Friday, August 13, 2010

What else could I expect on Friday the 13th?

I don't believe in luck and I don't think people have more trouble on Friday the 13th than on any other day. BUT...

I ran out of gas on my scooter on the way into work today. The sad part is I was pretty sure I might and was going to go to a gas station first so I wouldn't have to worry the whole way in to work. But then I got started late and thought maybe I'd "luck out" and make it in after all. Of course, I didn't. I thought I wasn't too far from a gas station, though, so when one of my co-workers saw me walking the scooter and stopped to help, I said, "Oh, there's a gas station right around the corner. Thanks anyway." I hadn't paid attention when I went to the gas station before. It wasn't right around the corner. It was two corners beyond that.

Scooters aren't meant to be pushed. You can't really put them into neutral. There is always something working against you as you push or try to coast down a hill. Plus, I kept worrying about when I would ride it down a little bit of a hill that I should wear my helmet or I might get stopped by the police. So, I was wearing my helmet most of the time. I finally got around the "third corner" after about a half an hour. When I gassed up, the total only came to about 1.5+ gallons where the manual says the gas tank should hold 1.6 gallons. Another lesson learned.

So, there was no bad luck involved. I just made two bad decisions:
1) Not going directly to a gas station
2) Refusing my friend's help
And as one famous quote says:
Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions. 
I've seen this attributed to various people so I'll just leave it as an anonymous quote here. I will now make a better decision the next time I think I might be low on gas. And I won't refuse help the next time it is offered.

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