You already know my bout with illness and my dad.  Well...now something else has happened and I wonder if this really is karma at work.

Since dad is sick I've been doing any errands the involved driving some where (getting groceries, etc) and I usually take my car as I am more comfortable with it.  Well, today my brother and I went to get some Port-of-Subs for dinner and on the way back, not even a mile from home, my car stops running: it ran out of gas (Here's the kicker:  the gas meter still said there was a quarter of a tank left.).  Fortunately, we were right by a shopping center, so my brother pushed the car into the parkling lot to get it out the street (unfortunately it wasn't one with a gas station close by).  

So we called home and dad sent a neighbhor over to help.  We put a roughly a gallon a gas back in the tank, but she still wouldn't start (or would start but really struggle a bit before dying again).  With food in the car, we pushed the car into a parking space and the neighbor took us home so we could eat and update dad in person (his illness makes it hard for him to talk and he has a hearing problem on top of that).  Then we ate the food we got before I went to call for road service.  Well, I tried to eat:  my anxiety level was high and it made my stomach upset.

Unfortunately, neighbhor couldn't drive us back there, but since the it was so close we just hoofed it back over there to wait for the tow (though it is freezing right now due to high winds: of all days....).  There was some confusion as I apparently misread the address of the shopping center (I blame the stress/anxiety I was under), but fortunately we got it straightened out and the tow guy found us.  We got the car back home safely and we'll start trouble shooting the problem maybe tomorrow, if the wind freaking goes away.

One thing that will definately be checked first is to see if lack of gas was really the problem (last couple of times we started her at home she shut off again after stuttering a bit, but we thought that may be due to a combination of the 1/4 gas and the incline the car was parked at).  We wonder if the battery is an issue as well, in fact, as the hazard lights didn't work: fortunately I had a backup item to indicate car trouble.  Hopefully the problem is just one of those two things.  Definatlely going to have the gas gauge checked, if it is just lack of gas.  Another thing we will definately invest in is a gas can and a funnel for possible future incidents (which we will have to do anyway to check the 'not enough gas' theory).

Anyway, that's my adventure for the day...hopefully this is the last 'big' thing to happen. *knocks on wood*