Woke up feeling refreshed this morning which immediately startled me out of bed. I checked the alarm clock and sure enough, I’d forgotten to set it last night and overslept by an hour.

So we all did the fireman thing. Rushing through everything. Wake up the kids. Put breakfast on the table. Brush their hair. Drink coffee. Interestingly, all that stress and the lack of space for any unnecessary movements eliminated all usual morning arguments, and even Gamma got dressed by herself, quickly. I didn’t even argue when the cat barfed, I just cleaned it up myself.

To make up for that, I failed to notice the fledgling bird a cat had barfed in the driveway on our way out. I’ll clean it up this evening, Alpha!!

Gamma was fast getting out at daycare, basically I slowed the car down a little and she jumped out (only kidding). Beta – eh, I’d said something to make her mad so she got out fast at her school too.

On the freeway, then, I finally noticed the gas gauge was low. As in, I was taken back to my studies of economics in college. In economics, microeconomics at least, the outcome of a line of thinking depends entirely on the assumptions with which you begin. This fact appealed to me mightily in college and is one of the reasons I ended up studying economics, along with some other subjects.

So, assuming that the marks on the gas gauge are accurate, i.e. the needle on the one-eighth mark means I actually have one-eighth of a tank of diesel left, and my roundtrip to work is about 90 km, and I get a little over 600 km out of a tank under good conditions, then… whoa, then I’m fucked, dude. Six times eight is, no wait, six times … no, eight times 90 is, um 720. No, wait, that’s not the one-eighth mark, its the just under one quarter mark.

But how much under one quarter? I mean, is this gauge approximate or actually very accurate? The first half has always seemed to last a lot longer than the last half…

So anyway although in a big hurry I ended up going to work at 90 kmH in the slow lane, with all the trucks, rather than at 120 or so as I usually do (speed limit is allegedly 130 kmH here, although few people heed it) in order to save gas, because the Doblo gets its best mileage going 90 in fifth gear. Despite going slow, I made it to work just in time.

The little warning light will come on as I drive home this evening, but will I make it all the way? Will I have to get a few liters at that expensive gas station on the freeway? Will I run out and spend the night on the shoulder somewhere?

Stay tuned.