I've Never Cried Over Gas...

I've never cried over gas but this afternoon just about did me in. You see, with Hurricaine Ike bearing down on Texas, a few of the local gas stations took it upon themselves to pre-emptively raise prices...'cause, you know, there could be a short supply in the future. People around here began to panic when they got word that some stations bumped up their prices, and chaos ensued.

As luck would have it, my gas light came on when I was headed back to work from my lunch break. Not wanting to be late, and not realizing people were flipping out over gas already, I figured I would stop after work for gas. BIG MISTAKE! When I got off work I drove to station after station hoping for even a gallon of gas. Many already had their pumps shut down because they were sold out, while those that still have gas have very long lines. I haven't seen lines down the road like that since the '70's. Eventually I realized that I was going to run dry before I could A) find a station with gas or B) wait through a line. To make things worse, people were driving around like maniacs looking for gas, so traffic was terrible. Seriously, we are our own worst enemies!

As I'm having this "holy-crap-I'm-going-to-run-out-of-gas!" revelation, I realize that I'm also not going to be able to pick up my younger daughter after school. I was stuck in heavy traffic, unable to get gas, possibly not going to make it home, and I can't get to my daughter. As I said, I've never cried about gas before but at that point my hands began to shake and the tears started to form in my eyes. I called my older daughter to see if she had a ride, and to ask if they could pick up her sister as well. Easy solution to part of the problem, right? Not exactly, you see most places these days will only release a minor to the adults whose names are on file. Since my older daughter is under 18 she is not on the 'approved' list for pick-up, and the other adult on the list is a good friend of mine who was in line at a station across town.

I made it home and put in a call to the after-school folks and the girls arrived home a short time later. My friend, who was in line at the station, will send her husband over with a gas can as soon as reasonably possible. Sometime after that, when the stations have gotten their tankers in, and the frenzy is over, I will go out and get some gas. If it weren't 91 degrees of hot (and humid) outside I would walk to the store and buy some ice-cold beer. I may go ahead and do that anyway. And yes, I will be more careful in the future....I hope!