After having had a rough week last week with a panic attack that started Tuesday and hadn’t quite reached its final climax by Friday morning I decided to take advantage of the welcomed lack of rain to mow our lawn.
Before I could start I needed to go to the gas station to get fuel for the mower. Usually I take my one gallon can up to fill but my Mom had given me a larger one when she was preparing to sell her house and she found five gas cans in her basement.
As I’ve never been a driver and only recently did I buy the mower I am woefully ignorant about gas.
I looked at the side of the can and it read 5 gallons. At the station I approached the man with the kindest eyes and held out the can to him, “I’d like five gallons please.” His eyes were twinkly blue underneath his cap and he responded, “Don’t you mean four and a half?” I stammered, “I, uh, um…”
“Gas expands”, he explained to me. I, feeling stupid, allowed that I guessed I wanted 4 and a ½.
As I watched him carefully placing the nozzle into the can he looked up, smiled, and asked, “Did you have a breakdown?”
The sky began to fall down on me and I felt weak and dizzy, no doubt due to the state I have been in lately, riding a rollercoaster of anxiety, and the fact that I always breathe deeply at gas stations because I love the smell.
My mouth wouldn’t work. He had confirmed what I had long suspected. My mental instability has always been clearly written all over my face.
“Your car. Did it break down?”
“Oh, no. I am just getting some gas for my mower.”
“Well, I hope you live close by, this is very heavy.”
As I walked home I remembered that little rhyme I had learned as a baker, “A pint per pound the whole world ‘round except when measuring …”
I couldn’t remember the exclusions. Oil? Molasses? Honey? Certainly not gas?
After using the pint per pound method for years I later found out that the rhyme isn’t even correct. Actually, a pint of water weighs 1.04375 pounds.
So that means that four and one half gallons of gas weighs enough for me to at least get a good laugh out of myself.