minor rant alert: pumping gas

I learned a bunch of things this morning, like that there's a program that's actually making headway on reducing homelessness. But what really makes an impression? TVs at gas pumps. Apparently people are bored by pumping gas, so they need TVs to keep them entertained, or at least they do in Dallas, where they are testing these things.

That should be one of those 'what will they think of next' stories that doesn't deserve a whole lot of attention, but it has my attention because I can't imagine being bored at a gas pump. If I pump gas, most obviously I have to avoid the fumes from my own pump, which involves staying upwind of it. Then most stations are near intersections, and staying upwind of a whole intersection is a little dicier, particularly if the wind is blowing the wrong way, or even if there's just one of those unpredictable intersection-induced breezes. Timing is important, too: you want to go when traffic is light and there aren't any other customers so that you don't get a lot of laundry or perfumy smells on top of the gas and exhaust fumes.

I have a mask that I tolerate, but it can't really compete with that kind of atmosphere, so for entertainment while pumping gas, I do a lot of fume dodging. If I do well, I feel all self-congratulatory, like I pulled off some major feat. If I don't, I sometimes have trouble figuring out how to get the credit card thingy to cough up a receipt. The only good thing is that I recover quickly when I get back in the car and get the air cleaner started, so at least I can leave in good order.

The upshot here is that I'm quite confident that I don't need a TV to keep me from getting bored at the pump. Probably adding a TV into the mixture will fix it so that I never get a receipt.

Now, to make this a proper rant I need to insult anybody who disagrees with me, so here's a quote from my wise old grandmother:

"An intelligent person should never be bored."