Out of gas

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.