At the behest of my new friend Lisa, I have decided to give blogging a shot. I originally thought I would write some long extended musing simply about the nature of blogging, but when I got into my car to drive home from Lititz I was struck with an all too familiar situation. My gas needle. Every morning, indeed, everytime I get into my car, I observe its little position. I look nervously between it and my tripometer reading, hoping that this time around, my car is getting unusually good mileage. I have a little system in my head; if the tripometer reaches 150 miles by the time the needle reaches halfway, then I am pleased. I try and divide my tank into fractions by the lines on the meter. I am constantly doing this little math. But this is not all! My needle likes to play tricks with me! Foolish thing that it is...it will stay hovering around a given line for a day, maybe two, doing its little dance with the waves in my tank. Uphill always means a fuller tank. Downhill means empty. How I wish I could drive uphill most of the time...but on average, it will stay around whatever level its at. Just when I begin to get comfortable, and expect that it is dropping at a steady, efficient rate, BAM! I turn on my car, and there is my needle, hovering an 8th of a tank below the point it was when I turned the car off. Laughing at me. "You thought I was 3 quarters full? Haha! Just kidding!" Horrible images of a slight hole in my gas tank, soft tires, and weight in my trunk plague me. All because of the price of gas. All because of my lack of funds. I find myself cursing my car's poor mileage, and feeling fear that my car may not even get 20 miles to the gallon. I suppress a shudder. I must remind myself that I have been given much, indeed, the CAR was given to me. I once asked a wise man what would happen to me if gas went to 5 or 6 dollars a gallon. He said to me, "You? You are going to trust that no matter what, God is going to provide you with everything you need to do his will." I know that this truth should put an end to my little game with the needle. But it is difficult. And the needle just keeps dropping.
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Living at the mercy of the needle...
At the behest of my new friend Lisa, I have decided to give blogging a shot. I originally thought I would write some long extended musing simply about the nature of blogging, but when I got into my car to drive home from Lititz I was struck with an all too familiar situation. My gas needle. Every morning, indeed, everytime I get into my car, I observe its little position. I look nervously between it and my tripometer reading, hoping that this time around, my car is getting unusually good mileage. I have a little system in my head; if the tripometer reaches 150 miles by the time the needle reaches halfway, then I am pleased. I try and divide my tank into fractions by the lines on the meter. I am constantly doing this little math. But this is not all! My needle likes to play tricks with me! Foolish thing that it is...it will stay hovering around a given line for a day, maybe two, doing its little dance with the waves in my tank. Uphill always means a fuller tank. Downhill means empty. How I wish I could drive uphill most of the time...but on average, it will stay around whatever level its at. Just when I begin to get comfortable, and expect that it is dropping at a steady, efficient rate, BAM! I turn on my car, and there is my needle, hovering an 8th of a tank below the point it was when I turned the car off. Laughing at me. "You thought I was 3 quarters full? Haha! Just kidding!" Horrible images of a slight hole in my gas tank, soft tires, and weight in my trunk plague me. All because of the price of gas. All because of my lack of funds. I find myself cursing my car's poor mileage, and feeling fear that my car may not even get 20 miles to the gallon. I suppress a shudder. I must remind myself that I have been given much, indeed, the CAR was given to me. I once asked a wise man what would happen to me if gas went to 5 or 6 dollars a gallon. He said to me, "You? You are going to trust that no matter what, God is going to provide you with everything you need to do his will." I know that this truth should put an end to my little game with the needle. But it is difficult. And the needle just keeps dropping.
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3 comments:
how ironic that you chose this as your first blog's topic! on the drive home from seeing you tonight, i also had to stop at the gas station. i didn't expect to, but the little orange light came on my dash!
and earlier today, before returning my rental car to Avis, i pumped gas into it FOUR TIMES, all in an effort to get it precisely to 5/8 of a tank without going a bit over.
the crazy thing is that during the last THREE attempts to raise the dial, it didn't move at all. i put in a lot of money and had nothing to show for it!
The memories of running out of gas. My very first car did not have a working gas gage. It would only go down to half full and then it would not go down any further. I discovered this the first time I ran out of gas with the gage at half full. When I put a couple of gallons in the tank the car would not start. I had to put gas in the carburetor, interesting experience. When I turned the key, flames shot out of the carburetor, but the car did start then and managed not to catch on fire.
I do play the gas gage game with my current car. I know I have a 10.5 gallon tank and that should get me at least 336 miles. So when I go over 300 miles I start thinking about putting gas in the tank. I have never put in more than 9.5 gallons. That means I could have at least driven another 32 miles before filling up. Did I mention that when I have 300 miles, the needle on the gas gage is completely below the red empty line? Ah, the little games we play with our cars.
Why, Shawn! You make a wonderful essayist. Your humor is as refreshing as your insights, and I have truly enjoyed reading your thoughts. Huzzah for keeping in touch, even en masse!
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