rynner said:On the whole, timeslip seems almost simpler.
You've got to love that. Only on the FT forum could a timeslip be a simpler explanation for something. :lol:
rynner said:On the whole, timeslip seems almost simpler.
graylien said:Perhaps we're just characters on some sort of incomprehensible board game played by the gods.
God 1: Your throw, God 2. I don't fancy your character's chances much. He's stuck out in the middle of nowhere with no gas.
God 2: Enough with the gloating already. I haven't lost yet!
(God 2 rolls dice)
God 2: A six! He moves his character forward six squares. Aha! A Chance square!
(A shimmering pack of cards materialises beside God 2)
Banker: God 2 - you may draw a single card from the top of the pack.
God 1 (looking angrily at banker) I swear you're making up these rules as you go along! Chance square, indeed!
God 2 (draws card, turns it over and reads it): Aha! Magic Gas Station! How do you like them apples, God 1?
God 1: That's so unfair! Some people have all the luck!
God 2: We are but the pawns of fate, God 1. Roll with the punches. The game's not over yet...
minordrag said:Marvelous story. The very reason I love this board.
Aouroborous, you said you noticed car care products in the man's "store." Did they seem contemporary?
Red diesel is still used for farm equipment and for certain aspects of the haulage industry, to this day.Mythopoeika said:In the UK, petrol of this description was on sale for quite some time after WWII. As far as I can remember, a strongly coloured dye was added to it.?
rynner said:There are also Guardian Angel stories who save people in much more dire situations than just 'running out of gas'!joelarkins1 said:I have always thought that just when you really really need something, someone / thing will make it turn up. It would never appear if you weren't desperate, but on those special rare occasions, something helps you out.
The problem with all these stories is why do some get lucky and have a Handy Helper behind them, while millions of others suffer all kinds of horrible tribulations? To say that some are helped or saved from death because they have an important destiny to fulfill seems too much like tinkering with history to me. Perhaps the original destiny was not too well planned, and the HHs are just trouble-shooters sent in to tidy up the loose ends? (Like programmers trying to debug a program or website... )
On the whole, timeslip seems almost simpler.
Or, all of the above!
AMPHIARAUS said:If your 'shed' had flourescent lights that would put it post 1948/49 as European production of flourescents began then. Turtle wax I think is mid 50s onwards - I've no idea when it was imported into sweden.
AMPHIARAUS said:Was that the only tarmac surface through the woods? Could there have been another?
Aouroborous said:Like, on the other end of the township, there´s a road without beginning or end. It´s just a 3-km stretch of tarmac that´s been left over when the roads were redrawn in the 80´s. It just lies there in the fields, unconnected to any other road on both ends. As far as I kan see from a map, it´s the straightest path from A to B, but the new road has been built in a curve around it.......strange, no? I need to check this, as well.
graylien said:Interesting point. So by serving dodgy fuel, the phantom gas station was actually perhaps deliberately drawing attention to itself?
He'd have run out of fuel and had to walk home...?hokum6 said:Who knows what might have happened had you not stopped? :shock:
Well, that's certainly food for thought, though it wasn't the point I was actually trying to make with my rather vague post. What I meant to say was that Amphiaruas was probably right to suggest that if the gas station had served you normal fuel, you wouldn't have thought any further about the incident. It was only the fact that your car reacted badly to the fuel that kept the incident in your mind, and led to you taking it into the repair shop - only to discover that there actually was no gas station.Aouroborous said:And if so, to what purpose? Maybe I narrowly missed some accident or incident that I didn´t even see, yes?
That's the Cosmic Joker hypothesis.graylien said:So, did the gas station actually want you to know that it was a phantom? And if so - to what end? To broaden your mind? Or simply for the pleasure of baffling you?
i wonder if the garage owner ever kept a diary?
and he wrote a bout the day he had a weird encounter. and kept the money?
markbellis said:If Sweden's like the countries that I've done research in, the Kommun's Land Registry should have a map showing all the lot numbers along that road - the registry should have files that tell you who was there going back years - it may not have any listing for a gas station, since what you are describing sounds like just a personal pump - probably no one remembers it as a gas station, just as a pump next to a shed - you don't mention any signs like "Shell" and the man didn't even have a cash register, just a receipt book - if there was a VAT number on the receipt you could trace him with this.
It's easy to forget where a small thing like the shed was, since you didn't have any reason to remember its location until the stale gas started fouling your engine - and if the pump was chained up and there was only stale gas in it, that says the owner had stopped selling gas years ago.
One possibilty is that little man in the cap, let's call him Uncle Ole, had Alzheimer's and didn't remember how old the gas was and just sold you what he had left - let's say his nephew Sven was working in the barn when you came and decided to take down the sign and remove the pump from the base because he didn't want Ole pumping any more stale gas into unsuspecting passersby's tanks.
Best,
Mark
I think I might steal that for my next sig...!meowfur said:Sorta like the best of Mulder AND Scully.
rynner said:I think I might steal that for my next sig...!meowfur said:Sorta like the best of Mulder AND Scully.
On the other hand, being gnarly is so me! 8)
markbellis said:If Sweden's like the countries that I've done research in, the Kommun's Land Registry should have a map showing all the lot numbers along that road - the registry should have files that tell you who was there going back years - it may not have any listing for a gas station, since what you are describing sounds like just a personal pump - probably no one remembers it as a gas station, just as a pump next to a shed - you don't mention any signs like "Shell" and the man didn't even have a cash register, just a receipt book - if there was a VAT number on the receipt you could trace him with this.
It's easy to forget where a small thing like the shed was, since you didn't have any reason to remember its location until the stale gas started fouling your engine - and if the pump was chained up and there was only stale gas in it, that says the owner had stopped selling gas years ago.
One possibilty is that little man in the cap, let's call him Uncle Ole, had Alzheimer's and didn't remember how old the gas was and just sold you what he had left - let's say his nephew Sven was working in the barn when you came and decided to take down the sign and remove the pump from the base because he didn't want Ole pumping any more stale gas into unsuspecting passersby's tanks.
Best,
Mark
BluePoppy2 said:[Auro - this was a great story and since I read it, I've been mulling it over for the past few days. I can't think of an explanation not already discussed here, but am def coming down on the side of a time slip. However, if that is so - why would tbe fuel be stale? I mean that if you had slipped back in time/dimension, surely the fuel in that time would be fresh and you would have brought back 'fresh' stuff with you. The only explanation to me is that the fuel was ok for THEM, but not compatlible with OUR technology. N'est pas?