the price of procrastination...

What is the true price of procrastination? One may never know. But last night, procrastination cost me $14.96 and some grief. "How did you figure that one out?" you may ask. I figured it out because, as I made my mad dash as family chauffer, between picking up DH and making my way to pick up the kids, I ran out of gas. I knew we needed gas in the van and had planned to do it after dropping DH off at choir practice last night, even though I should have done it on Monday night. But, on Monday night, I had to pick up my husband, drop him off at home, pick up the kids, pick my dad up at the train station, drop him off at home and then get ourselves home to have some dinner. After all of that dropping-off and picking-up, I just didn't feel like driving the 10-15 minutes each way that it takes to get to the gas station that we use (it's the closest station that sells E-85). So, I put it off until the next day, following the tried-and-true Procrastinator's Creed: "Why do today, what you can put off 'til tomorrow?" or something to that effect. So, as I said, we were driving between my husband's work and my parents' house. We came to a red light, and stopped. When the light turned green, and it was time to go, the car protested. It started shuddering and I could tell that we were losing power. We made it just past the cross-street and pulled into/ through a parking lot to a side-street behind the store. And then Eubie, our van, died, right in front of someone's driveway, of course. At this point, I am simultaneously counting my blessings and thinking "Crap!" at the same time (oh, wait, that's what simultaneously means, duh!). I'm counting my blessings that A) we made it across the cross-street and out of traffic's way because we were on a very busy street, B) I had already picked my husband up- a double blessing because I had to push the car past the driveway that it was blocking and because I had forgotten to grab my cell phone as we were rushing out of the house that morning, and C) I didn't have to suffer alone. I'm thinking "Crap!" because I wasn't sure that the car died from lack of sustenance, as the "OIL PRESSURE" light came on the dashboard as we started having these problems. I feared an expensive car towing and repair that we could not afford at this juncture. And my mind was racing though our lack of money and up-coming expenses and trying to figure out where even more money was going to come from to tow and fix the van because, as much as I wish we could, we can not live without a car (unless we quit working, quit buying groceries, and stayed home all day- hey! I could live with that!) Anyway, long story short (well, short-er), after much talking on the phone with my parents, weighing options, and figuring logistics (their car only seats 5), the kids and my mom were dropped off at our house and dad came to rescue us. My brilliant dad had the foresight to bring his gas can for the mower, just in case we had run out of gas, and that's how we discovered that yes, indeed, we had run out of gas (I say "we"so that I can at least feel like the blame wasn't all mine, even though DH doesn't drive). "So," you may ask, "How did you arrive at the $14.96 total?" Well, going to the closest gas station to get gas cost $10. Now, since I was going to get gas anyway, I figured that it wasn't fair to count the whole $10 in the "price of procrastination," so I only counted the difference between the cost of regular vs. E-85 (using nice, round numbers, since I don't like math too much). The price between the two is usually about 50-cents, so, figuring I put in just over 3 gallons of regular, instead of E-85, that's a waste of about $1.50. Also, because of all the time wasted on figuring out what to do and doing it, it was well after 6 pm when I got home. DH had to be at choir practice by 7, leaving little time for us to cook and eat before he had to be there. So, this led us down the path to temptation: fast food. At Rax, we spent the rest of the money (as I said, I don't like math... you can figure it out if it makes you feel better) on 10 Jr. Roast Beef sandwiches (99-cents a piece... at least they were on sale!), a large curly fry, 2 cookies (DH's doing, not mine), and a cup of water. And that, dear people, is how procrastination cost me $14.96! In that one instance, it's not so bad, but for chronic procrastinators, just think where those instances will lead...