I had to make a trip to Pincher Creek on Thursday night. My car reported that I had 480km of range. That should have gotten me to Pincher Creek and back without any issues. Yeah, no.

I made it back to the Calgary city limits and I ran out of gas. Inconvenient for sure, but, luckily I have AMA (Alberta Motor Association). I called them for fuel which is a free delivery service. The arrived a ataggering 2.5 hours later with my fuel. Apparently, even though Calgary is a city of 1.3 million (or so) people, they have few trucks working overnight. OK, fine. I head home, another 60 or so kilometers.

I got to within 3 kilometers from home and AGAIN, out of fuel. Ridiculous. I call AMA again and this time, it is estimated that it will be nearly 4 hours for someone to get fuel to me. Now, I didn’t fill up in Calgary as I was very short on cash. I decided since I was so close to home that I would walk home with Twix and Apollo. It wasn’t overly cold and it was a pretty good walk.

Friday around Noon or so, I decided to go and retrieve my vehicle, so I put another call into AMA to get fuel delivered. I started on the walk back to the car, but, low and behold, it wasn’t there. Great…

When I got home, I called the Calgary impound lot, hoping my car would be there. It was. Excellent, at least now I know where it is. Can’t get it because, well, I have no money.

7:30pm or so on Friday evening, I get my income tax refund and the impound lot is open until 10pm so I decide to get my vehicle before another day of storage is added to whatever my bill is going to be.

I order an Uber, it’s under $20 so that’s reasonable. I head to the impound lot. My impound fees are $357 which is sort of ridiculous, it’s a pure cash grab. I pay the fees.

I call AMA, again, for fuel and it says they will be there within an hour. OK, fine.

I get a call back from AMA, they can’t refuel a vehicle for whatever reason (not explained to me) in an impound lot, they can only tow out of it. Fine, come and tow me to the nearest gas station. He puts me on hold.

He comes back about 5 minutes later and informs me that they have no trucks available until Saturday. What? You’re bloody AMA and you have ZERO trucks available? What, exactly, am I paying for?

Lukcily, there is a flat bed truck right beside the impound lot and I get him to flatbed my car to the nearest gas station, less than 5km away. That bill is $126. Sigh. At least AMA will reimburse me for that towing fee.

I put in $88 of gas in the car. Yes, $88 somehow fit into the tank. Now, it was bone dry but come on, gas is a bit ridiculously expensive right now. Sigh, again.

So, I have my car with a full tank of gas and I am out of pocked, what:

$20 for an Uber. $357 impound fees. $126 for towing. $88 for gas.

Yesterday was an expensive day.