Ethics and Artificial Intelligence
No-name Blog Post

It's the Little Things...

When Peter and I returned from our honeymoon in 1968, there was a telephone company strike so we couldn’t get a phone installed in our new apartment.  Luckily, we lived a five-minute walk from a gas station that had a public payphone. 

I think fondly of that phonebooth, long a victim of the rise of our cellphone society, as I regularly pass that gas station on my way to the library.

Recently, my car dashboard told me that my tires needed air (a task I dread).  Someone told me it was the bitter cold, but when it warmed up, the warning light remained. (Stay with me—this will come together.)

The thought of collecting quarters for an air machine, and being sure I got the right pressure, was daunting.  Then the other day while walking by that gas station, I noticed that it had an air machine that looked like the old-fashioned kind that when you got gas, the attendant filled your tires from.

Driving by in the rain the next day, I pulled up to the station door and asked if they could fill my tires.  The guy said “sure” and proceeded to measure the tire pressure (which was down) and fill all four tires. 

I went to pay him, and he said, “no charge.”  Then I tried to give him a tip.  He wouldn’t take it.  When I started my car, the warning light was gone.

Little things can make one’s day.

Comments

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Audrey

Amen!

Carol

Please, please give me the name of that gas station ! I live in terror every time that little light goes on. I line my pockets with quarters and approach the vulture that will give me free air (for $1.25 ) after I pay the machine my money the fun starts, what pressure do I ask for(no wait it is printed on the inside door) ok got it, next step is saying a prayer that it doesn't blow up when I put the air hose into my tire. filled it, now on to the next tire but wait! it is on the other side of car and how do I get the hose over there? So I move the car after I hook the hose back onto the vulture and move my car then go to get the hose and fill the ones on this side, and lo and behold because I put the hose back instead of possibly running it over while moving my car IT NOW WANTS MORE MONEY BECAUSE I CLOSED THE ACCOUNT I WAS USING !!!!! Please text me the name and address of that gas station I am desperate

Daniel McIntyre

Last week my tire-pressure warning light went on in Guilford, CT, so I swung by a gas station that has free air but no gauge. Someone was there. I was about to pass it by when I saw woman, perhaps 80 (I'm younger but not by much), at the car and decided to see if she needed help. I used mine to top her up and send her on her way. It cost me five unimportant minutes and made me smile then...and when I read your lovely post. Thanks for that!

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