Friday, July 23, 2010

if only we were in oregon . . .

so today . . . i had to put gas in my car.

this may not sound like a big deal, but remember--we are not in oregon--we have to pump our own gas here in california . . .

i hate to pump my own gas. i do it, because otherwise my car refuses to take me where i want to go. rollie likes me to fill my tank when it gets down to about 3/8 full. i usually fill it when the "get gas before you end up stalled on the side of the road and have to call AAA" light comes on. rollie's thinking is that i will never have to call AAA (or him) if i fill it at 3/8 of a tank. my thinking is that if i wait until it is almost empty, i won't have to fill it as often. rollie just shakes his head. i keep my AAA card right behind my driver's license . . .

i filled the gas tank a few days ago, right before we left for san diego. i wasn't sure that one tank of gas would get us there and back--in fact i was kind of hoping it wouldn't, because rollie would be with me. and if rollie is with me, he pumps the gas! but apparently my car gets pretty good gas mileage, because on the way home today when i asked him if we needed gas, he said, "no, we still have a quarter of a tank . . . "

this remark came, however, as we were sitting in the parking lot they call the 91 freeway at 3:00 on a friday afternoon. helicopters were circling ahead of us, so we knew there was a problem. we were in the car pool lane, but it wasn't doing us any good. traffic was not moving! we inched our way forward, looking for an exit out of the car pool lane so we could get off the freeway and onto surface streets. i was starting to worry that AAA might have to bring us gas in the car pool lane! finally we maneuvered our way across the four lanes of traffic standing between us and the relatively open road . . .

you would think i had spent enough time in the car for one day, but when we got home diandra had some errands to do and asked if i wanted to go along. of course i said yes, and so we headed to the long beach town center. two hours later we were on our way home. in the dark. and the gas light was shining brightly right at me! shoot! my evil plan for rollie to realize we needed gas and fill the tank before we got home had been thwarted by good gas mileage and all the traffic issues . . . so now i was going to have to do it. we went east to the gas station with the cheapest gas, but when we got there, it was too crowded for me. which worked out well, because diandra said she had heard that particular brand of gas wasn't very good anyway. ok, i thought, we will go to my other favorite (and by favorite, i mean cheap) gas station. so we turned around, backtracked, and kept driving--only to find that the left turn lane into the station was blocked off with traffic cones! i got out of the left turn lane, drove through the intersection and into a parking lot where i could turn around--because there was a police car sitting on the cross street with his headlights flashing. which seemed odd to me, but i was on a quest for gas . . . we pulled into the station, only to see that it was the same kind we had already passed up! but we were there, so whether it was good gas or not, it was going into my car. while i was pumping gas, another police car careened around the corner and screeched to a stop. and there i was, pumping gas, wondering what was going to happen next . . .

when we got home, we turned on the news to see what all the fuss had been about, and learned that earlier in the afternoon there had been an armed robbery of a jewelry store near us. they had caught one of the robbers, but were trying to catch the others. there was a short car chase, before the suspects escaped on foot--which is why the freeway was closed. by the time we saw the story on the news, they had all of the suspects in custody.

so, my neighborhood is once again safe, and my car is once again cooperative, and i am once again home.

2 comments:

Carroll said...

I can tell you where Rollie gets his conservative gass theory! Not from his father. Do you know we ran out of gas on our honeymoon between Grants Pass and Medford. Yep! First day out. Wally walked and finally got a ride while I sat along the freeway munching an apple and thinking not so nice thoughts. That's the last time he ran out of gas. Needless to say I'm always filling the car, yes in Washington, if Wally's not with me. However, I'm not driving much now until I have the catarac surgery which is coming up shortly.
Love you Julie! Keep up the blogging. Love it!

mom said...

Sorry you have to pump your own gas.. Also, remember Oregon doesn't have any sales tax along with not having to pump our own gas which is great because we would be pumping gas most days in the rain. Glad you didn't run out. Read your blog this A.M. but my phone won't let me post comments. I guess it's back to Sprint for me...