Gas Pains
Gas prices have taken a three-time dive this week. This morning, I needed to fill up, not because a litre of regular is finally below $1.20 but because I was running on a quarter tank. So I pulled into a busy gas station (they are all busy today!) and lined up behind two cars, each at a pump.
The owner of the car farthest away was squeegeeing his windshield. He was a very old man and had finished pumping his gas (I saw him take the receipt from the pump) and decided that now, in front of a full parking lot, would be a good time to get anal about bug guts. No matter. The guy ahead of me was just getting started.
The dude ahead of me finished, walked in and paid, and in all of that time, Mr. Windex was still going slowly around his car and now wiping down the inside of each and every window with a paper towel. Two cars lined up behind me. The guy ahead of me was unable to go anywhere without window dude getting out of the way. And there we sat.
I gave it a good couple of beats before I reacted. I waited until the impulse to fire an imaginary weapon passed, and the guy ahead of me had thrown up his hands in frustration before I trotted over to the window cleaner and said calmly but firmly, “Sir, are you REALLY wiping down your windows while we are all waiting to fill up?”
“Oh that’s just AWFUL”, he replied, dripping with sarcasm. “That’s just TERRIBLE isn’t it?”
“Well it’s pretty rude!” I retorted as I skittered back to my vehicle. A high pitched “thank you!” came from the car between us. Window dude immediately got into his car and moved it which is what he should have freakin’ done in the first place! There was no need to stay pump-side to polish his tinted glass.
When I was growing up in Grimsby we used to go to the manual car wash a lot. It was co-owned by our family physician and always well maintained. Inside each bay was a sign that read, ‘Please do not chamois your car while others are waiting. You may be waiting next time!’ Common sense right? Back out when you’re done with the soap and water wand and carry on with your niggling little rubbing and polishing out of everyone’s way. When someone is being a jerk they need to be told so. Sometimes it’s not wise. Sometimes it’s not safe. But today, it seemed to be both. And damn! It felt good!
