This morning I got paid.  Now that my account has money again, the first thing I did this morning before getting to work was to fuel up.  So I leave for work, a tad bit late but that's normal for me... so technically I left on time.  Riding on fumes, seriously, I pulled into the Fred Meyer gas station at 82nd ave & Johnson Creek Blvd.  My wife and I go there all the time because they have relatively priced gas but we also have the little Fred Meyer Reward cards, which knock off 3 cents per gallon.  These days, it's worth it.  

Already at the station was a large pickup truck with a trailer.  Nothing unusual and the attendant seemed to be talking with the guy and walking around the little office in middle of the station.  So I sat there... waiting... waiting... waiting, occasionally looking over my shoulder to see the attendant rummaging thru the office as if he trying to "find" something to do.  Nothing urgent behind it as if to say "I can't find the key to unlock the pumps" but rather "If I act like I don't see him, maybe he'll leave".  All the while, the large truck seems to be filling up.  

While this was all happening, another car pulls up and waits but not too long.  This driver pulled away less than a minute of waiting.  So, I followed suit and we both went across the street to the Conoco.  There, the nice attendant filled up my tank and had me on my way in less than a few minutes.  Satisfied, and now about 10 minutes late to work, I drove past the Fred Meyer station.  Still thinking that there could have been some trouble that the attendant was attending to I expected to see cars standing idly by as the attendant "finished" his imaginary search.  Low and behold, there were 3 cars (the big truck was gone) and one attendant servicing them.  What the fuck?  People, this is just a scant 4 minutes after I left with no service.  Now he's on the ball?  Come on!

The only thing I can think of is that the pickup truck that was there before me was having payment problems and the attendant was running around trying to either get the payment to go thru processing or unlock the cash drawer so that he could make change.  What ever the case, a nice "sorry, we're having some technical difficulties.  If you could bare with me for a couple minutes, I'll be right with you" would have been nice.  

<rant>
Which leads me to wonder why the hell can't I just pump it myself!  I've only been in Oregon for a few years which, like New Jersey, mandates that only gas station attendants can pump gas into your car.  Personally, I enjoy pumping my own gas.  Every time I go to Washington, I look forward to getting gas because I get to do it myself.  If things were different, I wouldn't have sat in my car waiting like an idiot for someone to help me do something that I could essentially do on my own.  
</rant>

Any who, I got my gas and made it to work only a few minutes late.  Do I have a bad taste in my mouth for Fred Meyer gas?  No.  I'll keep going back despite this little incident.  If it happens again, I'm not so sure though.