Filling the Generator

By Tony Vallone story, screenplay, associate producer

At the end of filming last weekend Dan (Producer) and I were on our own returning all the gear we rented. Keep in mind we had a 22 foot truck's worth of equipment. It took all day but the most eventful return by far was the generator. No, not because it was huge and difficult to navigate through LA traffic, but because we had to fill it up prior to returning it.

Now people that have been tuning in for awhile now realize that filling up the generator is something we did every few days in Palo Alto, "so why is Tony building this up?". Well the answer can be found in the following series of camera phone pictures.



So this is the hole for the gas tank. Notice the hole the nozzle is suppose to fit in. This generator also takes gasoline, and I almost screwed up big time when I didn't notice the sign as I held up the diesel pump. All the equipment we've used has been diesel until today, so an honest mistake. Luckily I noticed before any damage was done.



This is the nozzle. It is exactly the same size as the hole. In order to fill up the generator we'd have to "Make it work" by just holding the nozzel up agaist the other hole and hope gas would flow nicely.



"Wait" Dan said, "Why don't we just get a funnel". Luckily for Dan, he made this comment before any gas was pumped, but AFTER I attempted to pump, failing only because of a time out with the fuel system.



There is your paper funnel Dan. Have fun being the one holding it. Anybody that knows exactly how fast and in what shape fuel shoots out of a gas nozzle knows that the smile on Dan's face won't be there for very long



Oh wait, Luis, a man who undoubtedly acted upon seeing Dan and I almost make a very stupid decision, showed us the proper filling procedure.



Oh, it twists off! In our defense we didn't have a wrench. If we did we would have immediately found this solution.