Warning, Will Robinson!

I'm driving my son to school this morning when I glance at my dash and see it lit up like the Three Mile Island control board. I drive an '06 Honda Pilot with about 10K miles on it that I bought in February. Great car.

After deciphering the smoke signals, I determined that I'm being told that two of my tires are low. Much to my amazement (owner's manual - what owner's manual?), the car has tire pressure sensors that alert you when the air pressure in any tire is down about 10%.

So, after lunch I drive to my neighborhood petrol purveyor. As I needed a fill-up anyway, I topped off the tank and moved the car over to the air machine. After unsucessfully attempting to stuff my quarter into the pay slot, I asked the attendant who informed me that the machine was out of service. Natch.

I then drove up and down the street stopping at the four stations that are within a mile of my house. Three of the four had non-operative air machines Like 'Postal Service', 'service station' has become a laughable oxymoron.

I finally located a working air hose at the fourth station where the charge for air was 75 cents. Now, I'm second to no one in my capitalist bona fides and admiration for the system as a whole. The market can and should determine the price of almost every service and commodity. No other system is fairer or more efficient.

But 75 cents? For air?? Holy freakin' crap.