Oops

I had to ask my friend for help with our car today. I bought him lunch in exchange for checking our oil and tire pressure. I’d tried to get help from my dad but I don’t think he fully understands how little I know about cars. My only driving experience has come from rental cars. Things like tire pressure, oil and wiper fluid has never been my responsibility. My expectation up until this point has been a clean, well maintained car.
The top 3 things I now know (from car ownership in the last 2 months):
1) Cars get dirty quickly and rain does not count as cleaning.
I’ve gone to car washes before but that has only been to clean off dead bugs from driving in the south. This dirt, however, is black smog like dust caked on my car and dripping down from my door handles. I now understand how people can end up with “wash me” written across their windows. Right about now, I’d deserve it.
2) If a tire looks squishy, it needs your attention.
Last Sunday, while unloading the car, I noticed that my tire looked funny. I squeezed it and it gave a little. That was when I decided to ask my friend for help. At the time I didn’t think that much about it because I’ve had a flat before and the car I was driving told me by way of a light on the dash. I figured that if there was something wrong I’d know. I didn’t realize that was a feature of that specific car and that not all cars have sensors. It ends up my tire pressure was dangerously low – in all 4 tires. The suspect squishy tire’s pressure was so low it did not even register. So, yeah, something like less than 10. Apparently that is very bad.
3) If you’re driving a subcompact and it’s sucking gas back like an SUV, see point #2, and check the tires.

The short ride back to work after lunch was amazing. The car feels like it is brand new (this really shouldn’t be an accomplishment for an ’08). I can’t believe I’ve been driving around on tires with such low pressure. It makes me wonder how this happened. Yes, I’m clueless but I had brought my dad with me to check the car both when I purchased it and picked it up. You’d think that the dealer would have checked the tire pressure before sending it off the lot as well. Apparently not considering ALL of the tires were much lower than they should have been! The only other explanation, for the squishy tire, could be a small leak. I’m going to check it again on Monday to see if the pressure has changed.
At least I now know how to check my own oil and tires. It’s a start.
And... yes... I did get in trouble for posting the below picture. In my defence, I do think that the room is in orderly chaos. No one will be calling TLC.... It's not THAT bad. There's clearly a path to the dresser and our crap is stored in crates. Oh well....