First off let, me start this post by giving a shout out to the lady who passed me as I was stuck in the middle of the road and honked at me multiple times: I didn’t do it on purpose to ruin your day, you are mean and you suck.
Secondly a shout out to my minivan with an instrument panel that doesn’t work in spite of all the money we’ve put into getting it fixed: get it together, baby, I need to know when there is no gas.
Okay, good.
Sunday on the way to church the instrument panel decided to blink on thus alerting us as to our mph, other important panel things and also the fact that we had no gas. As we were already late, and are committed to not spending money on Sunday, we got two gallons of gas and were on our way. I planned to get more gas on Monday before I drove 45 minutes into Seattle and back. On the way home from church, the panel went bye bye once again.
Monday came, I found myself driving into Seattle with little gas, I remembered this only after I was on the freeway, and decided that I could make it there and would need to get gas on the way home. Reasonable plan.
Here is where the dilemma came in. We went to the science center (clean bathrooms) and afterwards went to the Center House for ice cream (questionable bathrooms). I needed to pee, but decided it would be better to not haul my three small children into an unclean bathroom. Nobody else needed to go anyway.
Well, you know how it goes when you have to go, but you still have 45 minutes of driving to do! I knew I needed to get gas, but I just couldn’t handle the thought of standing in the cold pumping gas with a full bladder. I wrestled with how I could use the gas station bathroom, but hello, not a clean place for the children. I could leave them in the car… but well, not as safe. As I knew at least one would be asleep anyway…
I drove home without stopping. The funny thing is, I didn’t even race into pee. I dinked around on the computer, putting stuff away until I remembered the little feeling.
Tuesday. I know I need to get gas before i go out. Everything is a little frazzled, I make a product delivery, leave town without gas and a third way up the big, windy, twisty hill, the van sputters and stops in front of about five other cars. I turn on my emergency flashers, the other cars figure it out and I pull out my phone to call Charming who turns out to be less than helpful.. I still think I should have called 911 or something, but he advised me not to.
Fortunately, a nice homeless-looking man (whitish beard and stocking cap) with a British accent stopped in front of me and came to see if he could help. He tried to start the car a couple of times without success, but was then able to put the car in neutral and ease it closer to the side of the road. Our car was then not completely blocking traffic, but closer to the blind corner where another car (going too fast) could have easily rear ended us. (Had the honking lady not been speeding, she might have laid off the horn, for example). And then the Microsoft employee man (as it turned out he was on leave from there) left to get us some gas.
After what felt like 45 minutes (maybe more like half an hour) of being a sitting duck and listening to crying, whining children (Spider was happy) the kind man returned with the gas and the County Sheriff’s arrived to direct traffic. Two gallons was not enough on the steep hill, so the sheriff left to get some more. The man who helped us went home without me ever giving him proper thanks or any money for the gas, and when the sheriff came back with more gas I was on my way.
I was reminded of a few things yesterday amidst all this mess. One– there are good people in the world who will help strangers. Two– most people are not this way, at least 50 cars passed me, and that man was the only one who stopped. Most people rubbernecked to see inside my vehicle and one woman honked angrily. Three– God will always watch out for you. It was a miracle no one hit us while sitting there, and quite a blessing that the man stopped so soon after we got stuck.
And fourthly, and perhaps most importantly, peeing your pants while pumping gas is much more desirable then running out of gas on an uphill, twisty, narrow and relatively busy road. And yet, riding home in wet pants, just doesn’t seem that great to me, even now…
P.S. To my kind hearted rescuer, thank you. If you ever read this, please don’t be offended that I called you homeless looking, I was kind of scared when you first approached, but my children and I will forever be indebted to your kindness and willingness to serve people you didn’t know. Thank you for being a neighbor and good samaritan.
