gasless in illinois

i ran out of gas yesterday in the busy intersection of a two lane highway, successfully blocking up traffic for close to forty minutes until the tow truck came with the five gallon container of gas and the bill for fifty bucks. this was highly damaging to my reputation of being diligent about these sorts of things, but, in my defense, the 'check gages' light never went on. i wanted to scream this out the window to those irritated drivers who glared and gave me the horn. "i was never warned," i wanted to testify in my defense. "why can't you be nice?" instead, i said nothing; chris and i smoked a cigarette to pass the time and thought about calling the tow truck guy and telling him to bring a pizza while he was at it. maybe a bottle of pepsi.

eventually, we got to our destination, which was a condo complex in lake in the hills. the search for affordable housing continues with much lower expectations and a map that now includes mchenry county. mchenry county, county slogan, "it'll take you forever to get anywhere." secondary slogan, "don't expect anyone to visit you. ever."

at least the condo complex was close to gas stations.