Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Passing Gas

My car passed a whole tank of gas before I realized it. I don’t drive much and, when I do, it’s not very far; the longest trip is to church, about twelve minutes away at the most. So I gas up every so often and don’t think too much about it.

Until this afternoon when the “check gauges” light came on. It’s a nice way of saying, “Dummy, you are about to run out of gas.” There was a gas station nearby, but I was not in a position to get there, due to traffic, road lanes and such. So I finished my errand nearby and returned in a way that I could pretty much idle down the hill to the station and put 12.9 gallons of gas into what I think is a 13.5 gallon tank. What’s that come out to? About four pints of gas? I didn’t even try to top off the tank when the nozzle tripped, so maybe I was down even lower.

If I drove any distance at all, I probably would fill it before any trip and never let it get below a third just for daily driving. You just don’t mess when you hit the highway; there might not be a gas station when you need one.

In the broadcast news business, if you’re on assignment and there’s food, eat it; if there’s a toilet, use it. You don’t know when the next time is that you will see either. When driving and you see a gas station, stop there. You might need some gas, maybe use the rest room and generally walk around for a few minutes.

And, if you personally need to pass gas, what better place than outside the car?

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