"I've done smarter things"
Don't you just love it when things just work out?
“I’ve done smarter things.” (Me to myself after I do something that could've ended badly but didn't.)
On one of my many drives around the United States, this time driving between Utah to southern California, I was in The Zone. Thinking about my business, about where I wanted to move or travel next, about my clients, and probably the last Dateline podcast episode I’d listened to. You know, the usual.
Something nudged me to look down at my gas range, and I was down to an impressively low nine miles. In what sure appeared to be the middle-of-nowhere-Nevada on a 107º day.
Not optimistic about my options, I searched for gas stations along my route and was profoundly relieved to see there was a gas station eight miles ahead. It proved to be not a very nice one, but it was a fuel station with—what do you know—fuel. I gassed up and got back on the road, resolved to be a more diligent gas range checker. And I have been.
Don’t you just love it when things from small to big “just work out”? Of course, when they don’t go quite as expected you do get stories. But the times when you almost landed in a pickle—and didn’t—are memorable in their own way.
I’m curious: What’s something small or big that’s “just worked out” for you, even when you, like me, have also done smarter things?
P.S. You know that I try to not give a lot of advice in this “slice of life” column, but I’m going to break out of character: Don’t let yourself get as scarily close to empty as I did here. Or multiple other times in my criss-cross roadtripping around the United States. You’ll thank me.