Click and Clack

Have I got a story for the Car Talk guys. Last weekend I got out to the house pretty late and didn't feel like stopping to fill my car's almost empty gas tank. Next day the propane tank guys showed up and needed me to get my car out of the way, so I backed it up and, in squeezing past their trucks, got the whole passenger side of the car up on the side of the hill along the driveway. Fine. Next night when it's time to leave, I can't start the car (presumably the tiny bit of gas I had left all sloshed to one side of the tank and couldn't make it to the gas line). So after spending far too much time and effort trying to push my car off the side of the hill (the front tire was in the ditch line along the side of the driveway and I couldn't budge it), I walked down my 1/4 mile long driveway and over to a neighbor's house, who lent me his car to drive over to the gas station (thanks Jerry).

Now here's where I'm an idiot. I fill my 5 gallon gas can and drive back home, where my first attempt to get gas into my car is a disaster (the gas cap is on the driver's side, which is at maybe a 30 degree angle to the ground, and I can't get the gas to do anything other than spill down the side of the car. It occurs to me that the spout of the gas can is not depressing the little hinged flange that a nozzle at the gas station would open. So I find a stick to open it; gas goes in no problem...

But I forget about the stick. It takes a couple of minutes to get all the gas into the tank, I put the gas cap back on, start up the car, return my neighbors car, get a ride back up to my house (thanks Foley), hop in my car and go straight to the gas station to fill the rest of the tank. Where I cannot figure out why the nozzle won't go into the tank. Until I realize there's a stick in it. Which I can't get out. Cause probably five inches of it were stuck past the flange, and maybe a half inch was left sticking out. Which of course I couldn't grasp, much less pull out. After spending too much time trying to remove it, I gave up and pushed it the rest of the way in.

I assume it'll just float around in my gas tank until it dissolves, fouling my engine a little at a time. This car will probably die of something much sooner that this stick can do much damage. But I have no idea...and how often do you have a good story for Car Talk?