Lightbulb goes off a little late in gas episode

Image
  • Butch Furse
    Butch Furse
Body

You readers should be aware this column is being written under duress, or using another term, “under the threat of blackmail.” In this column I’ve elected to expose my blackmailer and the secret she threatened to reveal.
My Betterhalf backed me into a corner when she witnessed my miscue as I prepped the snow blower to remove last week’s snow from the home driveway and the Masonic Lodge’s sidewalks a few blocks away. She had assisted me under the guise of helping me by shoveling the tight corners near structures where the snow blower could not go.
As she watched me fill blower with gas, she questioned why I wasn’t using the small one-gallon gas container that was labeled for the snow blower. I told her I was using the bigger universal five-gallon container instead. And then I added I had just used some gas from that five-gallon container when I did the driveway and I wanted to refill the tank when headed to clear the sidewalks up at the lodge. As I completed the fill, the Betterhalf again questioned why I didn’t use the one-gallon container labeled “snow blower”. . .  and asked, Don’t you have to mix the gas?” And again I stressed that I knew what I was doing.
Moments later my lightbulb went off. The small snow blower container held the necessary 50:1 oil mixture with gas for the 2-cycle blower while our lawnmower used just plain ol’ gas contained in the five-gallon can. That meant I had already mistakenly filled the blower with plain gas and it needed to be drained and refilled with you guessed it: 50:1 oil/gas mixture. The new blended refill went pretty slow because the cold, thick oil had been left in an unheated garage cabinet.
The Betterhalf was very nice about my miscue. But, I sensed she had great satisfaction helping me as we drained the straight gas from the blower.   When we put the blower back in the garage my sense was correct. My Betterhalf did have more than just her great satisfaction in mind. She smiled, turned to me and said: “This episode better be in your column next week!”
Please note – “It has been done, dear!”

RL Furse  is publisher emeritus of the News-Register