So what constitutes an emergency? Is it only an emergency if you don’t deal with the signs? Could your emergency today be chalked up to stupidity yesterday?
Such were the questions that fluttered through my head just a little after midnight on a cold winter night on a desolate highway. I was making good time driving to my next destination but the cold weather was causing more fuel than normal to be used. I had made this drive many times before with plenty of gas to spare at the end but now the low-fuel light was lit up on the dashboard and I was still about a half-hour away from my destination. Based on the fuel consumption so far, there was no way I would make it to the next big city with all-night gas stations.
I pulled into a small town and right up to a set of gas pumps but the station had been closed for over three hours. I had been driving five hours since my last fill-up and had passed several 24-hour gas stations – not bothering to stop since I was still relatively full. The last three hours of the drive however, not a single gas station was open at this hour.
I carry a CAA (AAA in USA) membership and the car even has a Roadside Assistance guarantee. But I wasn’t on a roadside. And I wasn’t stranded. I was in front of a fuel pump at a gas station that was closed. Was this an emergency or was I here because I wasn’t paying attention earlier?
The sign in the window of the gas station had a number for 24-hour towing. It was a local number and I was guessing that by the size of the town, the tow-truck guy could probably see me from his house. I called the number and in just over ten minutes, my car was being fueled from a jerry-can on the back of the tow truck. Forty dollars (tow truck call) plus the cost of gas and I was on my way in under five minutes.
I realize that I could have called CAA and they would have found someone (maybe the same guy) to come and put gas in my car. Then there’s the requisite paperwork, the verification of membership and the motivation of the driver who has to decide whether he’s in a hurry to jump out of a warm bed on a cold night, bring a can of gas to some schmuck sitting at a gas station and maybe get paid for it a month or two down the road.
I just decided to adapt to my situation and cut out the middle man for expediency. It was late. I was tired. And in fifteen minutes I was on my way. I wasn’t going to expect someone else to bail me out. It wasn’t an emergency. It was simply bad judgment on my part. I created it. I could fix it.
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: How often do you expect others to bail you out of your situation when you are completely capable of handling it yourself? When you expect someone else to fix your predicament, you no longer take ownership of your situation.
Are you taking stock of your situations? Is what you’re going through right now a real emergency or is it just an inconvenience? Are you now expecting someone else to get you out of the predicament you put yourself into?
A flat tire in the middle of nowhere, or a broken fan belt, an overheated car and a dead battery all constitute being an emergency. Then you use the “insurance” you have. Running low on fuel because you ignored the open stations earlier – not an emergency. Fix it yourself. You created it.
Don’t whine “that’s what you pay the membership for.” No it isn’t. You pay the membership to help you out in an emergency - not to come running like a staff of servants whenever you don’t want to do it yourself.
If it’s your mess, and you’re completely capable of fixing it yourself, then fix it. Don’t make someone else do your work just because you can. That’s just selfish. Trust me; you’ll feel better just getting it done yourself.
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