gas, smoke, mist

My gas tank was close to "E" last evening when I came home from work, but the challenge of entering and exiting the nearest gas station at that time of the day was too much to consider after the day I had. I went on home and stopped this morning to get some gas. Not "fill up" at $3.45 a gallon, but get some and be on my way. As I pulled to a stop at the pump, the Check Gauges light came on - which is pretty good timing on my part.

The car on the other side of the pump caught my eye since the driver had gotten back in the car - which you're really not supposed to do. Even worse, on first glance it appeared she was smoking. I went back to pumping my gas and tried to puzzle that out. Was she really smoking? Should I say something? If I made an issue, would she throw the cigarette out the window of her car, making things worse?

While I was debating this internally, she finished getting her gas and drove off - still smoking. I've never seen anyone do that before and was unprepared - next time, I'm going to say something to them.

Last night, I watched The Mist on DVD. The cover of the box proclaimed it to have "one of the most shocking endings in a movie ever!" Which had me a little puzzled since the book's ending wasn't really all that shocking. But, it's a Stephen King book, so the movie is bound to screw it up somehow.

Surprisingly, it didn't - at least at the beginning. The movie was right on track with the book - scene for scene and shot for shot. Even the dialog was really close. It was well done and encouraging - I was really hoping they wouldn't tack on some cheesy Hollywood ending.

Well, the ending was different from the book. Far, far darker and very disturbing. Uncomfortably so. I was almost wishing for a cheesy happy Hollywood ending. I figured I'd have nightmares about it, but my sleep was untroubled.

that's it for now... later.