Must be the full moon???
Sheesh! What a night...
I have a full to-do list for tomorrow which included taking my 82-year old mother to a doctor's appointment so I decided to head out and get a few things tonight while it's nice and cool...
I guess it's a good thing I did or my Mom would have probably missed her important appointment! All we have right now is this POS company pickup which we park on our somewhat steep driveway over some bark because it's leaking power steering fluid. I get in as usual and try to start it and it only sort-off wants to start (what the?). Unfortunately, I'm already rolling backwards into the middle of the street when it decides to die. I'm not sure what the deal is, but now I'm stuck with all lights off in the middle of the street. I can't push it back onto the driveway or anywhere near the house (other cars already parked there), so I push it back a bit, turn hard and coast down the street where it appears to bump start just fine (so now I'm thinking something weird with the battery or starter). It works all the way to the bottom of the hill then shuts off - great. Could it be out of gas? Well, I knew I was low, but the empty light (good for at least 30 miles) hadn't come on yet. Anyway, I park it as best I could (NOT in the best place - right at a stop sign with very little room to get around it and stay in the lane). Of course, all the interior lights in the truck don't work and, since it's the company truck, I have to search for everything in the dark not knowing if there's anything useful to find. Finally I find the flashers so that helps. I open the back shell since I've seen a gas can back there - it's empty (naturally). So I trudge a block and a half back up the hill to the house to find the gas can used for the lawn mower. I find one right next to the lawn mower and... it's empty too. About to give up ('cause all of my co-workers are in other states doing the startup for our first big project) when I remember there should be one more gas can. It only took ten minutes of frantic searching to find that my business partner had hidden it in a trashcan out back under a tarp - but it has a little gas in it! So, back down the hill I go hoping to get to the truck before I get a ticket. I put, maybe, half-a-gallon into the tank (all that was left) and tried the starter...
Success! It starts and now I have to hope I can make it to a gas station before I run out again - there aren't any that close. I go a few miles and I'm starting to think I'll make it then, right after I turn onto the street with the stations on it, it coughs and I can tell it's going to shut off. Of course, I'm in the far right lane when I see a station - on the left... As I'm looking over and thinking I'll have to run over there with the gas can, the light is green so I coast into a right turn and see a small mini-mart with gas on the left. There's no traffic coming (fortunately) so I turn, continue coasting and, without having to touch the brakes, stop right in front of the first pump! On top of all that, the power steering pump had gone dry so turning was a workout as well.
Now I'm finally back home with a full tank and a full power steering pump, and very glad that I didn't have to deal with it at the last minute tomorrow! Oh yeah, I just checked, tonight WAS the full moon...
