I had a horrible accident the other night, and it was so bad that it even took me a few days to write about it. I’m choosing to write about it now, however, because I do think there’s a moral to the story that we all can learn from, so here goes…
I was at a gas station filling up, and mid-pumping, my son suddenly started doing the “I have to go to the bathroom” dance. I locked up the car, we ran inside, and when we came back out, there was a man jumping out of his car and running towards mine. “Hey, that’s my car. What are you doing, ” I yelled. That’s when I realized he was trying to help. My gas pump didn’t shut off when the tank was full, and there was a flood of gasoline all around my car.
I went back inside the Circle K store and told the cashier that I didn’t want to have to pay for all that extra gas. They had a faulty pump, and why should I be responsible? He explained that he was all alone and that his manager wouldn’t be in until Monday. “I can’t even leave the register to clean up the gasoline,” he explained.
Well, blog readers, I was annoyed, but this is only the beginning of the trouble. I don’t have a lot of experience with gasoline, and I can tell you that I certainly have never walked in it before. In this situation, I had no choice, because it was completely covering the ground on the driver’s side of the car, and I still had to remove the pump and put it back in the tank. I carefully put my son in the car on the passenger side, and came around the front of the car to avoid as much gasoline as possible. One foot in this horribly smelly puddle, I suddenly went flying. For those of you who don’t know, gasoline is an incredibly slippery substance. Who knew?
Well, I landed in the splits, scraped up my elbow and did something to what I think is my hamstring. Thirty-six hours later, I am still hobbling, but I think I might be improving. Thank G-d! That manager is definitely getting a phone call from me today!
I promised you all a moral, so here it is. The moral of this story is to never leave your gas pump until you have finished filling up. I have done this uncountable times before, but the fact is, gas pumps can be faulty. I have learned this lesson the hard way.
I have also promised you all a song of the day, and Rod Stewart’s “Gasoline Alley” certainly fits the bill. At least there’s some goodness to this story!
