Merry Christmas

This morning I ran out of gas. Not in the metaphoric...ran out of steam/worn out way. The actual 3 ton motor vehicle no longer had enough fuel to propel it way. It will probably be said by several of you that it was only a matter of time. That I pushed that limit too far too often. That is probably true. BUT, if this is the kind of lesson I learned from pushing this limit -- well skydiving may well be my next limit. (Not really - get real - I'm not jumping out of an airplane, but you know.)

Back to the gas. I left the house this morning while Kik readied her bike for another trip to work. (This is her third bike commute to work this week.) I didn't get up early enough to ride - I was already late when I inquired if I had enough time to ride. So I threw my bike on my car thinking that I would ride home this afternoon. I made it a little over a half mile from home when the puttering began. Then the steering went out. I found that I was able to make right turn off the main stretch and had coasted alongside a large yard. There were several cars in the yard and a pretty large home. My intial reaction was to jump on my bike and leave the car for later. So I threw on my helmet (kik's been b*tching about wearing that damn helmet...) and got out of the car. Then I started thinking I couldn't just abandon the car in these people's yard. I was going to have to go knock on the door and ask them to please not tow it - I would return after work to fetch it.

So. Just as I was working up the courage to head over to the door a big old beat up red truck drove passed me and through the large yard. A man with a bald head and a black jacket got out of the truck. I was still wearing the helmet by the way. I took the helmet off and explained that I had run out of gas and I could ride my bike and...He interrupted and said he thought he had some gas in the shed. So without really waiting for my response he headed off and came back with a large gas container. He told me to jump in the big red beat up truck and I did as I was told (note to self - we might work a tad on the trusting strangers thing but not right now).

We drove up the eighth of a mile to the gas station and he jumped back out of the truck and asked how much I wanted. He filled the gas container and we headed back. We had a nice chat about the bike in the back of the truck (It's for his wife for Christmas - shh! don't tell) and our jobs - He is a fireman and has been on the job for about 30 years (He had just gotten home from work when I first saw him). His youngest girl is a Junior at Chamberlain HS (he's going to wait to retire until she graduates). Half of his lot is City property and half is County (he pays both taxes). He was a very very nice man.

Once we got back he jumped back out of the truck and poured the gas into my tank (not an easy task with a plastic container) and he sent me on my way with a jovial "Now watch that gauge" and "Merry Christmas." The whole thing took about 10 minutes. It was absolutely wonderful.