Estimated reading time: 4 minute(s)

I can’t believe how little I have been able to get up here and share the fun stories from life in the Campbell home. I really do love to tell stories. I think it’s because I love to read stories. (I could say something cheesy like, “Stories are the fabric of life.” or something… but we all know that anyway, so I’ll leave the cheese out here…) Who doesn’t love stories?

Well here’s a quickie…

Last Tuesday night, Jen & I were headed out for a nice dinner together… no kids… (there’s a theme to today’s posts…) 🙂 but first we needed to get some gas. We went up to our gas station and filled up, and this time I happened to have lots of cash, so I decided to use that. (Almost never do that…) After I had filled up, I headed inside, but the pump beeped LOUDLY at me. I figured I needed to do something else, but when I returned to check, it said, “Please Pay Cashier”. I thought, “Ummm… right!” 🙂 And I headed back inside.

Our gas station gives away 50 gallons of gas every week. When you fill up, you just run in and get some tickets, and then check back on Fridays to see if you’ve won. We never have, but I still like to get tickets. Just in case. 🙂 This time, as I was heading inside, I noticed a sign on the door that said “Double Tickets on Tuesdays!” Sweet! More chances to win! I was going to make sure I mentioned that when I was paying.

When I came inside, the two ladies behind the counter were laughing, smiling… just having fun. I smiled, but thought nothing of it. As I approached the counter, I noticed that one of the ladies was our old neighbor (from our previous residence) and smiled a hello at her. Her co-worker, a younger, perhaps teenage girl, was arguing her case, “He was just cuuuute!” I smiled at her as well, and in response she said, “You were just cute! Running up and then running back to check the pump and then running back in!”

I was cute? They were laughing at me? Hmmm. I was a bit surprised by all of this now, and really didn’t know what to say. I said, “Thanks?” And after a bit more explaining, justifying, etc… the giddyness seemed to die down and I said, “I need to pay for my gas…” 🙂

They were still chatting happily as we completed the transaction, and as they did, I made sure to request my tickets. The younger girl gave me my double tickets and then a few more for good measure. (I was “cute”, remember… I guess that gets you more tickets…) 🙂 And then our former neighbor and I chatted a bit… just catching up on our respective families.

When I left I recounted the entire (humorous) story to Jen and we had a good laugh, too, over my “cuteness” and then had an enjoyable evening together… Jen took me out to a sub shop we’d never been to. Then we stopped by the Apple Store for a leisurely, “kidless” evening. It was quite nice.

Alright… I said “quick” but we’re getting long…

Fast forward to Saturday morning. It’s nearly noon and I need to hit the bank and the PO before the clock struck twelve. The bank was first… and with a long line, I knew my plans were mostly foiled. But, it went rather quickly, and I was out at 12:01. The library, which is in the same parking lot, had a book on hold for us, so I ran in there real quick, hoping they had stayed just a few minutes past 12… They had. I found out they close at 2. 🙂 That was nice.

I hurried to the now closed post office and got a stamp out of that little machine, and sent in my tax payment… so that was all good. Just one more stop… had to check on our gas tickets, since I was right there anyway.

I jumped out of the car and hurried in (remembering the funny “cute” story from a few nights before). I checked the tickets again and looked at the general set of numbers I was hoping to see on the winner’s board. When I got to the counter I looked at the number, and it was close! But we’ve been there before… just a number or two off. But this time… IT WAS EXACTLY OUR NUMBER!!!!

I must have checked it four times before I finally said, kind of quietly, “I … think we won?” The guy behind the counter said to another worker on the floor, “This guy says he thinks he won the gas giveaway.” The lady he was speaking to came over to inspect and I said, “I think I’ve got it!” She verified they were the same numbers and took my license number so that when we come in, we just put our gas on that tab until we’ve gotten our 50 gallons!

FIFTY GALLONS. Gas is $2.45/gallon at the moment, so that’s $122.50 worth of gas!!! Nice!!!!! We’ve said before that money is not flowing freely around here, and that remains true. It’s even been a lot tougher of late, which causes a little extra stress in the home. So, this was just nice timing, and a very fun gift to us. We’re excited!

So what I got out of this story was, be sure to be cute when you’re getting gas, and you might end up winning 50 free gallons!

Well, ok… maybe not. 🙂