The suboptimal way to buy gasoline

The little red needle is pointing to “E”, and while that always stood for “Excellent” in my book, I think it means we’re out of gas!
— Firesign Theatre: Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers

I stopped at a gas station. Since it was after 9 PM, the attendant had locked the door to the tiny “store”, and was dealing with customers through the safety drawer. That would have been fine, but the customer ahead of me was having trouble communicating with the attendant. The fool pressed the big red button next to the window, apparently thinking it was a microphone button or something, despite the large red Emergency Shutoff sign above it.

This shut down all the pumps, and the attendant was not able to get them started again. I waited a few minutes, but the attendant said it might be a while, so I gave up and headed home.

The good news is that I “saved” money. The bad news is that the needle is now slightly below “E”. There should be enough to get me to a gas station tomorrow.

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One Response to The suboptimal way to buy gasoline

  1. Les Hildenbrandt says:

    I stopped to get gas one night at a “pay at the pump” type station. The store was closed, I assumed that the pumps were still on. I followed the prompts on the pump and swiped my credit card. When I finaly put the hose in my tank, only the gas already in the hose came out. Oh yes, my credit card was billed for 3 cents.

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