Running on empty.

I hate pumping gas. The most glorious time in my driving life was when I lived in Oregon and did not have to deal with pumping gas (Oregon is one of two states that does not allow people to pump their own gas). The year I lived there made me lazy about pumping gas, and even now 7 years later, I daydream about my state switching to the attended pump system. Due to my hatred for pumping gas I tend to go as long as possible before filling up, although I am usually aware of my gas tank situation. However, the other day I was not so astute.

As I was pulling in the parking lot at work I glanced at the dash and saw that not only was the gas light on, the little needle looked like it was lower than the bottom line. Oops. My dash has a feature where I can tab through a series of displays, one being the "miles till empty" display. I quickly clicked through to that display and saw that I had 3 miles left. Phew. I could make it to a gas station later . Upon leaving work I headed out to the main road, and passed by the first gas station I saw because all pumps were in use and I didn't want to wait. As I headed towards the next gas station I weighed my options - stop at the next gas station which tends to be a little pricy, or try to chance it and make it to my usual cheaper gas station on the other side of the drawbridge. I ended up stopping at the more expensive gas station, and as I pulled to a stop I saw the "miles till empty" display click from 1 to a series of dashed lines. Glad I didn't try to chance it and drive over the drawbridge and risk running out of gas. I have never run out of gas before (knock on wood) and hopefully never will.

The point of this story is that I used to be so on top of things and aware of what was going on. Lately, not so much.