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June 5, 2002
It was hot today - too hot for sensible people to be outside. It was a good day to curl up on the sofa after dinner and take a nap in the air conditioning.
Confusion at the Pump
I was driving home late this afternoon and stopped at the gas station. At the pump in front of mine, there was a father and daughter trying to figure out the pump. Dad was a burly, stooped, grey haired man in a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of shorts. His daughter was short with fair features, putting her somewhere in that ambiguous age range between from 9th grade and college. Inside their metallic gray Buick, mom was in the driver's seat and two more girls were in the back seat. Dad had the nozzle in the tank and was squeezing the trigger on the nozzle. No gas was going into the car. The father muttered, "How do you get gas out of this thing?" Neither of them had pressed the payment buttons next to the LCD display. Since it was late in the afternoon, the sunlight shone directly on the front of the pumps and one couldn't easily read them. The daughter seemed panicky and wasn't sure which buttons on the pump to press. The daughter started pressing the "help" button on the pump, but no-one inside was answering.
The father (or was it the daughter) asked me how to start the pump and I told them to press the payment key that they wanted, then to pick their grade. The daughter asked me "Which one's unleaded?", which of course they all were. Was she so young that she didn't drive? If so, what was she doing trying to help her father, who didn't have a clue either. The father headed into the store, deciding to pay the clerk and get directions on how to use the pump. I went back to my car and finished up cleaning the windshield. I looked at the Buick as I did – it had Virginia plates. The father and daughter both had American accents. Were they just unable to see the display in the sun? Was the father drunk? Were they Canadians in a rental car?
Richmond Gets Two Fewer Hours of Instrumental Classics
...as Chris Bopst takes over two hours of air time on WVNZ 1320 on Fridays from 6 to 8pm. Detailed in this article on Richmond.com, Bopst is taking the eclectic influences of his punk rock past and creating two hours of something unique on WVNZ. Plaudits to Michael for the link. Cross your fingers...will Richmond bear more than two hours? I hope so, I truly hope so.
Operation Irascible Wombat
Or how about "Operation Infuriated Rain of Burning Death?" The next time that you need a name for your big military operation or just a cool code name for your latest software initiative, try the American Military Operation Name Generating Device on Ftrain.