Running Out of Gas

Caleb July 1, 2012 No Comments

Saturday night, on the way back from the West of the Pecos Rodeo along I-20, there was an SUV on the shoulder with hazards lights on, but they were very faint. I was driving Max, so I pulled over and flipped on my safety lights. The driver was a woman by herself and she was on her way from El Paso to Odessa and ran out of gas about 8 miles from Odessa. As if her night already wasn’t bad enough, she had accidentally left her credit card at the gas station in El Paso. I thought I had a little one gallon gas can in Max’s toolbox, so I said I’d go get her some gas and come back. I drove to the nearest gas station (Loves) only to find they didn’t have any gas. I went across the street to the other gas station (Stripes), and then discovered I didn’t actually have a gas can in my truck. I wasn’t worried since I assumed any gas station would carry them, so I went inside Stripes and found they didn’t sell them. So I drove back over to Loves and found that they were out of stock. My only solution was to drive 3 miles to the nearest Walmart and get one. After 25min and 15 miles, I finally had gas and headed back out to the stranded car. Thankfully a Sheriff’s deputy had stopped so his lights helped keep traffic from hitting her. I got back on scene and was able to get the 2 gallons of gas into her vehicle. Then I had to jump start her car since she had left her lights on and used up her battery really quick (and the deputy didn’t have any jumper cables). Since she only had 2 gallons of gas and no money, I had her follow me to the nearest gas station where I paid for a full tank of gas.

Running out of gas in the middle of nowhere by yourself with no money is a great way to ruin your day. I’m glad God put me along that road where I could stop and help and make her day just a little better and hopefully show her a glimpse of God’s love. There are few things in life that give me more joy than being able to help somebody–especially someone in these circumstances.

Hobbies

It’s a brand new day

Caleb June 27, 2012 1 Comment

After not posting anything new on my blog for over a year, I believe it’s high time to get back into this. I’ve started by giving my blog a fresh new design. I’m going to follow that up by going through my posts and re-categorizing as needed. In addition to this site, I’m working on finishing up my “portfolio” site which will showcase my creative projects, such as photography, graphic, and web design. I’ll announce that later.

Site News

Blast from the Past: Caleb’s Chemistry Class

Caleb July 1, 2011 No Comments

Blast from the Past is where I republish an old blog post of mine. This one here is a specifically entertaining one. It was originally published on March 11, 2008.

Today, we will learn what happens as a result of mixing chemicals.

Example:

Caleb prepares to clean the bathroom. He grabs a bottle of cleaner off the shelf and begins to spray down the shower. Unfortunately, the spray nozzle no longer is functioning on the bottle, rendering it useless. Through a stroke of genius, he grabs the sprayer off an almost empty bottle of Multi-Surface Cleaner w/bleach and begins to spray. This time, with the functioning nozzle, the chemicals begin to disperse and prepare for battle against the rust, mold, mildew and soap scum. Suddenly, in the middle of the battle, the chemicals turn on each other. Caleb is made aware of this situation when, after a few seconds of spraying, he realizes that the spray does not smell “lemon fresh” at all. In fact, it’s starting to burn his throat. That is the precise moment Caleb realizes his stupidity of mixing bleach with other fun chemicals. Immediately, he closes the bottle up, throws it in the trash, grabs a shirt and ties it around his face, holds his breath and runs into the bathroom. Upon his re-entrance, he opens the window, washes down the tub and walls (thus subduing the the battle), retreats and closes the door. After the air has cleared, Caleb opens the door and gazes upon the battlefield. The rain had washed much of the blood and bodies away. There was not but a trace of what had befelled that tile field just minutes before. Caleb completed the cleaning of the bathroom without incident after that–making sure not to mix chemicals.

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Update after two hours: My throat is sore and feels slightly swollen, but not too bad. At this point, it’s still not as bad as when I drank coffee from an “empty” brake fluid bottle.

Update: The next morning my throat was incredibly swollen and I couldn’t talk above a whisper for a few hours.