further down the road to the next gas station (mind you, I was now biking directly away from my house). When I got there a nice man who was filling up his car tires let me use the last little bit of his time on the air pump, which is fortunate because I realized after arriving that I didn't have 75 cents in quarters for the machine.

For some reason though, the air pump would only fill my tires to 30 psi. (Now, just to give you an idea of how flat my tires were...when they are full they are supposed to be at 60 psi, I was riding around with them at 20 psi, and then the silly pump would only fill them to 30 psi). Needless to say I was quite frustrated. So my solution? Just bike home and deal with it later.

So today after work I decided that I would give it another try because I was pretty sure that I was back down to 20 psi again. Sadly, as I pedaled past the "free-air-but-not-anymore-because-of-the-broken-car-wash station" I noticed that they still didn't have the hose connected to their air pump so I continued on to the other station, pulled up to the pump, reached into my bag to retrieve the 75 cents I was sure I had put in there, and I couldn't find it! So, yet again I left the station air-less and decided that I was just fated to ride on flat tires so just biked home defeated. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.