I get a number, this time G038, and waited.  After about half an hour I was called to window 16.  However, there was someone else there.  An earlier number had been called for that window four times before G038 was called, and the person with that number was really slow getting to the window.  The DMV employee apologized to me.  I waited for about ten minutes, while people who arrived later and got G039 and G040 were called to other windows.  Finally the slow person was done, and I handed my paper to the DMV employee.

She apologized that she was not trained for vehicle registrations, and the front desk had put me in the wrong queue.  I should have been given a B-series number again, rather than G.  She spoke to a supervisor, and after a few minutes sent me to a different window.  I waited a minute there while someone else was concluding their business.  Once that was done my issue was actually taken care of very quickly.

If I’d had an appointment I wouldn’t have had to wait as long, but I needed it done this week rather than next week.

Two pedestrians were crossing the street at the time, and asked if I needed a hand.  They helped push my car around the U-turn and into the gas station.  I am very grateful for their help.  I offered to give them a few bucks as thanks for helping me out, but they wouldn’t take it.

I almost always help out other motorists that I see having trouble.  I’ve given people jump starts, or a lift to a gas station and back, or helped change a flat tire.  People have tried to offer me money for helping them, and I’ve never taken it.  While I don’t really believe in karma per se, in practical terms it’s clear that if we’re all willing to help each other out from time to time, we all benefit.

I’ve heard that running out of gas in a car with fuel injection can cause problems.  In this case, once I put some gas in, it started right up without difficulty, and hasn’t shown any signs of trouble in about 30 miles I’ve driven since.

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.

In the dream I tracked down the people that did it, and got revenge.  If it really happened, I’d have to settle for the insurance claim.

I seem to recall that this happened on my last vacation too.

Today I got around to it, because yesterday my left rear tire (one of the remaining Winderness LE tires) started leaking. I had to fill it twice yesterday and once this morning. I spent $81 at Wheelworks to get the tire fixed, and shuffle the tires and rims around. They removed a bolt with a strange head from the tire.  It would have been only $31 if I hadn’t needed the rims rearranged. Now my two remaining undamaged Winderness LE tires are on the front wheels, the two Destination LE tires are on the rear wheels, and the repaired Wilderness LE is on the extra rim. Oh, and the original spare Wilderness LE is still the spare.

Now I’ll have to stop by the hardware store to get a hook to hang the extra tire and rim in the garage.

I haven’t noticed much difference between the Wilderness LE and Destination LE on dry pavement, but the Destination LE is reported to be much better on snow. I’ll likely get some experience with that on road trips for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

My 1991 Maza Protege ran OK on the cheap stuff, but I continued using Chevron based on their claims about Techron cleaning the inside of the engine. I don’t really know how much benefit Techron has, but given that my Olds ran so much better on Chevron gas than on the cheap stuff, I figured that the Chevron gas must be better in some way.

In 2002 the California legislature banned the toxic gasoline additive MTBE due to the discovery that it was contaminating groundwater, contrary to the earlier belief that it would be completely consumed in the combustion process. Originally the ban was to take effect on January 1, 2003, but the ban was delayed by a year. Phillips stopped using MTBE in their Union 76 brand well in advance of the deadline, so I switched to buying gas from Union 76 stations. Union 76 refers to their formulation as having “PROPower”, which presumably is similar to Techron.
More recently, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, Shell, and a few other brands started advertising that their fuel meets the TOP TIER Detergent Gasoline standards established by BMW, General Motors, Honda, and Toyota. The EPA has been reducing the minimum level of detergent addtitive required in gasoline, and the TOP TIER program establishes a higher voluntary standard. The higher level of detergent additives reduces deposits on fuel injectors, intake valves, and combustion chambers.

Anyhow, after I began filling up the tank at the lower-cost Union 76 station, I noticed that there were some solid-color adhesive decals applied to the pumps above the “Regular”, “Plus”, and “Premiun” legends. The labels were not completely opaque, so with a bit of squinting I eventually was able to discern that the labels had been added in order to cover up the “PROPower” labelling. They also did not have the “TOP TIER” promotional signs anywhere. Thus this particular Union 76 station is apparently selling gasoline from other sources, possibly the spot market, rather than ConocoPhillips standard formulation.

While the gas was eight cents less expensive than the “real” 76 stations, it was still twelve cents more expensive than nearby obscure brands. I have not observed my car peforming noticably differently on the less expensive fuel, but I would not expect it to have an immediate effect. There seems to be no point in paying twelve cents more and not getting the benefit of the TOP TIER formulation, so I’ll go back to purchasing gas at the Union 76 stations I normally frequent.

It’s not a factory-installed GPS navigation system; for the 2004 model year that was only offered in the Yukon Denali and not the regular Yukon or Yukon XL. So I can’t blame GM. Since I don’t have the GPS nav, I’ve been using an old-fashioned biochemical navigation system, and its processing power is divided among multiple tasks. Sometimes other tasks take precedence over navigation, though the scheduling algorithm seems to be nondeterministic.

I inquired about a replacement jack since I managed to break the original. I’ve looked at jacks at auto parts stores, and although they are of better quality than the factory-supplied jack, they will not fit in the compartment for the original. However, GM wants nearly $100 for a replacement, and I haven’t decided whether I want to spend that much. Perhaps I can get the right model from a junkyard.

I ran in for some paper towels to wipe it up, but some of it must have soaked into the leather seat and the carpet. I’m afraid that it’s going to smell terrible later today. Google turned up this article on how to deal with it.