Apology Stuff

This is an apology to the many I inconvenienced this morning. I may have made more than just a few of you late for work today. (You may use this post as your offical excuse)

I was the stalled car in the 3rd northbound lane on Interstate 85 just before the Buford Highway exit.

I've seen stalled cars in the past and driven past them thinking, "they should have done some maintenance before they got on the got-da%* highway this morning. Imagine holding all those people up." I've driven past them (finally) disgusted that they didn't pull over to the right side to await help.

It's not that simple. My car refused to move so as much as I wished to be a good car neighbor, it was beyond my capability.

A cool dude in an SUV stopped to help me. He held up his hand, stopped 2 lanes of traffic, spoke to the 2 lead drivers in those lanes, and pushed me to the side of the road. He drove off immediately, so I didn't even get his name.

I called the emergency (while in the fast lane) operator who connected me to the "HERO" group. (I have no idea what the acronym stands for)

The bright yellow HERO trucks come to the aid of stalled motorists in the Atlanta Metro area. I waited about an hour for my hero to arrive.

The guy was friendly and cool. I explained exactly what happened right before my car died and he started laughing.

I was hot, late for work and I had to use the bathroom. I didn't see anything funny about the situation.

He walked back to his truck, grabbed a container and returned, still smiling.

"Pop your gas lever.

"Now try it."

The car turned right over.

I was out of gas.

(my car "Guy" named because he's a stick eliminated some features he was bored with about a year ago. My speedometer, gas gauge, and milage gauge are forever frozen so I'm never sure how much gas I have or how far I've gone. Guy stopped recording milage at 309, 072 miles.)