Running On Empty. Literally.

On the way home from school yesterday, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a blinking orange light on the dash. "Great!" I thought. "The check engine light is going off. Must be why the car is starting to shake a bit." But when I looked down I saw the little gas tank sign flashing at me. Crap. I looked at the gas gauge and to my horror saw that is was below the E. A range I have never been in before! I have no idea how this happened. I am obsessive about checking how much gas is left. I began to imagine the car stopping where it was. I imagined having to walk with three boys in tow to get a tank, and then haul it back. Double crap. I quickly thought back to the last time I had filled up...over a week ago, and...right before we went to Harlan. A trip to Harlan had happened on this tank? Triple crap!!! I began swearing in German, a bad habit I acquired from several of my friends in high school who took German, which actually really comes in handy when you are stressed around your kids.

Luckily, we were blocks from our neighborhood gas station. We rolled in on FUMES I tell you. We have what is supposedly a 16 gallon gas tank in the van (according to the manual). I put in 17.33 gallons.

Thank you God for getting us to the gas station, and please help me to keep my head on straight from here on out.