A typical Friday night

On Friday night I went to a friends house for dinner. On my way there I noticed I was running out of gas. Since I like living on the edge, (and I was hungry,) I decided to fill up after dinner.

I got back in my car after a yummy salad and noticed I only had 4 miles to get to a gas station. I was confident I could do it. After consulting my iphone, I made my way to a Shell station just up the street. While I was driving, I noticed that the miles were going quickly and got a little nervous that I was going to be stranded. With the Shell station in sight, I hit 0 miles until empty and cruised into the station just in the nick of time.

I pulled up to the first pump, got out of the car, put in the pump and ran my credit card, relieved that I had made it. To my dismay, the pump was broken. I began to sweat, worried that my car was not going to even start because I had no gas left. I started the car successfully and celebrated as I pulled forward to the pump in front of me... then I heard a BOOM.

I got out of the car quickly to see what had happened and noticed a giant hose hanging from my gas tank. I had forgotten to put the pump back, and it had disconnected from the top of the station and was hanging out of my car. A crazy man came up to me and yelled "what the hell did you just do?" I said, "I think I forgot to put the pump back." He said, "If I were you, I would get out of here quick!" I looked at him sadly and quietly whispered, "I dont have any gas..."

I decided to demonstrate accountability, (Target terminology,) and go inside to see what I needed to do, plus I didnt really have another choice. The second I walked in the man looked and me and said, "I saw what you did." I said I was sorry and he then told me the fine would be 30 dollars. My initial reaction was, where will this fall in my budget? Gas? Car Repair? I decided on entertainment, since that is where I usually categorize money that is spent on doing stupid things and making a fool of myself, (see previous post about martinis.) I asked the clerk to ring me up for gas, (on the pump that still had the hose) with the fine and he ran my card. He handed it back and told me that because I was brave and came in to tell him about the incident he wasn't going to charge me for it, and just rang me for the gas.

I walked back to my car, wrapped the hose up and placed it on the now really broken pump. Then, very carefully, I filled up my car, returned the pump to its proper place and drove away. I am 362 miles away from my next trip to the gas station. Wish me luck...