CHANGE Is Not Normal
So the upside to the global financial crisis is gasoline is down to $1.67 a gallon, right? As they say in the Peoples Republic of Alaska: You Betcha!
It’s troubling though. People just can’t handle too much turmoil in their lives, even when it saves them money. Just ask this nice lady I met at the gas station.
I’m in line at the cashier, just stopping in to grab some smokes. (I hear they’re bad for for me. Who knew?) This woman comes in and tells the girl behind the counter that the pump is broken.
“There’s something wrong with pump 2. It only will go up to 17, then shuts off. I can’t get any more gas out of it.”
The checkout girl looks confused when a helpful guy right in front of me says, “Maybe it’s full.” Sure enough, unless her Ford Escort’s gas tank is bone dry, a Twenty buys more gas than it can hold. She went out to test the theory.
She came back a little red-faced to collect her change — change she never would have believed in.
Un. Believable. Not the poor woman, of course, but rather filling your tank for a twenty these days.
Gas in Baton Rouge is less than half the cost that it was at its peak in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav (when I paid $4.19/gallon). We haven’t seen it as cheap as gas in Toledo or Detroit, but it’s close.
…and due to an unfortunate incident where I totaled my car right after Gustav when I got t-boned by another driver (that’s another story) I’m now driving a Nissan Sentra that gets double the gas mileage as my old car. Double the mileage at less than half the price per gallon. You do the math: my cost per mile is 80% lower.
The downside? Some will now say that the car companies’ salvation will be — wait for it — building and selling Hummers again. Yeah, I’m talking to you, Rush Limbaugh.
So next time I’ll get broad-sided by an Abrams tank.