I'm going to be the poster child for AAA

Can you believe it?
AGAIN we had to call them!!!

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!

Today we had to get the documents notarized for the sale of our house and overnight them to the lawyers. Of course tomorrow's a holiday and the following day is Saturday... The closing is actually Monday. HOWEVER... overnight does not mean overnight. It means next full business day, so even though today was Thursday and overnight from today was Friday and overnight form Friday was Saturday and overnight from Saturday is Sunday.. we still had to overnight the documents to get them there by Monday. And The good old USPS system could not, would not guarantee that they'd be there Sat. Maybe Monday. Maybe.

We have different definitions of overnight, apparently. I think I'd like them to watch my kids overnight. (using their definition, of course)

So.. you KNOW things are not going to go smoothly for us, right? We go to our local bank- Navy Federal thinking that "banks notarize stuff for you". And mind you it's the only Navy federal for 30 minutes at 4:00 the evening before a holday weeking- and it was standing room only in the parking lot, much less in the building. Get there, through line and get the 'we only notarize Navy Federal documents by law' line.

HUH?

Well then. We're going to find a bank. We had (or have if we didn't cut them up) a Bank of America credit card, there are Bank of America's here, let's find one.. consult GPS. oh, good, it's .5 miles away, we have a chance to get there and to UPS it overnight before the pickup tonight.

Have you ever run out of gas? At the absolute worst time? yep. That was today.

And.. because it's us.. we have a Diesel and (just FYI) the "worst thing you can do to a diesel is run it out of fuel, you can't just put fuel in and restart it like a gas engine" ( I thought putting GAS into it was the worst thing you can do to it. I guess I was wrong.) But I guess it has something to do with the diesel fuel injectors are not supposed to get dry- they then need to be primed...

now in my defense- the gas light had only come on less than 5 miles before we actually ran out of fuel. I'm not a dummy, I figured basic math means if I have 2 gallons left and the light comes on, I have at least 20 miles to get to a gas station, right?

Uh, no. Not if your gas gauge doesn't function. If your gas gauge doesn't function it's a craps shoot if you're going to go on any given day, period. With Diesel prices as they are and as little driving as I've done since arriving here, I haven't actually filled it to know it wasn't working. I'd put in the $75 worth of Diesel before the pump automatically cuts off and go. heck, that's over 10 gallons, I shouldn't have to worry about running out of gas anytime soon.. but.. $75 doesn't really move the needle on the gas gauge on a 44 gallon tank any more than parking on a hill does.

So... driving that less than .5 miles to bank of america (who btw does NOT notarize anything at the smaller branches) we get the shuttering followed quickly by stalling of the truck, glide into the driveway of a grocery store and there we stall- right smack in the way of everyone pulling in to buy their beer for the holiday.

AAA here we go again. (they're going to add our phone number to their blocked caller list) I'd already done the look up and down the road for a gas station with the green "diesel" sign and our GPS didn't have the gas stations on her that I could actually see, so I wasn't taking her word for it that the closest gas station was 1.9 miles away.

And I have a eureka moment here- the branch you get when you call the 1-800 number is based on the number you are calling from- I call from my VA cell phone and I get VA who transfers me to the "correct area" to help me. I called (when I locked ourselves out) on a CA phone and Voila- I get the right branch the first time- just like magic.

VA lady said "ok, where are you located?" and I give her the address blah blah blah, Oceanside, CA and she says "CALIFORNIA?" yes. "OH you're far from home" oh, yes, yes we are. "you in a safe place?" yes, sorta, we're blocking the driveway to beer before a holiday weekend, but otherwise fine "can you tell me where the driver can find you?" Yes, where you pull into the grocery store- right there-blocking the driveway- there is a massive brown SUV stalled. That would be us.

But since I'm here at my computer, you know the story doesn't end there.

As luck would have it, in the same strip mall as the grocery store was a shipping/public notary store. So.. the bank (in said grocery store) couldn't notarize it, but the notary could.. while I was waiting for AAA guy, Lary went in with kids, got his part notarized, AAA came, I went in with kids got my part notarized, the rest signed and in the UPS envelope for their drop off station in the same building. And no, it was not cheap.

And very lucky for us, the truck started. And.. just in case you decide to run out of fuel in a diesel- THIS is what you're supposed to do- turn on the key part way- like you do for the little coil looking thing to light up. You'll hear the hissing noise of the fuel injectors. turn off and repeat a bunch of times until the hissing you hear is sorta like the hissing you hear when you normally start the truck. It started very very roughly- Larry thought it was running on maybe 4 cylinders.. but 4 cylinders could get us home faster than 4 feet dragging 8 other feet. eventually it ran as it was supposed to.

And a long stop at the gas station later... it now has a full tank of gas. And the gas guage says we have 1/4 of a tank left.