The Anointed Samaritan
Jan. 25th, 2007 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rabid1stSo...after my usual looooooong day at work, I am on my way to do some errands...pharmacy for needed meds, bakery for gluten-free bread, 51-flavors for much needed shot of creamy Cappaccino Blast and department store to pick up video tape for CSI recording (so I can write tonight instead of watching). It is a lengthy list of errands for someone with a sore throat and a long day behind them...but I stiffen the upper lip and point myself at the caffeine.
Midway in my journey, traffic stalls a bit. I wait through two lights and nobody has moved. Finally, the line begins to creep along...and I see we are shifting over into the turn lane, facing off against oncoming traffic to go around an S.U.V. (don't get me started) that is stopped in the middle of the road at the edge of the busy intersection. There is a lady standing there in traffic and with no flashers on her SUV, I believe she's going to be smooshed any minute. I roll down my window...thinking I will tell her it would be a better idea to go stand on the sidewalk, her SUV isn't worth dying for...and I hear her ask the guy ahead of me for gas. AHA! I think! There's a bit of irony...the SUV ran out of gas.
I drive on...but keep looking back at the woman...all alone...in the street...SIGH! So, I pull over at the first gas station to fill up my gas can. I figure I can go back and see if the man got her some gas and if he did...well...my gas can will be full. But the things is...I have a new gas can. I've yet to use it. And I don't know that it has an inverted funnel inside the mouth of it. A handy feature YES...but...not when you are trying to fill the can and don't know.
GASOLINE...sprays all over me...my lovely Land's End driving coat...my work clothes...my shoes...I am anointed, if not in oil...then, certainly, in a petroleum product.
Cursing the luck...and the moron who put the funnel in the business end of the can rather than in the other end. I return to the intersection...no sign of the car. So...now I am calling myself names and I'm also burning just a little (not because I lit a match but because the gas on my skin is starting to eat my skin away..and yes, I did wash off with the station hose...but I really need a bath). I get in the turn lane...and VOILA...I'm stuck there...FOREVER. Because the woman with no gas...has her car across another road, blocking me from turning into the cross street. Still, she has no gas. I am a good Samaritan. I call to her to hang on while I find a place to turn around and come back. It takes a good long while for any of the speeding motorists to let me back into traffic, and then I have to park and walk back to her. Meanwhile, the cops arrive just as I do.
They focus their attention on why, exactly, WE (me and the SUV woman) have parked in the middle of a road. I try to explain that someone must have helped Ms. SUV push the vehicle off the main highway and I was just driving by and saw she was in trouble. She doesn't really try to explain...and this is when I notice that the woman is in seriously rough shape...looks like she's been beaten up pretty badly...and she's got a car with no gas...and she's trying to avoid the cops. They are thinking drunk or domestic dispute and wondering just what my part in all this is. Luckily, I manage to convince the cops that I am just some idiot Samaritan who came back with gas after passing the lady. After a few more suspicious questions and a look that said they doubted my sanity...they let me leave.
So...here's my question: Does anyone know how to get gasoline smell out of cloth car seats and clothes? What about off of your shoes? Will I ever be able to light a candle again...or will I just have to curse the darkness?
Rae
Midway in my journey, traffic stalls a bit. I wait through two lights and nobody has moved. Finally, the line begins to creep along...and I see we are shifting over into the turn lane, facing off against oncoming traffic to go around an S.U.V. (don't get me started) that is stopped in the middle of the road at the edge of the busy intersection. There is a lady standing there in traffic and with no flashers on her SUV, I believe she's going to be smooshed any minute. I roll down my window...thinking I will tell her it would be a better idea to go stand on the sidewalk, her SUV isn't worth dying for...and I hear her ask the guy ahead of me for gas. AHA! I think! There's a bit of irony...the SUV ran out of gas.
I drive on...but keep looking back at the woman...all alone...in the street...SIGH! So, I pull over at the first gas station to fill up my gas can. I figure I can go back and see if the man got her some gas and if he did...well...my gas can will be full. But the things is...I have a new gas can. I've yet to use it. And I don't know that it has an inverted funnel inside the mouth of it. A handy feature YES...but...not when you are trying to fill the can and don't know.
GASOLINE...sprays all over me...my lovely Land's End driving coat...my work clothes...my shoes...I am anointed, if not in oil...then, certainly, in a petroleum product.
Cursing the luck...and the moron who put the funnel in the business end of the can rather than in the other end. I return to the intersection...no sign of the car. So...now I am calling myself names and I'm also burning just a little (not because I lit a match but because the gas on my skin is starting to eat my skin away..and yes, I did wash off with the station hose...but I really need a bath). I get in the turn lane...and VOILA...I'm stuck there...FOREVER. Because the woman with no gas...has her car across another road, blocking me from turning into the cross street. Still, she has no gas. I am a good Samaritan. I call to her to hang on while I find a place to turn around and come back. It takes a good long while for any of the speeding motorists to let me back into traffic, and then I have to park and walk back to her. Meanwhile, the cops arrive just as I do.
They focus their attention on why, exactly, WE (me and the SUV woman) have parked in the middle of a road. I try to explain that someone must have helped Ms. SUV push the vehicle off the main highway and I was just driving by and saw she was in trouble. She doesn't really try to explain...and this is when I notice that the woman is in seriously rough shape...looks like she's been beaten up pretty badly...and she's got a car with no gas...and she's trying to avoid the cops. They are thinking drunk or domestic dispute and wondering just what my part in all this is. Luckily, I manage to convince the cops that I am just some idiot Samaritan who came back with gas after passing the lady. After a few more suspicious questions and a look that said they doubted my sanity...they let me leave.
So...here's my question: Does anyone know how to get gasoline smell out of cloth car seats and clothes? What about off of your shoes? Will I ever be able to light a candle again...or will I just have to curse the darkness?
Rae
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Thanks, Hlynna
Date: 2007-01-26 01:22 pm (UTC)Rae