excerpt from book (The Collected Regrets of Clover) I am reading: 'If you want something you don't have,' he'd said 'you have to do something you've never done' I have always heard it the opposite way (If You Always Do What You've Always Done, You'll Always Get What You've Always Got), and the above is far more inspiring.

Some good ones today - thanks, folks! ole joyfuelled - hoping some of you other readers got a shot of such fuelling, as well. Low cost - and lots of miles per gallon/(litre)!

Some time ago when I was hitchhiking near my home in a rural area, when a woman who had come to an indigenous settlement nearby to get lower cost gas stopped and asked me whether, if she was willing to share her car with me for a few minutes, would I promise not to hurt her and when I'd said that if she didn't hurt me, I promised not to hurt her, she let.me in the car. When she stopped at a traffic signal in a village nearby, there wasn't room between the front of her car and the one ahead for two people to walk side by side through there - and my rear end was trying to push itself backintothebackof my seat. I said that, while it was not a good idea for some old guy who'd damaged his car beyond repair in a collision, and lost his licence, to be offering advice about driving I had a suggestion I thought to be worthy of consideration. In the probably million to one or so probability that a vehicle coming up behind didn't stop - guaranteed one repair job needed for her car. If there were some space between her car and the vehicle ahead, a possibility of getting stopped before a collision. But if less than three feet or so - second collision pretty well guaranteed ... requiring a second repair job on her car (or maybe even scrap it). She said that my idea was worth thinking about. When I told this story later to a group of men, one said "If you'd told that to me - I'd have told you to get out and walk!". When a retired paratrooper who's active in our church came to get some lower cost gas nearby and came to pick me up en route to the old guys' coffee time there on Thursday, when I told this story to him, he said "Don't try telling a man how to drive!". Possibly the driver in the story above, sharing a ride on the way to work, so feeling unable to kick a passenger out in that situation, had chosen a second best alternative? ole joyful

Rusty