I entered my Priceline gas card into the pump just as I would my credit card.  I was then prompted to enter my special code.  It took me three attempts to get it accepted.  When the prompt appeared, a single digit appeared.  It so happens that this digit matched the first digit of my code, so it was unclear whether I was to enter in the first digit of my code or not.  In my first attempt at entering my code, I chose not to enter it.  The digits that I entered did not match my code and I was not authorized yet to start pumping gas.  The second time around, I chose to ignore the digit that appeared and elected to type in the first digit of my code.  As I was typing, the system "feedback" did not indicate that it had read one of the digits that I had entered and, subsequently, I entered this digit again (i.e., except for one digit, a "*" appeared after I entered each digit of my code through the keypad).  Again, the digits that I had entered did not match my special code and I was not authorized to pump my gas.  On my third try, I decided to ignore both the single digit that appeared during the prompt and the system "feedback;" I entered each digit of my special code exactly once.  Voila, I was in as the screen directed me to pump my gas.

I entered 18.873 gallons of gas into my car.  Had I been paying the listed pump price of $1.819 per gallon, the total charge would have been $34.33.  At a "my" pump price of $1.66 per gallon, however, my total charge was $31.33.  I do not necessarily consider my savings at the pump to equal $3.00 ($34.33 - $31.33) because I would have gone to my discount gas station today where the pump price was probably $1.749 (I do not know for sure as I did not drive by to check); my total charge would have been $33.01 at this price.  I base my savings on this price -- approximately $1.68 ($33.01 - $31.33).  After I placed the nozzle back on the pump, a receipt was printed in a format nearly identical to that which would have been printed had I used my credit card.

I'm not expecting any problems entering my code during the next time that I purchase gas at the Texaco station at "my" price.  Entering the code was a very simple act to perform in order to pay $1.66 per gallon.  Patronizing this station was not inconvenient because a) it is a station at which I regularly purchase gasoline and it is located near our house.

Father in Law does not pay MSRP
Not that this should add any pressure or embarrassment to me in my Odyssey purchase planning, however, my father in law told me this evening that he recently began to dabble with a home computer.  In addition, he used the Internet as part of his new car purchase process.  The bottom line is that he spent $2,500 dollars less on a new car when using the resources available on the Internet than he would have had he not used the Internet (i.e., he car shopped the old fashioned way before using the Internet and found that his final cash expenditure based on an Internet-involved purchase process was $2500 less than the best deal he could have obtained when using the old fashioned way).
 

Luis Castillo RBI Watch (Through August 6, 2000)

Number of Hits......Batting Average......Number of RBI......Runs Scored
......128.......................367............................9........................73

Luis is still injured and did not play as the Marlins downed the Reds for a sweep of their three game series.  I hope that he has not incurred a serious injury as he is having a great year and is on the verge of a historic rbi performance.