sometimes, even when it is raw and rainy out, you just want something sweet. after a nice dinner tonight, my children dressed to walk somewhere. they seemed to be on a mission. showing that as parents, we were able to house, clothe and feed them nearly adequately. en masse, they stated their need for some ice cream.
8 pm. dark. raw. wet. a bad choice for walking to our local quik-E-mart. i chose to share the world need for advancement of ice cream consumption. i was willing to drive to the supermarket or local pharmacy to get some tissues for the one with a head cold as well as the choiciest of creamy cold confections for them all.
turns out only the boy was willing and dedicated to the dream. he had his coat on.
we went to the pharm, where the ice cream was easily available, but a lot more costly. i thought that there would be some at the supermarket that was on sale. there always is. of course only off season. during the summer it is nearly the same price as gasoline. this means ridiculously costly. good thing we are not in the midst of the inevitable heat waves coming. so off we went.
having made all of our purchases, we went to the gas station associated with the supermarket. they offer .05 cents off from their per gallon price, and the discounts get stronger after more groceries are purchased. turns out that my debit card did not want to comply with the general transfer of gas from the pump to my car. so we just packed it in for the night.
recently, my boy and i have been embattled. usually he is the nicest of the brood. he has a program where he enjoys pretending that all is well between us. if it has not been delightful he acts as if he has been. he actually tortures his sisters with this. with all sorts of college related events; acceptances, choices and decisions about where to go to college, he has been uncharacteristically stressed out. really stressed out. inevitable separation anxiety has played a role in his moodiness too. and after a extended showing of his mr. hyde, he has revisited his old sweet self again. wha-hoo!
one of the nicer things he does when in this charm mode, is that pumps gas for my jalopy when we are traveling together. tonight with the debit card snafu i decided to just go home with my ice cream still frozen. i remain baffled about the gas pump issues. it appears that they only work when you make a purchase from the attendant in the boxy office and not directly from the computerized pumps. go figure. convenience interrupted.
so we drove off into the rain without modest refueling. the car itself takes care of notifications regarding its own belly. for a while its red gas tank symbol was blinking at me from the dashboard. i wanted to silence its insistent "on again-off again" commentary.
i think of that movement potential, red-line in terms of seinfeldian schtick . i call my husband either "Cosmo" or "kramer" for his ability to drive that car until its last juicy drops of fuel are replaced by hopeful fumes. This is just what Kramer did with a car salesman ... they drove and drove until they finally ran out of gas. it was after all for the thrill of going to the limit. the red line. the very end. luckily for kramer, he has no wife to annoy with phoning in his bail out request.
i just needed enough gas to get the kids to and from school in the morning. it turned out that the placement of the needle on that familiar line was not done with me yet. there was plenty of gas to get home from the non-compliant pumps to our driveway.
when we got home finding out,that there was no gas cap for the car.
dang . IT . ALL!!!
so we backtracked to the store. we walked around on the street , we found stuff too. not the right stuff , but stuff that someone might like. a junkist to be sure.
we drove at a very low speed. as we were ready to make the next turn or pot hole, we jumped every time a shadowy rounded piece was visible anywhere.
nothing yet.
as we neared home base, assessing every pothole, every storm drain, each slightly bumpy, hilly and curvilinear turn at 5 miles an hour, nothing seemed to show up.
neither the boy nor i considered failure to find the locale of the gas cap a good thing. we knew hubby dearest would be displeased.
our spirits dampened both figuratively and literally, we cheered and checked out the area for progress, the success rate was pretty flawed. our last two turns were coming up. the first a hairpin turn built around a luckless used car lot was first. it yielded nothing of personal value. the final turn opened its arms about 25 feet away. it was the one that created the last leg of our journey. it is the entryway to my street. as i made it, i saw a good sized LUMP on the ground. it was our missing gas cap!!! we had made the trip to the market for no reason. the cap was on the ground at the base of my street .. 5 houses away. we had gone 10 miles out of the way to find what we were looking for in our own back yard. just proving as always, what you want is usually in your own yard. kind of a "wizard of oz" ending right?
SO...tonight we are irish.
tonight we have luck.
tonight we have our gas cap in its approved location.
tonight, we have humanity.
and yes, tonight, we have Ice Cream once again.
oh, and we also have gas from another station too.
Y A H O O !!!!!!
things seem pretty, pretty good!
nighty night.
xoxo.
W.
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