Lazy Saturday...

I've about had it with this gas crisis we're facing in Georgia. I'm not sure what caused everyone to panic on Thursday, but that's when it seemed to go even further downhill. I was getting phone calls that every station had at line stretching down the road. Oh stellar. On Thursday I was on a quarter of a tank. I drive an Explorer (lovingly named the Exploder) that gets shitty mileage anyways. A quarter of a tank wasn't going to do much for me... maybe get me through to Monday, and that's only with going to work on Friday, and maybe out Friday night. I tried to get gas on the way home from work, but every station was out. Bags over the handles, .00 on the signs, nothing. I came home and called my parents... Atlanta has no gas either. My Mom said that the Z4 had a full tank, the Silver Sploder had half a tank, the SportTrac had half a tank, and the motorcycles had full tanks. They were better off than I was! I went to bed at 8:30 because I decided that hiding in my bed was better than thinking of the economy crashing, and being stuck at my house with no gas! I wonder if my boss will let us all work from home if we can't get there...

Anyways, on Friday I go to work, and it seems everyone else in the office also has a quarter of a tank. We all drive SUVs or vans so that we can lug furniture samples around to our customers. My boss (who is awesome) said we could leave and go sit in line at the Pilot truck stop a mile down the road from the office. I had an eye doctor appointment anyways, so I figured I'd stop there on the way back to work. After my appointment, I decided to sit in line. I pulled up and was only about ten cars from the pumps, if that. At first I was a little confused because the station had no price on the sign. I hoped I wasn't going to get to the pump, and find there was no gas, or it was $10 a gallon or something. Nope! I waited a total of 15 minutes (including filling my tank) for $3.89 a gallon. YAY!!!! Granted, it was still over $70 to fill my tank, but I have gas!

Here's where I have an issue with this though: the gas is clearly watered down. The pumps state that the gas contains 10% ethanol, which is fine. I always fill up at this station, I can get 320 miles to a tank before I get panicky and get more gas. Normally, it takes about 50 miles before the gas gauge moves below full. Not this tank... I've been roughly 40 miles, and I'm on 3/4 of a tank. GRRR! I'm not the only one this is happening to, either. Very smooth, gas companies. At least I didn't pay more than $4 a gallon, but still.

I've been hibernating in my house because I'm afraid to waste my gas, in case I can't get more for a while. At least my house is clean! I've been productive... I cleaned my closet out and need to take a bunch of stuff to Goodwill, and recycle a bunch of magazines at work, and I've scrubbed a lot of stuff. And taken lots of naps.

My only other task for this week is to pick up my touch-up paint for my car. I'm not sure why, but someone keyed my car. Like, bad. I can't decide which is worse... that the car was keyed, or that someone is so mad at me they keyed my car. Ugh! Petty! I got it washed today, and after getting the cement from the road construction off (yes, this is the second time I've driven under a bridge and cement has dripped on my car), I found that they keyed my hood too. Not as bad as the fender, but still not pretty. They drew on the hood. A pretty little 5" diameter asterisk. WTF. Someone had to see that happen, you can't just walk past my car all non-chalant and make an asterisk. Good thing I have a friend who works on cars for a living, and he said he can touch it up and put some clear on it for me! I know it won't match entirely, but it will be better than the alternative!