One hour...

That will teach me to leave the house...
I have a lot to do this week: get reimbursed for my plane tickets, get Shaun's cost of living allowance switched from a single person to a family of four, look into home insurance just in case an earthquake does more than just shake the house a little... All sorts of things. So, I decided to get a jump on my errands and run out first thing in the morning. I left around 10 and gave myself an hour to get as much as I could done and be back to start lunch.
What a horrible hour.
I decided to get the financial stuff done first. I had a vague idea of where the building was and I knew the building number so I didn't think it would be too difficult to find. I got lost. No idea where I was. I wandered a bit more, found a familiar place and backtracked a little.
Then I noticed my gas gauge. New priority: find a gas station.
Back home the gas station was connected to the Shoppette. So I wandered in the direction of the Shoppette. Found it successfully but they didn't have a gas station. I went in and asked the first person I saw for directions. It was a good thing too because I hadn't thought of wandering in that direction.
I pulled in and discovered the gas cap was on the other side of the car. Tried again and discovered that the gas cap couldn't be opened from the outside. I spent five minutes looking in logical places for the lever until I gave up and found the car manual.
It was in Japanese.
I looked at pictures until I found one with an arrow pointing to the gas cap and found the corresponding page. The picture for the lever was so vague it could have been anywhere. More searching in logical places. In the process I found all sorts of nifty storage places. Eventually I found it hidden under the seat.
At this point I go into autopilot. Filling a car up with gas is something I've done many times. It's not hard. You can't really screw it up. Or so I thought.
I was planning the rest of my day when a woman at another pump innocently asked me if my car ran on diesel. I froze. I had put 3.5 gallons of diesel in my car. I was pretty sure my car didn't run on diesel. What should I do? I didn't know what would happen if you put diesel in a non-diesel vehicle. Would it still run? Had I just ruined my car?
Luckily there was a repair shop connected to the gas station. I went in and explained what I had done, feeling like no one could be that stupid. I was told they were booked with appointments, were short on mechanics and it would probably take all day to get around to fixing my car.
I was on the verge of tears. I got the kids and set up camp in the lobby. How was I going to get through the day? I had only packed the essentials for a one hour trip: one diaper per kid, no toys, no food. I didn't know anyone, didn't know how to get in touch with Shaun and I had no way of leaving until my car got fixed. Could I carry two children to the Burger King I passed on my way here when they got hungry? The shop had no air conditioning... Hobbit was going to get hot and Hobbette was going to get thirst... Things were looking pretty bleak.
And then an angel offered to take me home. Her youngest was a few months older than Hobbette so we only needed to grab one of my car seats from my car. She lives in the building across the street from mine and said she knew what it was like to get somewhere new and not know anyone.
That woman is getting brownies.