Something for nothing? Not really.
Never is, I suppose, that whole TANSTAAFL thing. On the other hand, last night, on the way back from work, I started to get that shifting feeling in the tail, the back of the exploder yawing around more than I like, and I knew the right rear was low on air. So, a couple bucks in my pocket, I swing into the Lincoln Oasis, and pull up to the air pump.
And discover it’s free. Free? Free air? I know some stations hae an inside button that allows the attendant to turn on the stuff, but here was an air station, at a gas station that charges 30 cents more per gallon than the norm, without any coin slot, just a pushbutton.
So I filled the tires and drove on. You take what you can get when you can get it.
Free air. Bet you felt dirty after that.
Had to go take a shower.
Actually, your tale exactly parallels the little parable in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress in which Heinlein introduced the TANSTAAFL concept — “The sign says ‘Free lunch,’ but the beer in this place would be a lot cheaper if you paid for your sandwich.”
You don’t surpose the above-premium price on gas covers some other expenses, do you?
I suspect that air was more likely to be free back when a gas station included a couple of service bays in which you could be pretty sure there’d be a compressor running anyway, and an air hose was just a matter of a few T connections and a tire nozzle.
(Geeze, Alger! You sure have a genius for the obvious!)
M
Don’t know if you have any down in your neck of the woods, but “Casey’s” seems to always have “Free Air”. (at least most of the ones I have seen out here in northern Illinois/eastern Iowa)
And their gas is generally on the cheap side. BUT you are gonna pay through the nose for cigs, sodas, and adult beverages. So it would seem TANSTAAFL does catch up to ya sooner or later.