My car ran out of gas last night.
This may not be a surprising revelation because I have been known to run my gas tank low. In the '89 Oldsmobile that I drove in high school (Clarence was his name), I knew that I was in trouble when I would make a right turn and the engine would stall. I think that the gas was "swooshing away" from the engine on right turns because it wouldn't stall on left turns.
When I was driving my brother from San Diego up to BYU last August, we (I ?) let the gas get so low that in order to preserve our precious fuel, we turned off the AC and rolled down the windows in the middle of the Nevada desert. Driving with my body sticking to the seat wasn't motivation enough to change this bad habit.
I always thought that running out of gas in a critical moment would be an adventure - a crazy life experience to tell my kids about some day. When it finally happened, it was undramatic. My friend Kurt and I went and saw Slumdog Millionaire in a cool old theater in Capitol Hill, and when we got back in my car, it wouldn't start. I was parked and it wouldn't start. Boring, right? The slight hill my car was parked on made me think that the gas would be "swooshing in," but it was not so.
To make it even more convenient, there was a gas station only two blocks away that sold lovely gas containers like the one featured in this picture. We walked the two blocks back to my car, filled up, and were off. It was all too easy. When I finally filled all the way up, I recorded my statistics as 15.3 gallons (a new record!) and 413 miles.
Now that I have an emergency gas can in my trunk, I can run my gas tank low all the time. Yet that would make running out of gas a terribly convenient inconvenience, so really, what's the point?
6 comments:
HA!
When I read the first line I prepared myself for a story about you running out of gas in the middle of an intersection while fire trucks, police cars, ambulances, and cars with women having babies tried to get by.
I hate is when experiences that are supposed to turn into cool stories come up short.
Wait, you turned off the air conditioning and then rolled down the windows? Rolling down the windows causes a level of air resistance that uses about as much as just running the air conditioning would. It is true, even mythbusters say so, hehe. I blame Seattle parking. Our next movie going experience will have to be less eventful.
this is funny! But what I want to know...is did you like Slumdog Millionaire? I really want to see it, and we were going to over Christmas, but then it left the theater so we didn't get to. Sad, I know.
Is it worth seeing?
this reminds me of something that you and I discovered in common (we knew we would be good friends when...)
since this is a public forum I won't say exactly what it is but let's just say Dave B. in DC might have an idea of our bad habit... :)
PS I think you're just to busy thinking noble and lofty thoughts to bother with the trivialities.... like gas. or...
Once in high school I ran out of gas three times in one week. After that, my parents decided that they would pay for my gas. So sometimes there are secondary gains to be made. And be warned, sometimes keeping a gas can in your trunk can make the whole car smell like gas.
Thanks for keeping your blog updated!
Please tell me that you aren't carrying gas in that spare container! Do you know the story of the Pinto???
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