Can you be second hand pepper sprayed?
Guest post number two! (See link if you’d like to write one yourself.) This week’s guest post is written by my wonderful, impossibly amazing, calm and graceful girlfriend Maddie. She’s explained it to me multiple times before - I’m still not entirely sure - but Maddie’s a talent and organizational change management analyst for a business consulting firm. She likes to spend her free time with me, which makes me happy :) Thank you boo for taking the time to share your writing!
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I am a strong (almost) independent woman. (Can you tell this is a guest post yet?) I can do many household repairs, dutifully get an oil change, and even use a drill in certain circumstances. However, I somehow managed to go 23 years of my life without ever learning how to fill a tire with air.
Way back in the early days BC (Before Covid), I was driving to my office when my low tire pressure light turned on in my car. What is that light? I found myself wondering. Does this mean I need to pull over? How was this not covered in Drivers Ed?
I did a thorough analysis of my car (aka I checked to make sure it felt like it was okay) and decided to drive the rest of the way to the office before googling what the heck that light meant. As soon as I read the words "it is not urgent", I decided to push it off a few days... or weeks.
Finally, the time came when my car conscious started making me feel guilty about neglecting my little Kia and I decided to take on the challenge of resolving the issue. I pulled into a gas station on an unusually hot day in Washington and walked into the store to buy the token for the air machine. The clerk was very kind and gave me a token for free. He told me that one minute of air would be more than enough time to fill a tire.
At this point I felt amazing! Look at me filling up my tire with air, and for free even! I put the token in the machine and, like magic, it dispensed air. I figured out how to unscrew the nozzle and put the air in my tire, but didn't understand how to read the gauge to know when my tire was full. As I was trying to understand how to read the gauge, I lifted the air nozzle and was, in fact, not filling my tire with air. But hindsight is 20-20 and I thought that I had successfully resolved the issue.
Jump to me driving back onto the street and driving down the road. The light showed up again and this time the psi for my tire was significantly lower than it was before. Embarrassingly low... about 50% of what it should be. That is when I started to worry that my tire was going to pop and I would finally have to use the triple-A card that is hidden somewhere in my wallet. I turned around and went back to the gas station, where the store clerk pitied me and gave me another token for air.
This time I was determined. I calmed myself and looked up a YouTube video on how to fill a tire with air and success! I was able to accomplish this not-so-complicated feat thanks to the YouTube channel PracticalGirls and the stronger, more independent woman who creates videos on how to do basic human things.
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Fast forward a couple months, and one of my good friends brought up on a Saturday morning brunch that she needed to fill her tire with air and she was nervous about learning to do the task herself. Knowing her pain, I offered to help her fill her tire. I felt at this point I could be considered a pro.
We pulled into a slightly sketchy city gas station (in the middle of the day) and went in to get a token for the air. When walking into the store, something felt amiss. It smelt spicy and we immediately started coughing. We walked up to the counter to ask for a coin and the store clerk informed us that someone had just used pepper spray to rob the gas station. My friend and I immediately left the store and laughed. Is it possible to be second-hand pepper sprayed?
I never knew that this could be the case, but apparently the answer is yes.
