Sunday, August 21, 2005

Laughing at the gas station

These days, there is not much to laugh at while pouring the contents of your wallet into your gas tank. Since my in-laws were taking their Jeep up north with them for a week and a half, I had to put some gas in my suburban. The gas tank gauge was reading just about empty and the truck has a 45 gallon tank. I arrived at the station with $50 and put all of it in the tank. When I went into pay, the attendant asked if that even got me a 1/4 tank of gas. After laughing and admitting that it was a bit over a 1/4, but still under 1/2, he informed me that due to the high price of gas, the station owner was now providing complimentary tubes of KY Jelly in the bathroom. It was 6 a.m. Way to early to talk with strangers about KY. However, once I got to work and got some coffee in me, I realized that was pretty funny and did get a good laugh over it.
However, the laugh was not good enough to merit paying such high prices. As individuals and as an entire country, we need to figure out a way to reduce our need on oil. We have had plenty of years to do this, why haven't we? 13 years ago, I bought a Geo Metro that got 45 MPG. Why is it so hard to find something like that now? Toyota has done a great job with their hybrid, but for the people that these gas prices hurt, how can they afford a brand new car? America needs to wake up and realize most people don't need a huge SUV. I personally am waiting for this car to become available. The fortwo coupé would look nice in my driveway.
And before anyone bites my head off for having a suburban, let me explain that I have 6 kids and a wife. In 2 years, I will gladly be getting rid of it. Anyone want to buy a slightly used chevy suburban with only 272,000 miles on it?