A Birthday Story To Remember

The 52nd year of my life went out like a lion and so far my 53rd year has come in like a thief. Last Friday, two days before my birthday, I got a hold of some bad potato-salad. The 72 hour bout of food poisoning that followed ruined the festivities, not to mention my appetite. Then on Monday I picked up a nail in one of my tires in the parking lot of the office. Later that night Pam asked me if I would take her car to fill it up with gas while she went with Kaitlin to a meeting. So I drive her Pacifica with its 20 gallon gas tank over to BP. When the pump finally stopped after 18.8 gallons of the cheapest grade gas I could find the bill was a clean crisp even number…$70.00. I think I will always remember where I was the first time I ever paid $70.00 to fill a vehicle up with gas, because it was two days after I had spent a couple of hours alternating between vomiting and diarrhea. The two experiences were quite similar.