But I digress

After she walked away, I thought about how I would write about her. My thoughts started off nicely and politely but then I thought: I would drive any train with a nice caboose.

...

I ran out of gas last night.

And I'm not talking about how I hit some wall from working too many hours at two different jobs. I'm talking about gasoline.

The low gas light chimed in yesterday and I paid it the usually lack of attention because it comes on way before the white colored needle touches the red colored 'empty' line. I've been here before and have driven to and from the second office to home twice after the pale orange little gas pump shone forth from under the speedometer.

(How come we don't say that word speed-o-meter? Or maybe you do. I don't.)

Anyway, I figured I had two trips in the tank so I drove and parked. The spot I got was on an incline and as I was just about to cut the engine, it started to buck. I thought maybe a tune-up was needed and then I thought nothing of it.

Until, I tried to drive back home.

The truck started but sounded like it was choking. I thought once I get it running, that it would be fine. It wasn't. It stalled. I thought maybe the air filter was clogged because a few months earlier my lawn mower had done something similar an it needed a new air filter. I popped the hood, found where the air filter went and hoped that it truly was where the air filer was as I pried it opened. It was indeed the air filter but even with the filter disconnected the engine wouldn't start.

I checked the time. It was eleven at night; too late to call friends but not too very late to call family. I thought the worse. I thought, even though I knew I was low on gas, that my truck needed a truck doctor. I called my sister to come pick me up and I asked her to bring the lawn mower gas just in case.

As I emptied the gas into my tank, I worried that I was just wasting gasoline that I would have to replace later because when the snow falls, the lawn mower gas becomes snow blower gas and although it hadn't snowed yet, I surmised that someday in the future it would.

About two gallons went in; I cranked the engine and got nothing. I cranked it again and got the same results. Then I cranked it good and long and got nothing again. I figured the good news was that I wasn't a jackass and ran out of gas because only a jackass would run out of gas when he knows the 'low gas' light is on. The bad news was that my truck was broke.

I sighed a bit and sat a bit wondering to which place I could push my vehicle to where I wouldn't get too many tickets. No place was close or even known so, I cranked the engine again wondering how many times one was supposed to crank an engine that wasn't starting when I got a slightly different noise.

I smiled a bit as I called myself a retard for possibly just running out of gas and also for bothering my sister. I cranked it again and the engine roared to life.

So, now I need more mower gas.