Mmmm. Petrol.

[mandysee_mandydo]

Lesson of the day: gasoline doesn't taste very good.

As I may have posted recently, the van has died. I'll be having it towed away this week, but first I wanted to get all the gas in the tank into the new vehicles because, with the price of gas these days, I'll be damned if I'm going to let 12 gallons of gas get towed away to the junkyard. That's over $20 in gas saved this week!

So I started by trying to siphon the gas through the filler hole. No good. The filler tube bends at a 90 degree angle before it gets to the tank and the hose just wouldn't get around the bend. So I figured I'd disconnect the filler tube from the tank and siphon it out that way. No good. The rubber sections were stuck on nice and tight. Fine, I decided I would completely remove the tank and dump the gas into containers. I dropped the tank from the van and found I couldn't get it out from under the van. So I decided now that I finally had it removed and the filler tube was disconnnected I would go with my former plan of siphoning. That's when I got a mouthful of gas and I wasn't able to keep the siphon going. So I pulled out the spade and dug a trench just below the tow hitch and was able to finally pull the tank out from under the van.

One bright side to getting a mouthful of gas is that it's making the powdered milk I had to use in my cereal taste oh so delicious. Either that or I got just enough brain damage to make me THINK it tastes oh so delicious now.

Either way, I'm happy in the moment. And I get to work from home tonight to make up for not being able to get into the office at PDG. I have to do laundry tonight. Bummer. But I have no choice because I need to have clean, decent clothes to wear for our big meeting with Adelphia in the morning tomorrow to get our new government access channel.

Comments

[sambear.livejournal.com]

That sounds like entirely too much work. And the gasoline stuff sounds awful. Well, at least you took care of it. I'm sorry to hear the van died permanently.

[srturtle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it really turned out to be far more complicated than it should have been, but it is indeed taken care of. Now to have the van towed away...

I'm bummed the van died, but really it just forced me to do what I should have done long ago: get a more fuel-efficient vehicle. I got the Suzuki with 3/4 of a tank in it last Friday. I've put about 250 miles since then and still had a little less than 1/4 tank before I dumped all my van's gas into it this afternoon.

So sad as it is to lose such a cool van (dubbed the Shaggin' Wagon by one of my volunteers at the channel), I have to be very grateful for the savings in gas now. And a working speedometer & odometer. And transmission. And shocks. And tires. Yeah, definitely tires.

[merrick42.livejournal.com]

Gahhh >_<. Good luck with Adelphia, my father's "loved" dealing with them in the past.

[srturtle.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Actually Adelphia has been quite cooperative thus far with the second channel. We'll see how things go in the morning. I'm optimistic. I'm just wondering how things will go once Comcast/Time Warner complete the buyout.