Gasoline Blues!

It was amusing the other day to hear an industry expert say that the price of gasoline will probably hit $3.00 a gallon by Memorial Day. It doesn't seem to scare as much after we endured $3.50 a gallon or more in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Okay I was going to rant about prices going up at the pump 5-cents a gallon or more at a time and only coming down a couple cents when it does come down, if at all. Say what you will about the real driving factor in gasoline costs, but come on how can a major supplier come out with a quarterly profit of $100 billion and tell us it's out of their hands? That ain't rain I feel on my back!

I have to admit that I do now make travel decisions based on gasoline prices. We have a station vehicle, which I rarely use, but when I made a trip to cover a news event the other day in my car I turned in mileage. First time I've done that. It did sort of reimburse me for all the station business I do in my car without thinking twice about it, until now.

Every day events that once didn't bother you begin to take on new meaning. I got stuck at a railroad crossing the other night waiting for one of those 2-mile long procession of railroad cars from our friends at CN to go by. There were 4 cars ahead of me and I waited and waited. My patience started to wear thin until I saw the car behind me, a pizza delivery car. Then I began to wonder how patient the person waiting for the pizza was. Hope there wasn't a time incentive for the delivery, you know if it's not there within a half hour we eat the cost etc.

Meanwhile I find myself playing the gasoline lottery. How much money will I save gassing up at a certain time? I won it last week when I gassed up as gasoline hit $2.67 a gallon and watched it go up twice since to $2.74 a gallon.

I've decided I'm not going to let the price of gas totally impact my travel. Only difference is I'll visit relatives via e-mail.