Gassy Gripe

Been quiet again for a while, I know.

The thought had crossed my mind to play an April Fools joke by posting that I was going to close down the blog, but I realized that in the off-chance that anyone read it, it would probably be 30 days before I'd post again. Probably wouldn't be very funny by then.

Anyway, I feel like griping a little.

The only real gripe I have right now is the cost of gasoline going up so dramatically over the last couple months. I can attest to a 17% or more increase in the price of gasoline since December 20, 2010. Some people tell me that we're still nowhere near Europe's prices, of which I am well aware, but this isn't Europe. This isn't a country where mass transit is readily available, or even practical if it were, for half or more of the population. Further, I've noticed a cost increase between 4-10% on everything we buy (except beer, oddly) that I believe is linked to the rising fuel cost.

The mantra I hear repeatedly is that we need to drive less, and I agree with that in principle, but I can also say that I already drive near the absolute minimum. I don't go cruising about town for fun like I did when I was a teen, and I generally only drive to and from work every day with no other stops.

Sure, I could use a bicycle for my six mile commute, but I have to admit that my fear of other drivers maiming or killing me (particularly at midnight on the return trip) dissuades me completely from the idea... that and I'm woefully out of shape for the task and a significant portion of the trip to work is an uphill climb. But really, I think I'd do it if it weren't for other drivers sharing the space with me, I'd just have to walk part way until I reconditioned my body to the biking again.

So I look at this situation as an ever-depressing downer on my otherwise stagnant internal economy, and I'm not impressed. Worst of it is, some jackass is making money off of me and I feel powerless to prevent it...

Hell, I even had one guy at work tell me that I needed to buy a more fuel efficient car because of the fuel costs. I guess he doesn't realize that first, we're bankrupt and would probably be laughed at when we try to apply for a loan, and second, the monthly car payment (even at a “good,” pre-bankruptcy interest rate on a used vehicle) would certainly be larger than the fuel costs that it would be saving.

Yes, I learned this the hard way when we bought the Escort a few years back. On paper, it looked OK, but in practice we still spent more. And then the insurance cost more too... that was nice.

Well, I guess that just kinda came out as a ramble. Not sure how best to close this, so I'll just go random. Coffee FTW! Oh, and come on Cardinals! Start winning!