Survey Says
Driving down US-29 this morning on the way to work, I spotted a disabled car along the side of the road. Further on down US-29 I saw a guy carrying a gas can in the direction of the parked car. In an instant, that bear trap I call a brain thought "I'll bet that guy ran out of gas."
That got me to thinking. I thought of all those times I had run out of gas. All those times I've been forced to walk from my inoperative car, gas can in hand, to go get more fuel. All those times I've run out of gas.
Except there are no times I've run out of gas.
Never. Not once, ever, in 37 years of driving, have I run out of gas. How can you run out of gas? The gauge in the car tells you how much remains. All you have to do is look at it. But it's broken you say. Well then, you get it fixed and keep track of your miles using a pad and pencil until you do. Only a totally unobservant ignormus could run out of gas. To run out of gas, your obliviousness has to be so enormous that doing so is almost wanton evil.
Not that I'll get any takers after that tirade, but how about you? Have you ever run out of gas?
We'd all love to hear about it.
K-
That got me to thinking. I thought of all those times I had run out of gas. All those times I've been forced to walk from my inoperative car, gas can in hand, to go get more fuel. All those times I've run out of gas.
Except there are no times I've run out of gas.
Never. Not once, ever, in 37 years of driving, have I run out of gas. How can you run out of gas? The gauge in the car tells you how much remains. All you have to do is look at it. But it's broken you say. Well then, you get it fixed and keep track of your miles using a pad and pencil until you do. Only a totally unobservant ignormus could run out of gas. To run out of gas, your obliviousness has to be so enormous that doing so is almost wanton evil.
Not that I'll get any takers after that tirade, but how about you? Have you ever run out of gas?
We'd all love to hear about it.
K-
Yes. I ran out twice. The gas meter in a company vehicle was broken due to contaminated gasoline about two years ago so that one shouldn't count. I had no warning and was not the only person driving it.
The second one was due to the totally unobservant ignoramus that was me at 21. I went with some friends to a concert in my 1974 Ford LTD. It was cold so we stayed in the running car with the heater on. When it was time to go, the FOUR of us got out of the car, locked the doors, and headed to the auditorium. We didn't notice that the car was running or that the lights were on. The car next to me (Toyota Corolla, I think) did the same thing. When the concert was over, I was out of gas and had a dead battery. The Toyota was still running. The four of us had to push that heavy $&#@* Ford three blocks to the nearest open gas station and beg for a jump.
Well, I'll challenge one thing you say, and then I'll get to the empty tanks. "The gauge in the car tells you how much remains." I would say the gauge in just about every car I've ever driven gave a good approximate idea of how much gas you have, but it's far from precise. There are some makes -- Ford was one, I think -- that were actually known -- known in the folk sense -- to have gauges that showed "empty" when you still had a gallon or two left to go. I've had lots of close calls -- times when I've filled up with a gallon or less in the tank.
Anyway. I seem to remember running out one time after having thought I had enough to get to the next gas station. Very vague memory, except that I think I had someone in the car and that person -- it was a woman -- gave me a pretty hard time. Not sure she actually used the word "ignoramus"; she would if someone had suggested it.
The one time I remember very clearly, though, is when I was driving a friend's very old pickup home from my cab-driving job. I had filled the sucker up before going to work and had parked it near the taxi place, gone out and driven my shift, come back at 4 in the morning, and gotten on the freeway to drive home. I was on the double-deck section of the highway -- the section that collapsed during the earthquake in '89 -- when the engine sputtered in a way that suggested it was out of gas. It was. I managed to roll to the head of an on-ramp, then coast the thing backward down to the street. This was in West Oakland, one of the toughest parts of the city. The nearest gas station was about a mile away, and since it was 4:30 or so by then, most of the ne'er-do-wells had retired for the evening. I got my gas and got home without further incident, and didn't really think about it at all till now.
Among other threats, I was told that if I ever ran out of gas, that would be the end of my driving career. And I did. Once. I called my best friend, who enlisted her dad to get me going. He was a real softy compared to the one who held the title to my car. The entire time I was standing by the side of the road waiting, I was so sure my dad would just happen to drive by. But, he didn't.
I never ran out of gas again.
Thank you all for sharing your stories. Sounds like it's a more common occurrence than I thought.
It's true, I've come close, but I've yet to run out of gas. The only thing that compares is one Easter Sunday many years ago I decided to go for a bike ride. I was living in St. Louis at the time, knew no one, and had nothing else to do. So I went out riding from my apartment along Missouri River bottomland roads. I was probably 30-35 miles out, had a flat tire, and only then realized I had forgotten a spare tube and patch kit. Let me tell you... it's mighty quiet on Missouri country roads Easter Sunday. Nothing was open, this was before cell phones. Then to get someone to take me and my bike back to civilization was an experience.
K-
In my exhaustion -- I posted that tale above at 1:21 PST -- I neglected to mention why that truck was out of gas. The only thing I can figure is that the tank was siphoned while I was out driving barflies around Oakland. Speaking of which, "Barfly" is a movie I thought I'd hate that I actually kind of liked. Though that has nothing to do with running out of gas.