Fun with gasoline (long)

[Geek King]

Hey now, no reason to go insulting the cavemen. They learned to walk upright and made fire!

Yeah, but it took them thousands of years, I did it in 2-3.

[AFpheonix]

Interestingly when I went south this year, gas prices were higher down there than they were up where I am, despite the fact that attendants handle our gas. I don't mind one way or another, you just have to be smart about what station you pick, mostly. It's a no brainer that if you go to the busy station, you'll have to wait for a bit for the guy to be able to come take care of you. Otherwise, the vast majority of gas attendants get me in and out about as fast as I would have if I'd done it myself.
Besides, even if it does take a while, I keep a magazine on my front seat and read a bit while I wait. No worries.

[trunks2k]

Interestingly when I went south this year, gas prices were higher down there than they were up where I am, despite the fact that attendants handle our gas.

Well that's mostly because of taxes. New Jersey has some of the cheapest gas in the country, but that's because the tax on it is incredibly low.

[AFpheonix]

I don't know about Jersey, as I'm an Oregonian. We tend to have a fair amount of tax on our fuel, too. (about 42 cents total, smack dab on the national average)

[Giggle Goose]

Oregon and New Jersey. Plus there's always the occasional town than bans self-service.

Oh, just those two? Good. I think I might drive in NJ soon, but it'll be a while before I go to Oregon. Never been to the west coast before...or west of the Mississippi, in fact. Yeah, my life is boring.

[Seanette]

Pumping gas isn't freaking rocket science. I'm from New Jersey and it's pretty freaking easy. Most places, you can just swipe your credit card, put in how much you want, put the nozzle in, start it and then it automatically fills to that amount. How stupid do you have to be? It's so easy, even a caveman could do it.

Did you mean to insult me on this one? Especially at 21, I was not comfortable with cruising up to a piece of equipment I had never operated before and using it to dispense hazardous flammable materials without carefully reading the directions. My helper was very much a volunteer (if I had decided I needed to ask for help, I'd have located a station employee), and very much appreciated.

[Captain Trips]

As to reasoning, well, I don't know about NJ but I understand that the law in Oregon is to make sure that high school males have a job available to them! Having done some Oregon driving, I can tell you that the mini-serve attendants barely know how to pump gas! (Full-serve attendants know more, but the difference in the price isn't worth it.)

Then there was the time here in Calif, when self-serve was still new, that I pulled up to a pump and started pumping my own when the lady on the other side of the island yelled at me, "Well? Aren't you going to pump MY gas!?" I just looked at her and said, "Lady, this is a SELF-SERVE station! This is my own car, why should I pump your gas for you?" Needless to say, she just took off.

[Maevis]

*tangent*

One time I stopped to get $5.00 of gas on the way to class. It was one of the self-serve stations that was "pump and then pay". I carefuly stopped it exactly at the $5.00 mark since that's all the money I had.

Later that day I got hungry and started scrounging through my purse to see if I had enough change to get something out of the vending machine. Yay! Five dollars!....um...wait...

Had to drive back to gas station on the way home to pay them.

Oh, and last week, I saw a guy pumping his own gas and yaking away on his cell-phone (despite the warnings on the pump that say not to do this). He kept talking, washed his windows, got back in his car and drove off...with the pump hose still firmly attached to his gas tank.

[Shacky Whacky]

I always go to the same full-serve station right down the road from where I work. It's only 2 cents more per gallon than the surrounding self-serve stations in the area. But I like to call the old men who fill my tank "sweetie" and "honey" and tell a quick semi-dirty joke as I hand them a dollar tip for their troubles. In turn, they never have a problem with checking my oil or cleaning my windshield, which is not something they do for everyone, even though it's full serve.

[Hemily]

there's gas stations that have employee's that fll your car for you, and it's actually illegal to fill it yourself? O.o

and y'all only got around 94 octane at most? dang...

good think i picked the lowest octane for my car then, i drive an american car

dunno how well it woulda handeled 98 octane or the one around 100 octane..
and it kinda does explain why the lid over the gas cap is so weird, we have to fill gas ourself here, and they're not automatic, ya have to hold the "tigger" in to fill, and the lid on my car go upwards and is huge, making my arm hurt like hell each time i fill gas,
if i read correctly, ya folks in americaland, got some self service pumps, but you just press go and it fills how much ya want? the lid woulden't be a problem ther, like it is for me

and honestly, i think i'd be nervous having someone else filling up my car o.O, i'd feel like an idiot not being able to fill it up myself

[karma_gypsy]

She asked where his car was and he said it ran out of gas and he wanted to fill the bottles with gas. Of course H told him no as it's; stupid, dangerous, and illegal.

Well, yeah and wouldn't the gas react with the plastic bottle in some way? I know there wouldn't be a proper way to vent the bottle and, how would you even fill a 2liter up? The tops on those bottles are quite small compared to the gas pump nozzle . . . Plus, aren't there signs all over the pumps saying something like only dispense gas in the appropriate containers (or however it's worded, you get the gist of it though!!).

[Jester]

(P.S. any true SoCal person knows you never get on the 405 at 4:05pm.)

Or any time within hours of that time! The 405....aka The Devil's Parking Lot!

[HYHYBT]

Most places, you can just swipe your credit card, put in how much you want, put the nozzle in, start it and then it automatically fills to that amount.

They really have pumps like that? I've never seen one that asks how much you want. Just credit/debit, reciept yes/no, and grade, then you let go of the handle when you have enough, or it shuts off when it thinks the tank's full.

[trunks2k]

They really have pumps like that? I've never seen one that asks how much you want. Just credit/debit, reciept yes/no, and grade, then you let go of the handle when you have enough, or it shuts off when it thinks the tank's full.

The full service stations have them so the attendent can put in the amount and walk off. But I think in self service stations, even if it doesn't tell you to, you can put in an amount. I've seen it somewhere before.

[KuzcoLlama]

Or any time within hours of that time! The 405....aka The Devil's Parking Lot!

:: snickers:: So true. I almost feel bad for people who don't at least try side streets. Still not the best, but at least you move.

Back on topic, when I read he wanted to put gas in those little bottles, all I can think is, "Why?" What posesses a person to think that's remotely okay? So confused >.<