Just as I was heading out the door at the end of the work day, Jeff calls. When the phone rang, I decided I was not going to answer it until the caller ID registered his cell phone number. It was out of character for him to call me knowing I would be heading home already. So I picked up expecting him to say, “How about we meet somewhere for dinner?” but instead he says, “I ran out of gas,” Great. He goes on to say I need to get a gas can, fill it with gas and head out towards Highway T where he is in the far left emergency lane facing east.
So it’s rush hour, I am downtown and between here and Highway T, don’t know any place on the way where I can get a gas can let alone the gas. And all I can think of is, how am I going to be able to pull over on the busiest stretch of interstate highway during the busiest time of day? I head out and stop at the K-Mart in Bay View where I get a clearance 5-gallon gas can for $13.96. It’s a little out of the way, but it’s not unknown so I know exactly where a gas station is from here. From downtown, I only know of two gas stations, one is a block from work where I could go but I didn’t have the gas can yet and the other is in a really bad part of downtown. I’m just not stopping there. I stop and fill the gas can with about 4 and a half gallons of gas which means I’ve spent another $13. I can barely lift the thing into the car.
As I’m getting settled on the expressway, Jeff calls. “How far out are you?” he asks. He is worried about having a County sheriff pull up but none have so far. I tell him the traffic is terrible and the normally 10-minute trek will probably be more like 20. He is fretting about the cops but I am doing the best I can. I felt a little guilty about him running out of gas. He asked me how far he could get in my truck and I told him I didn’t really know how to answer that. Normally I can get 280 miles on a tank for sure but Bailee put $20 worth of gas in it so the mileage calculation would be off. Plus I meant to fill it the day before knowing he was taking my car today but I just forgot. My routine is to normally get gas on my way to work so I wasn’t thinking about it last night.
I am heading west on I-94 when I call him to see what my options are. Do I get off the exit after the point he is stuck and get back on to pull up behind him or do I pull over in the left lane to get directly across from him? He didn’t know how far back he was from the exit so I decided to get into the left lane and get across from him if possible. Amazingly, at the moment I located him, there was no traffic behind me so it was really easy to just pull off into the emergency lane. I got out to find him standing waiting. I open the back car door to lift out the gas can. It’s large and heavy so I have to heave it over the cement retaining wall that divides us. The first thing he says is, “How come you got so much? A gallon would have done it.” My response, “That wasn’t in your instructions and I have never filled a gas can before or ran out of gas before so how would I know?” I’m thinking a thank you would have been nice.
I asked Jeff if he needed anything else – should I stay? And he says no so I got a big break in traffic, hopped back in the car and got moving. The next exit was not far up the road and I got off the highway and hopped back on heading east. Jeff was still pouring in the gas as I rode by. I was hopeful he wouldn’t be there too much longer. It was 3:50pm when he called me at work and it was now 5:45pm.
Jeff got home at 6:30, about 15 minutes after I did. I felt a little traumatized by the whole event so he offered to take me out to Mia Famiglia for a nice dinner. I readily agreed. I wanted to try this place for a while and even though I wasn’t all that thrilled about going out, after being stuck in a car for the last two-plus hours I liked the idea of unwinding and letting someone else cook dinner. The dinner was fantastic then Jeff asks me if I can pay the bill. Didn’t I just bail him out big time? Arrgghh. There goes $67 more I did not plan on spending. But since I have him in a sort of charitable mood, I suggest we go over to Steinhafels Mattress Store and see what they have since we have to get something for our new guest room. He agrees and we pick something out. We got a good deal and I got this off of my to-do list.
At the end of the evening I was feeling partly guilty for not filling up my gas tank and partly irritated that Jeff let it get so low that it ran out. As we tried to unwind from the unexpected events of the evening, he peruses through the latest Farm & Fleet advertisement. He says, “Geez, you could have gotten that same gas can for $5.99 from here.” OK, so now I am less guilty and more irritated. A thank you would have been nice.
It's been a long time since I saw a comedian live. In fact so long I think the last one I saw was Sam Kinison the same year of his death which was 1992. Wow, a really long time. So it felt a little strange to see a stage without a bunch of electronic gear and musical instruments, just a stool, a music stand and a microphone. It all looked so lonely. But there was background music playing. Good background music, from The Byrds, Turn, Turn Turn, to The Roots, The Seed 2.0. THen it started. The theme song from Real Time was cranking up the room. It was really cool to hear that music live.
Bill walked out on the stage and started right in. From the 'right-on' type of applause that says the audience agrees, it was pretty obvious there were all liberal/democrat-types at the Riverside on this night. Bill Maher says he is a libertarian but it seems to me that he leans more towards liberalism than conservatism, just like me. So I really enjoyed his republican bashing of some of my favorite targets like Sarah Palin (MILF=Moron I'd Like to Forget) and Mitt Romney as a department-store mannequin. Funny stuff. There are some good republicans like Ron Paul and I'm glad he left him alone. Although the good ones don't do stupid stuff to end up being a comedic target.
Religion is probably Maher's second-favorite subject and he made it clear how he felt about it. Even though he could never make me a disbeliever in God, I do understand the negativity and lack of science when it comes to religions. After a 'sermon' on the evils of religion the jokes were lighter in nature "I don't know what eternity is like, but I have seen 'Avatar,' so I know what it feels like." Hilarious.
I also like his take on prescription drugs, diseases like restless leg syndrome, and stress. "Just look at a squirrel, he always looks nervous." Bill picked up the book, "The Purpose Driven Life" and started reading the stupid crap in it. He didn't need to add much editorial, that book is that dumb. He also did a bit on what he calls his favorite subject, man's death my animals that they shouldn't mess with. This time it was sharks.
He ended his show with material on the differences between the sexes. Fantasies and marriage were prime targets. One of his funniest lines was "women's fantasies bore men and men's fantasies offend women". Maybe his stuff is so funny because it's so true. I am glad I was there to see him in person. It was a good show.
Before the show we went to church and I mentioned to the pastor that we were headed to Bill Maher. Coincidentally, the sermon was about doubting Thomas and how one can become a better believer when you question things. The pastor said he really liked Bill Maher as well and that his spiel on religion does make you think about what to believe and he thinks that these kinds of ideas can make you an even stronger believer in your faith.
Bill walked out on the stage and started right in. From the 'right-on' type of applause that says the audience agrees, it was pretty obvious there were all liberal/democrat-types at the Riverside on this night. Bill Maher says he is a libertarian but it seems to me that he leans more towards liberalism than conservatism, just like me. So I really enjoyed his republican bashing of some of my favorite targets like Sarah Palin (MILF=Moron I'd Like to Forget) and Mitt Romney as a department-store mannequin. Funny stuff. There are some good republicans like Ron Paul and I'm glad he left him alone. Although the good ones don't do stupid stuff to end up being a comedic target.
Religion is probably Maher's second-favorite subject and he made it clear how he felt about it. Even though he could never make me a disbeliever in God, I do understand the negativity and lack of science when it comes to religions. After a 'sermon' on the evils of religion the jokes were lighter in nature "I don't know what eternity is like, but I have seen 'Avatar,' so I know what it feels like." Hilarious.
I also like his take on prescription drugs, diseases like restless leg syndrome, and stress. "Just look at a squirrel, he always looks nervous." Bill picked up the book, "The Purpose Driven Life" and started reading the stupid crap in it. He didn't need to add much editorial, that book is that dumb. He also did a bit on what he calls his favorite subject, man's death my animals that they shouldn't mess with. This time it was sharks.
He ended his show with material on the differences between the sexes. Fantasies and marriage were prime targets. One of his funniest lines was "women's fantasies bore men and men's fantasies offend women". Maybe his stuff is so funny because it's so true. I am glad I was there to see him in person. It was a good show.
Before the show we went to church and I mentioned to the pastor that we were headed to Bill Maher. Coincidentally, the sermon was about doubting Thomas and how one can become a better believer when you question things. The pastor said he really liked Bill Maher as well and that his spiel on religion does make you think about what to believe and he thinks that these kinds of ideas can make you an even stronger believer in your faith.
I went to Art in Bloom with Jen today. This is an event where local floral designers create their own floral arrangements inspired by specific pieces of art at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The flower arrangements are then placed at the location within the museum where the art is displayed. This was a great way to explore the entire museum. Besides the floral displays, there were floral vendors available for classes and some had their own booths in the marketplace located in the museum's atrium. It was very tempting to purchase some stuff for my yard, but that would be premature, since I really needed some basic things, like clean fill before I can think about these pretty things. But I did resist and left with nothing more than some good ideas for some designs in my own backyard. The designs were beautiful and it was incredible how well each one reflected the art as intended. Here are some of the wonderful designs:
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