I'm A Tool

Is a hammer self-aware? Well, I am.

I normally wait until my gas tank is at about 25 pounds before filling up, but this morning I was going to get gas anyhow, with a good 50 pounds on board. This is highly irregular.

I normally don't take pictures of my car for a few reasons, and I never enter photo contests. I always leave my camera at work. Today I found out at lunch time that there is a photo contest for pictures of cars at gas stations. I grabbed my backup camera "on a whim" as I left work. This is very highly irregular.

Normally I like to spend maximum-possible time at home and leave right at closing time. Today I spent a few extra minutes shooting the breeze/talking business after work and thought it good to call my Darling Wife and let her know I'd be late getting home. This is irregular.

At the filling station, I made a few photos of my car and took longer than usual, which lead to . . .

The car wouldn't start. At ALL. I missed the first ignition and flooded it, and usually I can give it gas pedal and crank for a few seconds and it will fire up. This time it was cranking for like a minute, with a break in the middle to go poke under the hood and see nothing obviously wrong. This is highly irregular - my car has maybe ten times EVER not started properly in twelve years.

I figured I would be at the gas station for a while, so I went to push the car away from the pump. I didn't want to tie up their moneymaking machine until the Hot Rod was fixed. I had parked a little forward of the pump so looking out of the door meant looking at the pump. The Hot Rod sits low, and I could see under the control panel of the fuel dispenser. Someone in a higher car or truck/van, or someone with a car with the seating position a few inches higher would have missed what I found.

Under the control panel on this type of gasoline dispenser is a metal cover with a lock to control access to the guts of the machine. In that lock was a key. The key to the gas pump was IN the gas pump. This is a Very Bad Thing for a lot of reasons.

I pushed the Hot Rod back into a parking spot. I was glad of a little pushing buddy assist from Random Strangerman who stopped his truck beside the car and left the little lady in the passenger seat while he pushed for a moment. I walked back to the dispenser and took the key and went into the store.

VFD: (holding out hand with open palm toward clerk, showing her the key)
Clerk: What is that, for you or for somebody here or ???
VFD: I don't know, but I don't think it should have been left in [pump] #10.
Clerk: (Surprised look)
VFD: Just a guess.
Clerk (happily receives key and has suspicious look around at her co-workers)

I walked outside and phoned my Darling Wife and told her I'd be even later than I thought. I speculated to her that maybe the reason the car wouldn't start was so I would find that key. I told her I'd be there for a while until the car cooled down, thinking it wouldn't start because something in the engine was too hot to work quite right. Then I thought maybe the car would start since the key was found. I said a quick prayer and turned the key - and the car started normally without any hesitation.

********

An evolutionist will try to tell you this is all random chance. I say God used me to get that key into the Clerk's hand this evening. What say you?