I pulled into a very busy gas station the other day. Half the islands had orange cones out because they only had one worker to man the other three islands. Every spot was either taken or the one open pump I could go to I would have had to turn the car around to line up with my tank. So I chose a single pump in a middle island where a red car was in the process of a fill-up. I would pull up once they left.

Their pump clicked off and I saw the gas attendant notice but not come over. Then I saw why.

There was no one in the car.

There was a convenience store and instead of staying with their car and then parking elsewhere to go inside they did what too many morons do across the state. Which is treat the gas pump like their private parking spot.

Now I wondered how long this would be so I timed it.

Three minutes.

Windshield view of an angry driver man. Negative human emotions face expression
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Out comes this woman with her roughly 9-year-old son just taking their sweet old time, no hustle. The attendant who had used his time on a chaotically busy day more wisely saw them coming and removed the pump from their car before the driver even got behind the wheel. She wanted no receipt.

After waiting three minutes for this princess to get her shopping done I figured she’d move out seeing someone, specifically me, was waiting for the pump. She put her seat belt on then sat there. And sat there. So I started timing this too.

Then I see her pull out her phone. I was annoyed but kept waiting as I kept an eye on the time. I figured maybe she's using a Waze app and was setting up an address. But then I see her finger swiping casually as if she were flipping through photos.

Finally when it got to the two minute mark (and realize that's on top of the three minutes she was still inside the store after the pump clicked off) I finally blew my horn.

Photo of driver honking in traffic on the road
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Her head shot up to her rearview mirror and I motioned that I was needing her to pull up so I could get gasoline. Her eyes instantly turned to daggers and she gave me the middle finger.

Now process that for a moment. I sat there for five full minutes, the three she was in the store shopping using the pump as her parking space plus the two she was lingering without moving after being all done with her transaction. And when I finally brought her attention to the fact that she was in my way she gestured f*** you to me.

So being the rationale gentleman I am in the context of the unpleasant situation I found myself in I returned the gesture to her with both hands. Then waved at her to move but not politely this time. Then, I swear to God, like a child making an ugly scowling face she shook her head no. She was conveying that now she was going to sit there even longer as punishment for me pointing out her making an obstacle of herself.

I turned my engine back on and started driving at her car half-convinced I might just bump her with the mood I was now in. When I was about 1/32 of an inch away she hurriedly, finally moved.

What an ass.

Don’t be the selfish dope who leaves your car unattended at the gas pump to go inside the store. They have parking spaces for that. Use them. Don’t be an ass.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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