Tales from the convenience store part two

[Roland]

OK this one is about directions. It seems that every so often someone will ignore the directions they printed out and they want me to tell them how to get to some minor road in a part of town I never go to.
Well. To be perfectly honest I'd like to reenact the scene with the doctor from the hangover
Since I'd get fired for that, it would be nice if I could say that convenience store jobs are basically retail positions now. Gas just happens to be one of the things we sell. The skill set of the people working inside has more in common with say a Target than that of an old full service gas station.
Answers to car oriented questions or specific directions to an obscure part of town aren't on the list of things you can expect to get.
I had a woman come in one day looking for help changing a tire. I went out, because no man worth his salt should leave a woman in the lurch in that kind of situation but that fits in with what I'm talking about.
I'm not a gas station attendant in 1974.

[Slave to the Phone]

Any woman should be able to change her own tire. Yes, you will get your hands dirty, but what if it happens on the side of the road in a bad part of town? Do you really want to walk around looking for someone to help you? I'm speaking as a woman here. Changing a tire isn't that hard.

As to the directions...I tell them the truth. Hubs and I came to an agreement many years ago: if we are going somewhere and I'm telling him how to get there and we get lost...its HIS fault because he KNOWS better than to listen to me.

[sirwired]

When my wife was growing up, her dad refused to let her or her sisters get a license until they could successfully change a tire. Too bad he skipped out on other lessons, like "what to do if the oil light tuns on." (My wife fried the engine of one of her family's AMC Gremlins to learn that lesson.)

[MoonCat]

I had friends who would always say they should stop at a gas station to get directions if they got lost. I tried telling them that this wasn't the 50s anymore and they shouldn't assume the employees would do that. The only time I know that it worked for them (my sister & I were with them) was when we were trying to get back to the Peace Bridge coming back from seeing "Lord of the Dance" in Toronto and kept ending up on the wrong road. We stopped at a gas station and the guy explained that in order to go west, you first had to go east (WTF, Canada??) until you got to the right turn-off which would then take you west.

[notalwaysright]

We stopped at a gas station and the guy explained that in order to go west, you first had to go east (WTF, Canada??) until you got to the right turn-off which would then take you west.

Not just Canada... Coming back from Portland, OR I asked for directions, no smart phone. Conversation went like this, "you want to go north, how far north?" Okay, so you get on *I think it was 405* west until you hit I-5." So I had to go west to go north, but only if I wanted to go really FAR north. I have no idea what they'd have said if I only wanted a little north...

[NecessaryCatharsis]

We stopped at a gas station and the guy explained that in order to go west, you first had to go east (WTF, Canada??) until you got to the right turn-off which would then take you west.

Directions here sometimes don't work. There's a spot in Ontario where you can be on 6 North, 21 South and 10th St West simultaneously. I blame the wandering north pole.

I also once got lost in a strange city and stopped at two different gas stations on the same street to ask them where a particular street was, but neither employee knew. Despite me finding the street a bit later - it was the same one both gas stations were on . I don't know if they really didn't know or thought I was having them on, but I decided to take that in and feel less stupid for not knowing myself. And decided not to stop and ask directions at gas stations anymore.

[earl colby pottinger]

But

I had friends who would always say they should stop at a gas station to get directions if they got lost.

But it works for me all the time.

Whenever I am lost I stop in the first Gas station I see and buy a local map.

Works every time.

[Sapphire Silk]

Any woman should be able to change her own tire. Yes, you will get your hands dirty, but what if it happens on the side of the road in a bad part of town? Do you really want to walk around looking for someone to help you? I'm speaking as a woman here. Changing a tire isn't that hard.

As to the directions...I tell them the truth. Hubs and I came to an agreement many years ago: if we are going somewhere and I'm telling him how to get there and we get lost...its HIS fault because he KNOWS better than to listen to me.

Learning to change a tire was required by my Dad when I was learning to drive. Ditto changing the oil (which I never do because I can get it done for the same cost at the shop as doing it myself).

And I've never been rescued by the side of the road, so it's a good thing I know how to do these things.

[EvilEmpryss]

I'm a disabled woman, and I can still change my own tire if I can't or won't wait for my roadside assistance to get to me. The Evil Princess will be getting her license within the year and already knows she'll be learning the same so she doesn't have to depend on anyone else. She's free to choose to, but she shouldn't need to.

Down with learned helplessness in all it's forms!

[dalesys]

...Down with learned helplessness in all it's forms!

Look at my current siggie Learned helplessness is most acidulously taught.

[RealUnimportant]

Lo these 25 years past, I was working in a gas station and had some one pull in to ask if I could help put air in their tyre as it had gone flat... They'd kerbed it so hard that it had not just broken the beading (the seal between rim & tyre) but dented the rim enough that it would need replacing, as repairing it wouldn't be economical...

Also had a guy ask me how to open the gas cap on his new rare sports car, like I'd have any more clue than him just because I pumped gas!

[Golden Phoenix]

I tend to ask for directions at a post office, a takeaway shop (assuming it's late enough for them to be open) or, if i find one, a taxi company office.

My logic is that all three of these are likely to know the area and where i'm looking for. It hasn't steered me wrong yet.

We did once have to get directions from a petrol station attendant, we got lost in central london, trying to get back to Lincolnshire after a Convention. The attendant gave an apologetic shrug and said policy was that he could only help if we purchased a map first. It wasn't expensive, so I did, and he and a taxi driver friend marked us out a route out of the city. *phew!* We'd been lost for over an hour by that point and were starting to feel like we'd be stuck there forever.

[Seanette]

Any woman should be able to change her own tire. Yes, you will get your hands dirty, but what if it happens on the side of the road in a bad part of town? Do you really want to walk around looking for someone to help you? I'm speaking as a woman here. Changing a tire isn't that hard.

As to the directions...I tell them the truth. Hubs and I came to an agreement many years ago: if we are going somewhere and I'm telling him how to get there and we get lost...its HIS fault because he KNOWS better than to listen to me.

I know the procedure to change a tire, but lack the lifting ability to wrestle tires/wheels around. We have good roadside assist.

My sense of direction is pathetic. I can get lost with a map in my hand. No, I don't think it's because I'm female, it's just an individual weakness. Love that GPS (but I'm annoyed with Waze for taking out the voice I actually liked).

I was once helping a friend move, and the directions to her new place I'd gotten from Mapquest just didn't work. I stopped at a pizza place and asked the counter guy for directions. Once he stopped laughing at Mapquest (it had, among other problems, told me to go to an intersection that did not exist), he very kindly gave me correct directions.

[greek_jester]

Any woman should be able to change her own tire. Yes, you will get your hands dirty, but what if it happens on the side of the road in a bad part of town? Do you really want to walk around looking for someone to help you? I'm speaking as a woman here. Changing a tire isn't that hard.

I am able to jack up the car, remove the nuts (by standing on the spanner), and get the new tyre out of the boot, but I am not strong enough to lift the tyre and control it well enough to get it lined up to the screws. Last time I ended up calling my stepdad out to finish the job. So no, any woman cannot change a tyre. The knowledge is there, but the flesh is inadequate.

[sstabeler]

We did once have to get directions from a petrol station attendant, we got lost in central london, trying to get back to Lincolnshire after a Convention. The attendant gave an apologetic shrug and said policy was that he could only help if we purchased a map first. It wasn't expensive, so I did, and he and a taxi driver friend marked us out a route out of the city. *phew!* We'd been lost for over an hour by that point and were starting to feel like we'd be stuck there forever.

Yeah, that can happen. Best advice is to use public transport if it's an option- yo save having to deal with the Congestion Charge, and it's actually probably quicker, especially when you factor in that parking can be a bitch to find at times.