Do Unto Others

Yesterday was one of those days. One of those days where you feel really good about yourself because you gave back to society, you're walking down the street with your head held high, you're feeling like the king of the world and then you step in a big pile of dog poop. Yep...yesterday was just one of those days.

It rained cats and dogs yesterday morning and I found out when I got to work that one of my co-workers gotten his car stuck on a flooded street. Since I have a lifted 4x4 and a tow strap, I decided to help him out. I arrived to find his 2001 Firebird submerged up to the doorline. No biggie. I can handle this. I took off my uniform blouse and boots, and I rolled my pants up and walked knee deep into the flood. My first sniff of poop came when I realized that there were no tow points on this guy's car, nowhere for me to hook my tow strap to, in order to pull him out. Okay...I guess I am going to have to push him. The only problem with that is...he's facing the complete opposite direction that I want to go. So, after pushing and pulling his car, we finally got him pointed in the right direction. During this whole soaken endeavour, there is a Chief standing on the other side of the street, watching me. I am just waiting for him to tear into my ass when I get done, since I am pretty much out of uniform. After I get the Firebird situated in its parking spot, Chief walks up to me and says:

"Since you have that big truck and a heavy tow strap, do you think that you could pull my Beretta out, too?"

Being the good samaritan that I am, I obliged. However, his car didn't have a tow point, either. We ended up wrapping the end of the strap to the frame under the hood, which I then ended up bending when I yanked his car onto drier land. Needless to say, he can no longer full close his hood.

Fast forward to the end of the work day...I am leaving work and on my way to the gas station, since I am low on fuel. I turn the corner, about 1/4 of a mile from the gas station, and everything in the Xterra shuts off...including the engine. I throw her into neutral and turn the key...nothing. I ran out of gas. Thankfully, I still had a little momentum and coasted for a good bit before I finally came to a stop. I flagged down a co-worker who just happened to be driving by and he offered to tow me to the nearby gas station. Yay. So, I got the tow strap out and hooked it up to my front tow point and slowly hit the gas. The tow strap pulled tight and...POP! He continued forward while I stayed where I was. My front tow point snapped clean off the truck. WTF???

After standing around and cursing for about 5 minutes, I found a secondary spot to hook up the tow strap, and co-worker began pulling me to the gas station. When we get there, he yells out the window and asks me what side my tank was on. I told him the driver's side.

Co-Worker: What?!?
Me: The driver's side!
Co-Worker: The passenger side?!?
Me: No! Driver! The driver's side!

And what does co-worker do? He proceeds to pull my truck up to a pump...on the passenger side. After a brief, fairly heated argument as to what I actually said, he pulled me all the way around the gas station to a pump...on the correct side.

What does this story tell you? It kind of tells me to quit helping people. See...had I NOT helped pull those people out of the water, I would've had the gas to get to the gas station. Hmm? On the other hand, I guess if I would've been the responsible adult that I am, I would've filled my vehicle up when I first realized that I needed gas. Then I never would've been close to running out of gas. Live and learn, I guess.

On the bright side, I can now cross "Run my vehicle out of gas" off my list of things to do before I die.