My Shaturday

[spindlewine]

I had a sound gig at Harvard University yesterday. I left at 2:30 which would have gotten me there with five minutes to spare. My gas meter doesn't work all the time, or it sort of works, but usually when it is on "E" that means I have three gallons. My car ran out of gas about five minutes driving away from the gig. It sputtered and I managed to make it into the driveway of an A-Prime gas station. I had to push it to get it to the pumps. However, unlike most gas stations which are open on a Saturday, this one felt they didn't need the business. I tried calling Christal to have her look up some close gas stations online but her phone had fallen out of her purse and under my seat when I slammed on the brakes earlier that day. I asked random people, but no one really knew. I decided to go to the police station and ask them, I thought about leaving a note on my car but I hadn't a pen or paper or the time to do that. I told the police I ran out of gas at a gas station that was closed and they didn't say anything about being towed, but they did tell me where I could take my gas can to get gas. When I came back fifteen minutes later with a gallon of gas in hand, my car was gone. I called the tow company and told them my story, but the guy on the other end claimed there was nothing he could do. As I was on the phone with Phil's Towing, one of their trucks showed up to tow some other cars. I frantically flagged him down and told him my story and begged him to take me to the tow yard. He told me he wasn't going there, while he was backing up to tow a car. Bullshit. He tried to make me feel bad by telling me how much it was going to cost me. What a fucker. I have the fucking gas can in my hand, and why the fuck else would I park in front of the pumps? I called him a fucking scavenger and walked off. By this time I am already about thirty minutes late for the gig, so I call my boss and fill him in on whats going on and of course he is unsympathetic because he had to load everything into the hall alone and tells me I don't really need to show up. At this point I start to get really upset because I may have severed a lucrative income source. Starting to lose it, I walk to the police station again but with naive optimism for public servants. I thought maybe they would help me get my car back, they'll understand it wasn't my fault, or at least they will give me a ride. After waiting about five minutes listening to a guy complain about how making fun of one's mama should be illegal I step up to the glass and before I can say anything the cop tells me to 'get that gas can out of here, it stinks.' I ask where I can put it and he tells me outside, as I am coming back in, two other cops start yelling at me saying that it was a security risk and asking me what I was doing. Oh I don't know, maybe I was just going to douse myself and set myself on fire in protest of what assgrinders you are. I start to tell the cop what happened, and just tells me 'there is nothing we can do, the gas station has a contract with the towing company'. I start to lose it, I start crying, why doesn't anyone give a shit? No one can do anything it seems, not the guy working the phone at the towing company, not the tow truck driver, not even the police. They can't even give me a ride. They give me directions, I get my composure back, and I start walking with my gas can to the tow yard. When I get there, surprise, the tow truck driver is there just sitting around. I start to tell my story to the kid I talked to on the phone and I am polite and everything, but he can't do anything like discount me the holding fee because he already wrote it in the book, and he just started working there, and every other excuse to make himself powerless over the situation. I pay $110 to get my car back. I put the gas in the tank, and got in the car, but they had taken rope I had in the car and used it to tie my steering wheel to my brake pedal so it wouldn't move. What the hell? How can tow truck drivers legally go into my car and use my shit? They are car theives. They sit around and wait for people to leave their car and then take it as fast as they can. They are vultures.

Christal took me to the movies and we saw "The Weatherman" and Pat and Greg visited, and I had a good time at the end of my Shaturday.