I am a very impressive maximizing Home member. I’m also humble enough to keep this information to myself, but in this particular case if I don’t tell people about it they won’t know about it - and if we’re all being honest with ourselves, who wants that? This is how awesome I am:

The car that I used yesterday to make a trip to a place far, far away was scraping empty when I left home. I filled it up on my way out with my last $15, rendering myself penniless for the remainder of the trip. By the time I got home the car was scraping empty again due to the many miles we had conquered together, coupled with unimpressive MPG. Now although we have a home rule of not bringing the car back under half-tank, (just like Grandpa says) since I was out of money and had already put gas in the car once, I would have been off the hook with a plausible case to plead at Home Council should the need arise to defend myself. But I am not a minimizer, neither am I a maintainer. I am a maximizer.

What I did was go through the not-so-speedy process of extracting money from the gas budget out of my father; and if you’ve ever lived with my father you’ll know that when you ask him for something, he will usually give it to you but not before he tells you in detail and usually in some length (while remaining very respectful of you as a person), a better way to do whatever it is that you’re doing at the moment. I do not resent him for this for he is a wise man and I have much to learn from him. But it did add a full eight or nine minutes to my mission of Doing The Right Thing.

In the end, after braving the busy post-work streets of my fair city and filling up the car, I spent a total of 34 minutes out of a sunny Thursday afternoon doing absolutely nothing but The Right Thing. Though I may not receive any recognition for it on this earth, great will be my reward in that better place.