we saw that...

important safety tip for those pumping petrol into portable cannisters

it appears that all the media's fear-mongering over tropical storm isaac is paying off. the roads are full of people, the gas stations have long lines and some stations are already out of gasoline and the retailers are doing a booming business.

anyway, we went and got some gas a little while ago because the station was out of all gas when we stopped by earlier; had to wait in line it took about 45 minutes.

when we passed by the station this morning the price was $3.52 a gallon. on the return trip home, not even an hour later when we stopped by to fill up the first thing we saw on the sign was that the price had spiked to 3.69.

then we learned that the station was totally out of all gas. we went inside and asked the clerk how could gas go up seventeen cents when they had no gas. the clerk said that the supplier had called and said that, 3.69 would be the price when they delivered; the tanker was on its way.

so when we went back this evening, while we were pumping our gas we noticed a lady two rows over filling up her gas cans in the back of her suv.

she had the tailgate down with a row of about four or five, five gallon gas cans sitting in the bed on the carpet.

in the description box of the below video, gannett/the alexandria daily town talk reporter, abbey brown, reported that the gas can the woodworth man was pumping gas into was metal. the lady we saw at the gas station today, her's were plastic. we dont know if that makes a difference - ms. brown reported that alexandria, la., fire prevention officer chad parker said that,

"'if the gas can had been sitting on the ground, this fire never would have happened,' parker said. there are several notices on the pumps warning of the dangers of static electricity and gasoline instructing people to stay off their cell phone, to ground themselves before fueling and to always fill gas canisters on the ground, not in their vehicle. that advice, he said, is important to follow."

we should have went over and said something to the lady because we believed that we might be witnessing something that could potentially be harmful and if so we knew better.

she was far away. there was a line behind her. there was a line behind us. there was a line behind everybody. everyone else not in the gas line was buzy running to-and-fro.

super one at kingsville had sold out of nearly all but the most expensive bread; fred's near libuse was doing a brisk business; all the retailers we visited seemed to be shorthanded.

a holiday village volunteer fire department pumper truck was there fueling. they were at the far end, at the diesel pump.

the lady was alone and elderly and lifting the gas cans full from off the ground into the back of her suv might have been more weight that she could lift like that. we'd like to think that had she filled the tanks on the ground we would have ran over and helped. who knows.

all we know is that sometimes all you can do is to whisper a quick prayer to god asking him that it be his will that nothing bad happens, trust him and go with that.

and uh oh yeah always fill your gas cans on the ground.

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