My fun for the morning

Above is a photo of our two 2-gallon gasoline containers in which we obtain and keep gasoline for our lawn mower - as they appeared after I bought gasoline this morning. Notice the difference? I have zero idea where the yellow cap for the spout of the container on the right might be. It disappeared while I was inside pre-paying for the gasoline. I have a remembrance of the cap's being on the spout when I placed it on the concrete preparing to buy the gasoline; which, of course, does not mean that it was actually there. After preparing the containers for filling, however, the credit card reader on the pump had been cranky necessitating my going inside to pre-pay. When I came back to the pump, lo and behold, no cap. I checked the trunk of my car, under my car, all around on the concrete - no cap. I drove, carefully, the mile home. I checked around the garage floor and in the little red wagon (Bogie's) in which we keep the gasoline containers. Nothing.

Off to the local Ace Hardware I went...bought another 2-gallon gasoline container...got it home. As purchased, the spout was inverted into the container. 

 

The photo below shows the new can after I had struggled with it.

Notice the white lettering on a black background at the bottom of the label in the above photo. It says, "Peel Back Label For Instructions". It was a struggle peeling back that label as there was no divisible edge cut at that corner - the layer with the instructions was completely encapsulated by the label. I finally ripped the label from the can to work on it. Surely enough, eventually I was able to separate the two layers.

OMG: They've made the container so safe that it's a life's work to use it! After a lot of dark thoughts I was able to fill the container from the capless one and get the spout on, set for storage. One problem. The instructions (Step A) has one remove the dust cap for storage. Note that the arrow (Illustration B) points to nothing resembling a "dust cap". After coming inside, I emptied my pockets. Aha! The little disk that had been between the inverted spout and the black screw cap. In the photo of the new container, the dust cap can be seen as the little red disk at the discharge end of the spout.

And did I tell you? The locking tab on the black screw cap is STIFF. I nearly despaired of being able to deform/depress it enough to clear the locking stop. In my days as an aircraft mechanic in the US Navy Reserves, I thought that we had a gorilla around tightening things. Someone thinks we lawn owners are gorillas.

Never fear, something went right. As I approached the Ace Hardware counter to pay for the new container, I espied jars of Beer Nuts - among Hunky Husband's favorite snacks - since forever. He got addicted to them while working part-time at a bar while we were in school.

I used the Beer Nuts (Wikipedia) to bribe HH into saying, "There, there" and soothing me as I was telling him my sad tale of woe. He had been occupied doing the laundry during my trials.

Comments

[bogie]

I've had similar gas cans since moving here except they don't have that red rod. Mine have a twist action to unlock. Unfortunately the safety system does not make it easy and that black tab is extremely stiff. I seriously have no idea how the regular Jane is supposed to use one without resorting to tools (large slip-joint pliers in my case). After a couple of years it does relax and become easier.

Most of my cans have the internal dust cap but I have one with an external. That sucker seemed to be welded on when I bought it, and once again I had to use tools to remove it. I think I deliberately lost the cap in frustration because it was just as difficult to get back on.

[Roberta X]

Modern gas cans are a serious challenge. I'm not a fan.

[Cop Car]

Bogie--As strong as you are I'm surprised that you, too, experience such problems. I don't know if you recall, or ever read, Millie Garfield at Thoroughly Modern Millie. She, at age 96, has her son do her blogging for her these days at My Mom's Blog by Thoroughly Modern Millie. On a sidebar of her blog is included the link to I Can't Open It which comprises videos that Millie has made, over the years, about things she could not open - lambasting the people responsible for such hard-to-open stuff.

Roberta--We designed aircraft for the 5-95 percentile; but, that was based on males until relatively recently. I doubt that the 5% male would have an easy time with the gas cans.

[Joared]

Well, thank heavens for the beer nuts to stimulate HH to give you comfort! Clearly you need some after the gasoline can saga. In these days of all sorts of chicanery, I think it's quite clear that someone stole your gas can's cap while you were inside settling affairs. You should have immediately got on the case, tracking down the surrounding area for any suspicious looking people. Oh well, I guess you can't do everything.

[Cop Car]

You are welcome to come track down the thief, Joared. Thanks for the giggle.

[Ingineer66]

Long time no visit, but I am glad to see things are going well for you. The gas caps have gotten so complicated that some companies sell replacement”water” nozzles that you can put on gas cans.

[Cop Car]

Ah, Ingineer, you saved me the effort of starting a search for you, thanks. If I get to the place where I can no longer cope with the gas cap (I've placed an old pair of pliers next to the cans in the little red wagon), I'll look for a water nozzle to fit. Thanks for the suggestion. I wasn't aware since I had never, ever bought a gas can, before. That had been in HH's department at the time the last two cans were purchased - sometime while he was living in KS and I in NM or FL. I didn't own a lawn mower while living outside KS.