I Did Something Really Stupid

Pulling into my driveway yesterday, my jaw dropped when I realised that not only was my gas gauge light on, but my needle was so far in the red it was in the black! I still haven’t learned to keep a close eye on the damn thing!

I had driven more than 500KM from Scobey, so I considered myself lucky to be home and also stranded since I didn’t even want to chance the 18KM drive back to Willow Bunch, which has the nearest gas station.

So late this morning, I swallowed my pride and called Caroline to ask if they had any fuel or if they could pick some up in town for me. She suggested that I instead borrow her car to go get some some since she didn’t need the car today and she didn’t know what their schedule would be this weekend. I really didn’t have time for a trip to town today, but that was an offer I knew I couldn’t refuse!

I finished up my morning’s work and then went to get the car keys. It’s a little Kia not unlike my Accent (RIP), so it was pretty familiar to drive since most of the controls are where they were on the Accent. But I had forgotten what it is to drive so low to the ground and I might have hit the gas AND brake pedals at the same time once or twice since I haven’t driven automatic in so long. 🙂

I stopped for mail before leaving town and found my Amazon cheque! It comess earlier and earlier every month! I had another cheque to deposit, so a trip to the bank was definitely needed. There was something else in my box, something that always makes me giddy with anticipation when it’s a complete surprise: a ‘you have a package’ notification. I wasn’t expecting anything so I was of course curious. It was a package from John in Santa Fe, a book about Chaco Canyon to whet my appetite for my next trip into the Southwest. That made my day!

First stop in town was the bank and thankfully the teller who knows me was available. Thankfully because a client made a cheque out to Rae rather than my legal name and I’ve been through the whole proving we’re the same person thing with this teller in the past so she didn’t even comment on the cheque being made out to the wrong name.

Then, I went to the gas station and took advantage of there being service. I told the guy to fill the jerry can in the trunk and to add $10 worth of fuel to the car. He told me I needed to open the door for the gas intake and it took me a second to remember that the mechanism was on the floor by the door in my old car, which is where it was for this car! Then, I went in and fixed myself a coffee while the guy did the dirty work.

After, I hit the grocery store since there were some really good deals in this week’s flier. It’s really nice to be in a position to stock up during sales and to have a freezer in which to put extra stuff! Shrimp was crazy cheap for this weekend only, $6 a bag for the Co-Op brand, which is decent by frozen shrimp standards. $12 blocks of Co-Op cheese were $8. The only frozen pizza I like, Dr. Oetker’s Hawaiian, were $5 instead of $8. Low alcohol beer was $6 for a case instead of $9. Etc. I spent over $70 and for once didn’t feel like I got robbed!

Then, it was time to get home because I have 15 hours of work left to do by 9:00PM tomorrow! I look forward to taking Monday off since RV Park Chez Rae has a reservation for Monday night!

7 thoughts on “I Did Something Really Stupid

  1. Sounds like you had a very productive trip. The grocery savings sound very good to me, usually we don’t have that much off the regular price.

    • Well, your groceries are so low priced already!

      This tells me that the markup on CDN groceries must be ridiculous. I’m sure that the shrimp were ‘loss leaders’, but the rest of the stuff, not so much.

  2. I hate forgetting to watch the gas gauge! The worst is forgetting to top off the motorhome tank before I park for the night/week/month and then having to deal with finding a suitable gas station when we leave. Providing I remember to look even then.

    • I used to have the really bad habit of parking with no fuel in the tank in my early years. Later, I got smarter and would drop the toad upon arrival, then go get fuel before settling in.

      • I got cured of this when we once parked in Yuma for four months and gas was a dollar a gallon more when we left to go back home. And I had an empty tank. The opposite could also happen but I prefer to buy gas when I have at least some control over costs.

  3. Pingback: The Day That Time Stood Still | A Life By Design

Comments are closed.