Not hoarding

It seems only Hurricane Ike and the Nashville gas shortage could drive Gov. Sara Palin off everyone's radar. Nashville has, apparently, kicked into 'snow mode'. At the first hint of gasoline shortages from Hurricane Ike Nashvillians started buying gasoline like it was milk, bread and cigs when Snow Bird makes an appearance.

Our gasoline story goes like this:

A week and a half ago, Thursday, I made my usual run to Sam's which always includes topping off my 27 mpg sedan. I was astonished to see that every pump had an orange cone blocking it. The attendant told me that they were out of gasoline and it would be later that day before they expected more. Well, I still had half a tank. I could wait.

I was back in that same area on Tuesday and found that while most of the pumps were still 'coned' there were some cars filling up. However, as I attempted to pull in the attendent conveyed the bad news that they were down to their last 40 gallons and it would likely be gone by the time the few cars ahead of me were done. This time I couldn't wait and I headed a couple of miles over where I knew there to be three filling stations.

They did have gasoline but they also had lines of cars parked at odd angles trying to get in line. The pumps were very slow. We timed it and getting our 12 gallons took 7 minutes. Which is longer than usual and quite long when you've got hot and bothered folks wondering what's taking you so long. One fellow ahead of me in line finished filling up and gave me a palms-up, shoulder shrug. When I poked my head out the window to ask what that gesture meant he impatiently retorted that I'd blocked him in. Since when is pulling up in line 'blocking' anyone? What was really blocking us all was the fact that folks, in their impatience to get on the property weren't careful about positioning and usual egress wasn't possible. So I and the woman behind me backed up to allow this fellow room to back out and move out. Considering his ill temper--we were glad to help him leave.

Two days later, I got a call from my husband whose 40 mpg sub-compact was running dry. He was unable to find a station with gasoline on his way to work that morning. He estimated he had enough to make it back home but could I fill up the 5 gallon can for him to pour into his tank when he got home? In fact maybe I should make sure my car was topped up too if I found gasoline. So my son and I headed off on the Great Gasoline Search. While our neighorhood was dry another a couple of miles over still had several stations with lines. Thankfully, we only had to wait for one car ahead of us. I put 4 gallons in my tank and 5 in the gas can for my husband. Then I drove a mile up the road to the Farmer's Co-op, purchased another 5 gallon can, returned to the gas station to fill it up all to ensure my husband would have a full tank when he got home. I never would have guessed that I'd be adding 10 gallons of gasoline for my husband's car to my usual grocery run. But it makes more sense for me to search around for it and wait in line than for him to waste valuable income earning time in the search for fuel to get him to work.

So if you see me filling two 5 gallon cans, I'm not hoarding. I'm shopping for my husband so he can keep working to earn the money to pay for gasoline at $4.29 a gallon to actually get to work to earn money to pay for gasoline...