Gassing Up; the Story of My Life
On Monday night, as I was about to leave for mincha/maariv, MHW asked whether I'd mind taking her car since it was very low on gas. Why would she want me to take take the car that was very low on gas? Well, duh. To fill it up, obviously.
Since I love MHW very much and like to make her happy, it was my pleasure to take her car, drive it to shul and then fill it up (I actually was very pleased to see that gas prices were below $3.00 again).
Last night, I took "my" car to shul. I use that term loosely since, l'maisa, OOD has been using the car during the summer, first to drive to school and then to hang out and run errands. Shockingly, when I turned on the engine, the gas gage was very close to empty. What a surprise! So, after shul, I went back to the very same gas station and pumped up the car. In all, I bought over 40 gallons of gas in two nights, spending well over $100.
Rather than be upset that I seemed to always get stuck being the "go-to" gas guy, I actually was grateful to Hashem that I owned two cars and was able to fill them with gas without having to worry about the money. No small thing.
On Monday night, as I was about to leave for mincha/maariv, MHW asked whether I'd mind taking her car since it was very low on gas. Why would she want me to take take the car that was very low on gas? Well, duh. To fill it up, obviously.
Since I love MHW very much and like to make her happy, it was my pleasure to take her car, drive it to shul and then fill it up (I actually was very pleased to see that gas prices were below $3.00 again).
Last night, I took "my" car to shul. I use that term loosely since, l'maisa, OOD has been using the car during the summer, first to drive to school and then to hang out and run errands. Shockingly, when I turned on the engine, the gas gage was very close to empty. What a surprise! So, after shul, I went back to the very same gas station and pumped up the car. In all, I bought over 40 gallons of gas in two nights, spending well over $100.
Rather than be upset that I seemed to always get stuck being the "go-to" gas guy, I actually was grateful to Hashem that I owned two cars and was able to fill them with gas without having to worry about the money. No small thing.
Labels: Random Thoughts
posted by MoChassid @ 3:48 AM
6 Comments:
At 11:02 AM,
and so it shall be... said…
"Rather than be upset that I seemed to always get stuck being the "go-to" gas guy, I actually was grateful to Hashem that I owned two cars and was able to fill them with gas without having to worry about the money. No small thing."
Kol Hakavod. No matter who we are, where we live, and what we have, remaining happy and appreciative for what we have can often be a challenge.
Working to find what to appreciate and be happy with what we have is an art form that if developed can bring immense happiness and satisfaction to our lives.
At 11:15 AM,
Anonymous said…
I had a similar experience one day when I finished a half-gallon container of orange juice, then just reached into the refrigerator and popped the lid on another half-gallon.
Suddenly it hit me how lucky I was. I realized that the oranges from which the juice was made came from far away, yet I had as much of it as I wanted, and it really wasn't very expensive.
Much later, I went to the YU Museum for the exhibit about Polish Jews, and there I read a caption that said that a Polish Jew in the pre-war period (or I suppose a Polish gentile as well) wouldn't eat an orange unless he were deathly ill. That's how rare and expensive a fruit it was. So we are really very lucky in myriad ways that we hardly think about.
At 5:12 PM,
PsycleSteve said…
Saint MoC
I hear you. But can't you be grateful for the money and cars without being stuck with the empty tank each time? You're a much better person than me.
At 10:06 PM,
MoChassid said…
Steve
My kids have been driving for seven years (a total of 12 kid-years). My choice is to be aggravated each time or accept the fact that I'm the family gas jockey. I'm no saint, just a realist.
At 6:19 AM,
Anonymous said…
MO:
When we had four teen/adult children drivers at home, what you described happened to me all the time. Thankfully, we live in the up-the-hill section of Monsey, so I was usually able to coast to the gas station.
My therapy was text-messaging all of them with a short message, "E stands for EMPTY, not excellent."
Never helped much, but made me feel better.
Yakov Horowitz
At 9:46 AM,
MoChassid said…
Reb Yakov
We must be cousins; I've used the same line on my kids!
And, it doesn't help with them either.
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