Oops! Guess I Pushed It A Little Too Far!

If you know me, you know it was only a matter of time before this happened. Yup...ran out of gas on my way to scrapbooking at the church Monday night. I was driving up a hill and felt a little chug. My eyes immediately went to the gas gage but I was encouraged to see that the 'marker thingy' was still hovering over the empty line. Figured the heat of the day was just taxing my little car more than normal. Ummmm...nope!

As it chugged again and lurched a bit I quickly realized we were going nowhere fast. I aimed the car towards the curb which was no easy feat with the power steering gone. I ground to a halt, going up a hill, 4 feet from the curb and about 50' from a set of lights. Now what do I do? Call Dad! (What I think Dad can do from 20 mins. away is beside me but a daughter just has to call her Dad in a situation like this.) I tell him I'm pretty sure I'm out of gas and he offers to bring me some but I remember my CAA and put them into action. (I've only used their services a few times over the 7 years I've had it but it is ohhh so worth it in my books!) Before calling CAA...duh!...I tried calling my friend Carol to see if David could bring me some gas. Oh man....that would be swallowing a huge slice of humble pie as I know it would take forever....if ever...to live this one down! Thankfully they were not home and I remember CAA so call them. Phew....My pride was saved by Carol and David being at a soccer practice is my guess!

Next, as I begin to wait for CAA I survey the scene one more time. I quickly realize that I'm facing up a hill and I can use that hill to my advantage. Throwing the car into neutral I begin to coast back down the hill and curve the car towards the curb....once again realizing how thankful I am for power steering and now throwing in thanks for power brakes too as they're quite mushy when the car isn't running.

There...parked beside the curb, 4-ways flashing, windows open to try and catch some of the great cross breeze since it's almost 50oC with the humidity, and very thankful for the big tree that's casting a shadow across my entire car. If I had to run out of gas there couldn't be a more perfect place to do it!

Now what do I do? Sit here without doing anything? Oh no...that's just not me. My book was at home which is my normal companion even walking to work. (People often comment at how they see me walking and reading. It's really not too difficult and I have so little time to read that I like to take advantage of every moment!) I consider digging in my scrapbooking bag but what could I really do sitting in my car? As I sat there I was truly reminded that I was in the year 2006. It was 7:00 in the evening, the sun was out so it was bright. I was a woman stopped at the side of a fairly busy road (Ok, 19 cars per minute passed me...you know I counted!) and for 20 mins. not 1 single person stopped to offer assistance. But you know what, in the year 2006 I wouldn't have either. It's a sad state that our country/world is in but these days we second guess our own safety if we stop to help someone else. In the day of cell phones it's safer to allow someone to call for help then to stop and offer assistance. How sad but also, how true.

After saying that though, I had the sweetest thing happen! Just prior to CAA showing up, a gentleman at the house across the street came out with an ice cold bottle of water for me because he'd noticed me sitting there for a bit! My faith in kind people was given a boost! The water was a blessing and I was oh so thankful!

About 25mins after the incident began my knight in shining armour rode up on a white stallion....errr...a guy in blue shorts and shirt drove up in a red, white and blue CAA truck and, saved the day. He put some gas in my tank, smiled for the picture and waited while my car roared to life with the juices it needed!

Yes, it was only a matter of time before I'd pushed it just a little too far. With the cost of gas so high I'd ignored the warning light that had gone on the previous afternoon as I knew Monday nights the price of gas often dropped. Not sure what I thought had happened in my gas tank. Even though Monday night the line was above empty, Sunday afternoon it was hanging on for dear life to the bottom of the empty line. No 'loaves and fishes' miracles in this gas tank! Just a wonky gage!

I made my way to the church, shared my tale with the girls then headed straight to the gas station after scrapbooking. Truth be told though, there was a small pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. As I limped my car into the gas station at 9:30 Monday night the price of gas had dropped by over $0.10/litre from the day before! Yeah....saved over $5.00! (And created a fun blog entry to boot!)