Ever had that rare moment where you ask yourself what would happen if I did something really stupid like say… I don’t know, driving your car till it completely runs out of gas? If you haven’t, well you should or you shouldn’t, I actually don’t care. Anyway I have always wondered if I would be one of those people who tempts faith by riding while dangerously low on gas. Needless to say, I experienced it a month ago and I am not going to let that happen again.

I drive a Ford Escort.Yes it is American, yes it is one of Ford’s worst line of cars. So spare me. But to show my patriotism, I must point out that Ford is getting their act together. Their latest line of cars are actually really good. However it will take sometime to convince people that they are as reliable as their Japanese counterparts. My current car came fairly cheap and it serves me well, provided I keep up with regular and timely maintenance.

My daily commute to work is a miserable 1 hour coming and leaving. Do this five days a week and you have to refuel once a week. I am usually diligent about refueling my car. I usually panic right around when the dial aligns with E and that annoying red light starts beaming. And each time I refuel I notice it takes only ten gallons of gas to fill it up; which isn’t the thirteen gallons I was anticipating. So one day I got the dumb idea to push the car as far as it could go while noticeably low on gas. Luckily it all happened while I was very close to a friend’s.

Right after driving across the intersection, I noticed the car had suddenly started loosing power. As it progressively lost power, the steering felt heavier and heavier. I immediately knew this was it. The moment I have always wondered about, the moment I only hear from others which I have never experienced for myself. I felt somewhat excited and a bit worried. Taking advantage of my fortune that this didn’t happen on the highway, I carefully banked the car on the side of the road and called the friend whose proximity was less than a mile. Obviously he did what all friends do when he heard my story, he laughed like a hyena for a good minute then told me he was on his way with a small can of gasoline and more insults.