Pages

Monday, May 21, 2012

OH.MY.GOD.


I know the average American has their eye on gas prices. It's been climbing non-stop for the last few years. To the point where gas pumps actually cut people off at $75 (or it's the bank . . . or both) while gassing up. And for some, this is maybe half a tank. 

I doesn't cost me quite that much to gas up, but I do have an SUV, so it's not overly cheap to gas up either. It gets pretty decent gas mileage, it drives great, and it's what I use to deliver our publication on my route - so it has a decent storage capacity.

Living in the middle of nowhere typically means higher gas prices, simply because it costs more to transport it to the middle of nowhere. Living in a big city usually means high prices, because . . . because . . . there are more suckers in a square radius that need to fill up? God only knows. All we do know is that gas prices will probably cause more heart attacks than red meat.

Last weekend, my grandmother K, surprised me by giving me Mother's Day and Monday off to go visit family. On my way out of town I stopped at a store to get a bag for my mom's present, as I didn't have anything left that didn't say Merry Christmas or Happy Birthday. I saw the price of gas at the Shell station next to the store and nearly wrecked my precious car from choking.


Now, I know that our little corner of CA is not the most expensive gas in the state, but it sure as hell feels that way. Especially since the number one business in my county is agriculture, which basically means no one is rich enough to pay for this shit.

I'm about ready to start riding a horse to work. There's only one minor detail. On Saturdays, I have to drive over a 6300 foot pass. I couldn't ask one horse to take me over it not once, but twice in one day. Plus it's a pretty steep grade on both sides, the horse would probably keel over by the time we got to the top.

One of my co-workers, my Saturday tech, is trying to move over to our valley, which means, she and I could car-pool on Saturdays. Which would be awesome. 

For my three days at the Sticksville clinic, technically I could walk there, but I have a feeling that if people don't see my car there, they won't really see the "open" signs. Because by now, most people recognize my car, so if they see it there, they know we're open. If not . . . well . . .you know. And if I rode a horse to the Sticksville clinic, it would eat the flowers. Which I'm trying not to kill, thankyouverymuch.


The problem is, Americans are use to and love cheap gas. We've been spoiled. When I got my license at 16, gas was 99cents per gallon. And I know gas was way cheaper than that when my parents were kids and when my grandparents were kids. I mean, could you imagine having a coronary over gas rising to 10cents a gallon from 5cents??? Yeah, me neither.

And I know that places like the Bay Area (San Francisco) or SoCal (LA, San Diego) have probably already hit or surpassed the $5/gallon mark. I'm not jealous by any means. But I do feel their pain.


But, even though we Americans love to drive across our vast nation, take our RV out on weekends, our boats to the lake, we curb that summer traveling enthusiasm a bit when it costs you your mortgage just to take the kids to Yellowstone. We do adapt to these horrific changes. We're bitching about it the entire time, but don't miss out on the fact that we will make changes.

I can honestly say, I never thought I'd think $3/gallon was cheap. But it's looking damn good now.

17 comments:

  1. Those pics of gas prices are awesome!!! We should actually feel lucky here in the good ol' USA. We recently went to Grand Cayman and gas was over $8 a gallon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If it gets to $8/gal I'll hitch up the the damn horses. lol

      Delete
  2. I just worked out that over here we're paying the equivalent of $9.44 a gallon, and that's with prices having come down a bit over the last couple of weeks. We don't take drives just for fun anymore, when we do go out we try to fit several visits/stops into one journey to save on fuel, and we bought a smaller engined, more economical car too. I've considered riding to work too, but the only place to leave Bebe would be tethered to a tree on the churchyard, not sure that would go down too well :o)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've heard that it's way expensive over in the UK and Europe. That's just insane. Hey, just tell the church Bebe will happily mow their lawn AND fertilize it, all in one step! lol

      Delete
  3. Ours has gone down as well here in our corner of the country. I remember it was that high recently though. Wishing I could see 99 cents a gallon. I remember those days. (now I sound like an old)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's amazing how much it can go up and down, even in a day!

      Delete
  4. We were at 3.75 tonight, and am I glad!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's no wonder the national average is a dollar lower than CA. When we see that on the news, we're like, seriously? Who's driving the national average down? Everywhere else! lol

      Delete
  5. We are at 3.54... And we usually take advantage of gas/grocery promotions with our grocery store, which can drop it under $3 most weeks. I think once Tony even got it for 1.89 not that long ago. Either way, I budget $250 a month for gas. Ridiculous. And yes, I have found myself combining trips and saying to myself "I really can wait to pick that up."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a GREAT promo from your grocery store. Safeway offers 3cents off their price if you have a club card. I think it's 3cents. Anyway, if it was $3, I bet they'd get a shitload of business! lol

      Delete
  6. I just got excited for 3.59 around here. We haven't hit 4 in a while but it's been hovering damn close. I know we're not as bad as other places and that it's all relative but DAMN! I HAD to upgrade to a crossover SUV right before this nonsense!? LOL. Couldn't keep my sedan, right. :) I'm too blessed to complain so I won't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LMAO I think the same thing. My gas bill for a full tank sits around $50, and my tank holds about 16 or so gallons. I'm just glad I don't have the guzzler that shuts me off at $75 for half a tank! lol

      Delete
  7. I'm thinking of getting a Vespa with a side car!

    ReplyDelete
  8. We're close enough to Chicago that our prices here in nw Indiana stay higher than the rest of the state on average. And they bounce back and forth like a ping-pong ball; yesterday I saw $3.75 a gallon. This afternoon, back up to $3.99. *eyeroll*

    I feel for those of you who drive anything big. Getting ridiculous to even fill up our little car; last time it was $40 for 3/4 of a tank (our car holds 10 gallons). My boss drives a big Dodge Ram truck. His fill ups are at least $150!

    Seriously considering getting a small motorcycle...I wouldn't object to a horse. The neighbors might, though ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The $4.50/gal lasted about a week. Now it's back down to $4.36. I'm thinking they had a sudden influx of heart attacks at the hospital in Town. lol

      Delete
  9. Ugh, to compare your with ours I would need to convert gallons to litres and USD to AUD. But it is the same story here. Prices just keep going up and up. We are over $1.50 a litre now

    ReplyDelete

I love comments. Please leave one. :o)