flat...again

I have perpetual bad luck when it comes to getting flat tires. It seems like an almost monthly occurrence for me when, upon finding that one of my tires is flat-again-I call/text Ben to break the news. If it's not the front passenger tire, it's the back driver seat tire. And if not one of those tires, it's the rubber tires on our super cool running stroller (they were flat when I went on last week's infamous dog-bite walk-though I did pump them up before we left)

Lately, though, the monthly occurrence has become a weekly deal and I'm here to announce my frustration.

Because it's happened so many times, I honestly don't remember the intial time that the driver side back tire became flat. It may have been the time two years ago that I drove over a BOLT on my way to a school conference. Or it could have been the time last summer I was driving through the construction zone near my mom's house and got a punctured tire. It's probably-though-from the time a few months ago when I was driving in the Wal*Mart parking lot. I had my window down, enjoying some fresh air, when I heard a little pop and then a click-click-click. When I got out of my car, I noticed that there was a big NAIL sticking out of the tire. Lovely.

Anywho, Ben's a pretty good tire repair-er. Meaning, he's gotten pretty good at patching up the holes or punctures in my tires. When it was too much for him to repair, he took it to an actual mechanic (something he almost never does!) for them to put a heavy duty patch on it.

Come to find out, because I demanded to get my dream car--a Subaru Outback--when we were first married, we're kind of screwed in the tire department because: it's an all-wheel drive vehicle and apparently if you have to replace one tire, you have to replace all of them; there's no replacing one tire at a time...er, something like that.

So, for a while this last time, the patch held up nicely. I went a whole TWO WEEKS without having to put air in my tire every time I got in it. It was nice not to have to plan my errands around the gas stations where you could fill your tire for free!! (See this previous post about "paying for air")

Then, about two weeks ago, it. was. completely. flat. I think it was the day I had to take Erich to the pediatrician for another bilirubin test. Ben drove the car to the nearest free air gas station as slowly as possible and filled it with air. When I got out of the pediatrician's office, it was flat again, so I drove 3mph to the nearest free air gas station. Then I made a stop at my friend, Sadie's, house. When I got back out, you guessed it, flat again. When I got home I told Ben: ENOUGH! Fix this tire! And, yet again, he put his tire plugging skills to work and plugged it with, I think, about 7 plugs.

And then it was flat again yesterday.

So now we have to spend $400 on 4 new tires.