Gas went down today....it was $1.86, down from $2.09....shucks, they were almost giving it away!
Anyway, I thought I had better go gas up tonight because they always lower gas on Tuesdays and then they start jacking it back up the rest of the week till it hits a high for the weekend. (Gougers )
Anyway, I'm at the station pumpin' gas, minding my own business and I glance up and see this lady in a Chevy Cavalier at another pump.
She's in a long ankle length dress and she has a book of some kind laying out on her trunk lid....she keeps looking at the pump and then at this book and then she bends down to eye level with her gas cap. She grabs the cap and keeps poking, twisting and prodding at it.
I'm thinking, "what is this woman doing?"
Then, she finally twists it and pulls it off toward her and flings it down so it smacks her car and dangles from it's retaining cable. She looks really P.O.'d, then grabs her book and shuts it at which time I can see a chevy logo on the cover...then throws it into her car.
It finally hits me....This woman could not figure out how to get her gasoline cap off!
I felt really bad because I watch the whole thing and can't make the connection that she's having trouble and even consulted the owner's manual to get a stinkin gas cap off.
All I could figure is it was a rental and it operated differently than hers? In any event...I thought, "I've never had trouble twisting off a gas cap off any vehicle I've ever driven...rental cars included...they're all pretty similar."
I wish I wouldn't have been so dense and could have run to her rescue...she was really frustrated.
Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
I borrowed a Jeep Cherokee once and wanted to fill up the tank before returning it. I got to the gas station but felt really stupid when I couldn't get the gas door open before I could even get the cap off!
There was no raised area to hook your finger in to open it like there is on my truck, and no lever in the cabin to release it, no keyhole in the door either. I was stumped. I had to call the owner and ask how to open it, turns out you *push* on the front edge of the door and the rear part then pivots open.
Gas prices going down huh? Lucky bastard. They've gone up 14 cents/gallon the last week here, up to $2.14/gal for the low grade stuff.
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
1980 While my car was under repair, a buddy of mine, Glenn, asked if I could take his younger brother and a friend to a concert in Boston. He offered me a ticket for the show (J. Giels Band), picked me up at work and gave me the keys to his Firebird for the night. Sa-weet! Uh oh....it was a standard transmission. I'd never driven one before.
Glenn gave me instructions on how to drive a stick on the way to drop him off at home. When we got there, he set the emergency brake, left the car running and I nervously took the wheel. After several failed attempts at backing out of the driveway, I finally began to get the hang of it and away I went.
As I drove to pick up his brother & friend, I was a little let down by the car. I'd always thought a Firebird was a fast car, yet his seemed sluggish.
After driving through Boston's busy streets and getting to the "Garden", I was pretty proud that I had adapted to a stick shift. The concert was great, the drive back to Glenn's went without a hitch.
I told Glenn that I thought my '72 Monte Carlo was much faster than his 1978 Firebird. Glenn and I checked the car over and figured out the problem....
I'd never released the emergency brake.
Rapid
Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
Ray....that's so funny! I'm guessing some warped rotors and scorched brake pads...hehehehehe.
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
. . . . I never have a problem removing the cap . . . putting it back on is where I fail . . . .
I have abandoned gas-caps wandering around all over the place wondering what they did wrong to make me leave them . . . . . .
I now have the NON-removable kind...
That woman prolly had one of those "safety" kind they ARE a lil' different to remove, (push down-turn)
I guess it's good you did'nt help her . . . she le'rnt all by her'sef.
Posted by Monte Jumper (Member # 1106) on :
Living in red neck America I often see pickup's with rags hanging out where the lost gas cap should be and I wonder...do these guys know they are driving a "molatov cocktail"?
I remember borrowing a car & having the hardest time finding the gas cap hidden under the spring mounted license plate (I think I crawled under the car & traced it from the tank.
Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
Haha...I remember those Doug. Now you're dating yourself....late sixties/seventies wasn't it?
Posted by Rob Timko (Member # 4486) on :
phhheww here in jersey dont even have to know how to unscrew the cap..... Posted by Frank Magoo (Member # 3950) on :
Bet she has trouble with the 710 cap too!!!!
Even in Joisey they have problems finding the 710 cap....heh-heh
no cheating Joe, let em figure it out, Cisco, if you're listening, this is really FOR you!!! scare me will ya? Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
Rob, I grew up in jersey and when I moved to CA, not only did I have to drive a stick - had no idea how, I had to drive forward all the time because I couldn't get it in reverse - but I had no idea how to pump gas. Luckily, back then I had long black hair down to my waist and I didn't weigh 98lb soaking wet. I did a lot of batting my eyelashes at guys when I got to the gas station. You'd be surprised how well...Excuse me...(eyelashes)...can you PLEASE help me??? (more eyelashes) works.
Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
So that was her problem...she never batted an eyelash at me!! Or I might have taken notice....maybe she sized up all us guys pumping gas into our vehicles and decided it wasn't worth the risk!!! hahaha. Posted by TransLab (Member # 470) on :
Todd I gotta know... was she BLOND ??
Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
Hahahahaha....sorry Mike...she had short black hair and a wispy dark dress that even covered her ankles.....(but she could've been a blond who dyed her hair dark??)
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
I learned to drive a stick when myself & the guitarist in my band got to use his dads mustang for a 30 day road trip from Chicago to Oregon, down the coast to San Francisco & then back.
Freeway driving was easy, but the night we arrived on the coast we were in an intense fog looking for a campsite in this large recreational area... when the paved road turned into something like a parking lot, still enshrouded in heavy fog I just forged ahead knowing there were campsites around there somewhere... soon as the incline of the pavement increased I noticed through the fog that I had found the boat ramp & was about 3 feet away from driving into a lake. I put it in park & woke up my pal to take the wheel. I decided I wasn't ready to test my clutching skills just yet.
Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
Doug,
Reminds me of that classic scene in "Risky Business" when "Joel's" (played by Tom Cruise) dad's Porshe 928 is parked on a hill, and rolls down onto a dock....they get the car stopped before it goes over, and after breathing a sigh of relief....the weight of the car collapses and the car and kids all go into the river....hehehe
Posted by Robert Carney (Member # 2016) on :
Doug, My first car( a cutlass 442) that I owned had the gas cap behind the license plate. I had a lot of fun in that car.
A good friend from high school went to live with his dad for the summer in Washington Michigan. Another friend and I decided to spend the long weekend at Jeremys in Michigan. I drove my car down (about a 5hr drive).
We come out of the tunnel and into Detroit. Welcome to the USA.
Once we are at my friends place in Michigan, we decided to go out and about and see what was what.Hey we were in the States, it was pretty cool from my perspective. (Never been out of Ontario).
We drove around ( my friend started to drive since he knew were he was going)we stopped to get gas and you could get beer at the gas station too, how cool was that! Nothing like that back home. We cruised around some more and all this time not realizing the license plate was down because the spring was broken. I temporary had a wire to hold up the license plate.
Next thing we saw were some red cherries flashing behind us, so my friend pulls over. SH*T the lisense plate is down! Without even thinking twice I jumped out of the passenger side door and headed to the back of the car. Not paying attention I heard this voice say "Son please get back in the car" I looked up and the officer had his revolver pulled out and aimed at me.
Holly Sh*t!!! He didn't have to ask me twice. Everything was cool after that.
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
Great story Robert! (I've been through that tunnel to Ontario about 20 times) I assume you hadn't opened up the beer yet.
...reminds me of too many cop storiesfrom my youth... I think I'll just leave it at that for now.
Yeah, you think beer at gas stations is cool... in New Mexico they have drive-thru liquor stores!!
![[Mad]](mad.gif)
)![[Bash]](graemlins/bash.gif)
![[I Don t Know]](graemlins/dunno.gif)
![[Rolling On The Floor]](graemlins/rolf.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
I decided I wasn't ready to test my clutching skills just yet.