I know it can seem that way.
I’m an old guy, I guess, because when I started buying gas, pay at the pump didn’t exist. Credit cards were actually hard to get, bank debit cards that behaved like credit cards didn’t exist yet, and almost everyone paid cash at the register for gas. Gas stations didn’t like it if you paid with a credit card, because they had to pay a 2% - 3% merchant fee. Most stations advertised a “cash price” for gasoline, and tacked on an extra fee if you paid with a credit card, so even most card holders paid cash.
SOP then was to fill up and then go to the register. This meant now and then someone might fill up and drive away without paying. Some stations insisted you pay first, and I generally didn’t use them because it meant two trips to the register: pay, fill up, go back for change. Not a major annoyance, but still irritating.
It was understandable, though. If they wanted money up front to prevent theft, how else would they solve it? Most people buying gas were filling up, and had no idea how much they would buy, and thus how much it would cost. Buying less than a full tank didn’t make much sense. Usually buying exactly $5 in gas meant you were strapped for cash and couldn’t afford more right now.
DTG
2962
When I need to make a 2-stroke mix of gas/oil (for chainsaws, leaf blowers, hedge trimmers, etc.) I would really like to be able to dial in exactly 1 or 2 gallons to mix with the right amount of oil, rather than sit there pumping the handle 0.1 gallon at a time.
Huh. I’ve heard of that, but the only small gas engine I use is on the snowblower, and it’s a four-stroke engine that takes straight gas.
Pod
2964
But not old enough that a guy in a hat and grimy overalls run out of the garage, greets you friendly, and begin to fill 'er up?
(When did that stop in the US?)
CraigM
2965
Depends on where you are. When my wife and I were in Oregon we discovered that you aren’t allowed to pump your own gas there. It was weird. Growing up in Illinois I don’t know that I’d ever seen a full service pump in my lifetime.
I didn’t come here to talk about dogs/wolves, but since I see it was mentioned since my last visit, let me chime in with a dumb thing to say without even reading the rest of the thread to see if this has been addressed at all. The recent TV show Cosmos had an episode that talked about this - the wolves that didn’t mind humans feeding them became our allies. Of those, humans killed the ones that were not obedient (and over time that didn’t develop features we find “cute”) while the rest that stayed away from humans retained the purity of their blood, and are the wolves of today. Dogs, according to NDT, are the first recorded instance of selective evolution. Or something. It’s been like a year since I saw that episode, but I think of it whenever I see the “if dogs descended from wolves…” thing. They just became two different sub-species, I guess.
Anyway, what induces nerd rage in me is the wrong blade on my $510 sword. Also, they didn’t sharpen it. I’m irate about it.
The Wolf-Dog-Human relationship is probably somewhat more complex than the typical “humans tamed wolves into dogs” narrative.
Zylon
2968
Halfway through 2015 and no rage yet? Bah!
Recipes that force you to cross-reference. E.g.-- they list all the quantities up front, then never again. So I get to, say, “Add the sugar”, and have to shuffle back to the first page while trying not to forget my place to look up WTF quantity of sugar “the” is. No, I am not going to pre-measure all my ingredients into a dozen little cups like I’m smegging Rachel Ray.
Apparently you can only use that image to reply to something i post…i read that somewhere?
Damn. Foiled by my own words.
Zylon
2975
Look, none of this would have happened if you hadn’t tried to argue that I am, in fact, Rachael Ray.
I nerd rage when someone uses the words frakking and smegging.
Zylon
2977
Wouldn’t that, by definition, be anti-nerd rage.
Ya frelling nozzle.
RickH
2978
Oh, I thought it meant you were bukkaking at her.
Banzai
2979
What a bunch of kneebiters…
With his dick cheese…so gross.
