Hunting the wily Gasoline, or Surreality at 4:30 in the freaking morning

We have a wee, tiny bit of a gas crunch here in northern GA, as you may have heard. I have a pretty short commute and a small car, so I have been able to put this off but there are limits, and Kitanzi needs Gasoline, badly. I went looking yesterday morning on my way out grocery shopping at the bright and lively hour of 7:45. Hah. Most stations were out, and the two that were not had lines a block long. At that rate, someone's going to have just pulled up to the pump when it quits after giving them a buck's worth of gas, and things are gonna get ugly. (Both stations had a cop car parked nearby, doing nothing visible. Funny coincidence, that.) I had enough for my errands and a bit over, so I did them as quickly as possible. The cashier at the supermarket mentioned he's gotten his gas on his way to work at 4:30 am with no trouble and no line (this is what passes for small talk here these days, it's ridiculous) which I thought was a good idea. I'm often awake by 5 anyhow, so that wasn't a stretch.

So this morning I woke up at 4:30 and figured I'd get this done with, go hunt the wily Gasoline. I swear to you, I drove around for nearly an hour and checked at least a dozen gas stations. Some are selling diesel and keeping their minimarts open, but a lot aren't even bothering with that. I finally stopped at one on the way home and asked if they expected to get gas today. The guy looked wary and said they were but he didn't know what time. Duh, if they gave folks a time then they'd be camped out all over the parking lot. (Hell, that was what *I* had been thinking of doing!) So I guess I'll go check that one later this morning and sit in the damned line already. Bleah. *yawn*

How I Spent My Sunday Morning, by Larissa, aged old enough to know better

Yeah, about that gas crunch. Just before 6:30 I thought I'd go back to that station which told me they'd definitely be getting gas and check. As I drove up, I saw swarms of cars. Awesome, they must have gas!

Well, no. They had people waiting on the promise of gas. I found a pump with only one car ahead of me and settled in. Surely gas would be coming soon, right? I had a copy of Childhood's End which somehow got abandoned in the backseat, I had some cash to get coffee, and I had nowhere I needed to be. Surely I could amuse myself until the gas got there.

Almost three hours later, I had read the whole book, and listened to the ongoing gossip outside my car window. (Bored people talk and talk, bored people waiting for gas talk and talk about gas - who needs it, who has it, who might have it, rumors that the tanker truck is on the way, rumors that it was in an accident and won't be there at all... one guy said he'd come in at 6:30, left, driven as far as Marietta without finding gas anywhere, and come back.) I said screw it and came home. If we have to, ACat can walk to work (I start an hour before he does) and I'll pick him up to come home using his car, which still has plenty of gas. This is freaking ridiculous.

And I still have the nagging feeling that the tanker probably showed up ten minutes after I left.