Remember how yesterday I reported that my car Donatella was acting weird? Well, I wanted to go to the office last night to work on some things, so Denny lent me his car (Jim). I noticed he was running low on gas, so as a way of saying thanks for lending me his car and all the other nice things he does for me, I decided to fill it up. I went to the Kum & Go that’s right across the street from our office. First of all, I couldn’t figure out where the gas tank release was. I searched around for several minutes before I checked the owner’s manual and got the gas tank open (it was on the central console, for those of you who ever find yourselves in my position in a VW Passat). Then I put in my credit card and started fueling up (with premium, because that’s what Denny likes, and that’s how benevolent I was feeling).

It filled up, and right about the time I expected it would be done, it made that click that indicates the tank is full. So I got out of the car (did I mention there was a huge windstorm yesterday? It was really cold and extremely windy out) and took the pump out of the car. But it kept squirting! The trigger was stuck in the ON position! I yelped and tried to get it unstuck, but to no avail. Gas was getting all over me, all over the car, all over the concrete. I started yelling, but of course no one could hear me because of the windstorm. I stuck the pump handle back in the gas tank, which of course overflowed. I looked around on the pump for some sort of emergency override, found nothing, and was about to go inside and holler at the attendant. Then it abruptly stopped. I don’t remember if the trigger released or if I actually tapped out the world’s supply of crude oil (sorry, Alaska), but at least the price wasn’t spinning along merrily as I dumped gasoline (premium, remember) onto the ground.

I went in and told the employee what had happened, and she sort of shrugged and said, “Yeah, that’s been happening.” Wha-wha-what? And there was no “Out of Order” sign or any such thing on the pump? No “Use only if you really like the smell of petroleum products on your pants” warning? She didn’t even give me money back for the gas I paid for and didn’t actually put into the car.

Today I went back there and talked to the manager, who is my friend because we go there a lot for a break during work. He was duly sympathetic and promised to have it taken care of post-haste.

Oh, and then after all that, I went to the office and realized I didn’t have my keys, so I was locked out.

*sigh*

But all is not lost, because I’m having sushi for dinner. Sushi is my ray of sunshine. Also, Denny was very nice to me and very thankful for all I went through to fill his gas tank.