One of Klara’s favorite stories that I made up is about a car called Ellie who became friends with a truck called Truckie and he treated her to his favorite meal of diesel fuel. Of course, that made Ellie sick, and she couldn’t run anymore. I told this story to Klara about a million times.
So guess who’s the idiot that fueled her car with diesel? Yes, that would be me.
In my defense, I was sleepy, distracted, in a rush, and there was icy wind with a gust of snow blowing in my face, so I didn’t see what I was sticking into the poor vehicle. And yes, the fuel thingy didn’t fit into the opening very well but I’m a Soviet person. I forced it in.
Of course, the car died in the middle of the road. We have extremely polite, patient drivers in this region, so nobody even honked at me. Instead, people stopped and some kind gentlemen pushed the car manually into a parking lot. It was a narrow, one-lane street but nobody got impatient. In Ukraine, I would have gotten every kind of abuse hurled at me for doing this early in the morning when everybody is going to work. But here I got nothing but kindness.
I feel excruciatingly stupid. But also happy to be surrounded by such great people.
Clarissa's Blog 
I did not know it was possible to put diesel fuel into a car. The nozzle for diesel fuel is larger than the one for unleaded gasoline, so the delivery pipe won’t fit into the car’s fueling port. Am I missing something?
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“That’s pretty metaphorical”
Yes. the Eastern European mentality (she says as much).
It can certainly cause problems but there are times when the “I dont’ care if it doesn’t fit… shove, errghh. shovee…. there!” attitude is invaluable.
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It’s the story of my life. When something doesn’t work, it doesn’t occur to me that maybe it’s not supposed to. My first instinct is to make it work against its will.
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Somebody in Russia told a story of a dainty, very feminine houseguest who grabbed a wrong key and tried to lock the door with it. After a long and painful struggle, she won. The door got locked. Only a Soviet woman is capable of these feats.
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You are right, it didn’t fit. But I overpowered it and forced it in. Yes, it was moronic.
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I know people who have used the garden hose to put water into both radiator and engine oil reservoir while undistracted at home, and politicians who are in charge of reasonably important things who have also put the wrong fuel into the expensive vehicle that they bought using corrupt money.
So maybe don’t worry about it too much 🙂
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Thank you! What a kind thing to say. And it does help me feel better about it.
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