So, as some of you know, I work the 3:30 to midnight shift at the local Kimberly-Clark Helpdesk (when I say local, I mean the one for this side of the world .. and because of my strange hours… the other side of the world too).

Anywyay, We get 30 minutes for lunch. So, while working on my new time-consuming project, UASite 2.0 Burbs|BA asked if he could call me. (he’s hosting the main website for UA) I decided it would be a good time to go grab something to eat while I talked to him on my phone.

So, BA calls me, and I head to McDonalds, which is a couple miles away from where I work .. I have just enough time to grab something from the drive-through, run back to work, and eat at my desk. I spent the whole trip to McD’s on the phone with him .. I sat at the drive-through thing waiting for someone to answer the little box for almost 10 minutes. I finally got frustrated and went in … (My keyboard just cut out at this point… batteries are dead… can my night get any worse? read on as to why)… anyway, I finally went into McDonald’s to order, chewed them out for not answering their little voice-box .. and paid full price for my meal. and headed back to work (I also finally got off the phone at this point). as I was pulling back in to work, my van sputtered a bit, and I realized that I was very low on gas (ok, it was below empty). I was hoping I’d make it the 2 miles to the gas station when I left work at midnight.

So, I did get to leave work at midnight, got out to my Van, and started driving to the gas station. it chugged a little bit … I turned down the radio .. and started mumbling “come on, gotta make it … come on …. come on … ” sputter …. put ….. step on the gas and no power … sputter … and it died… about a mile from the nearest gas station. I was going 40mph at the time (I couldn’t get it to go any faster) so I let it coast as far as I could … put my flashers on, got out out the van and started walking down the highway to the gas station.

Anyone who knows me, knows I’m not much into physical exertion. I’m a lazy git. so walking a mile to the gas station was not all that much fun.

Once I got to the gas station, I of course had to purchase a gas canister …. 1 gallon just wasn’t enough … 5 gallons was just too much. Think there was anything in-between? … no. so I wound up toting a 5 gallon canister with 2 gallons of gas in it back 1 mile to my flashing van on the side of the road.

Holy shit are my legs sore. I hate driving, but I hate walking even more. Especially walking on the highway … after midnight.

Then, I managed to not have the cap of the gas can screwed on tight enough, and I got gas all over my hands, and vicariously, all over my steering wheel, pants, and anthing else I touched in the 90 second drive back to the gas station. Fortunately the van started up on the second try. I was smart enough not to try to keep starting it when it was clearly out of gas (fuel injected vehicles are bitches to start when they run out of gas).

I threw 15 more gallons of gas in the van when I finally got to the pump, and about 45 minutes after I had left work, I continued on my way home.

I know I’m going to pay for this tomorrow … I’ll be lucky if I can get out of bed…