Gas Pump Sticker Shock???
...soon, it'll be the latest American neurotic phenomenon!

I was listening to a news correspondent today, and she was explaining some of the reasons gas prices are zooming ever-upward into the stratosphere; of course, there were the standard reasons such as, "it's peak season, everyone's traveling more"; "hurricane Katrina made our oil reserves less accessible", and even though SHAMELESS CORPORATE GREED was NOT one of the reasons for escalating gas prices, I heard a NEW reason for having to take out down payments for a tank of gas...I can see it now, people going to "auto-title-loans" places, mortgaging their cars so they can buy GAS to get around! Anyway, more "ethanol" gas is being produced than before, and it is a time-consuming (and material-consuming) process. Something about more raw materials, in larger quantities, needed in order to produce today's energy-efficient, cleaner-burning fuels. (I sound like I work for EXXON, don't I?)

Anyway, I bought gas last week for $2.49. This week, I saw a local TRUCK STOP's gas prices (aren't they supposed to be the lowest-priced fuel vendors?), and their marquee' read $2.60-something a gallon. I heard one station in the New Yawk area was selling it for upwards of four bucks a gallon. Ack! So what's gonna be my strategy next time I get gas? Will it come to the point where I consciously try NOT to look at the per-gallon price as I approach the pump? Will I have to blindfold myself so I can't see the dollars-and-cents racing by at ever-faster speeds as the fuel courses its way from pump to gas tank? Will I leave the gas station missing an arm and a leg (or both)?

We have a new city bus line that provides FREE transportation around town, and who knows, I may be their next newest rider. People nationwide will leave for vacations, and if prices keep rising like they have been, when they get to their destination, they'll just have to turn around and come back home because they spent so much money for gas, they'll have none left over for lodging or meals. Proudly marching backwards, this is America. Yaay. Whoopee. Back to horse n'buggies before ya's know it. Cartoons such as the following little masterpiece are indicative of these weird times in which we live in...(Hey, if Paul McCartney can write like that, so can I...)

I have read that there is going to be a design modification for all new cars coming out of Detroit (if indeed Detroit is making cars at ALL this time next year). It has to do with the speedometer design. In its desire to try and conserve more and more fuel, so we can fill up bomber, helicopter and tank "tanks" with gas, a cost-effective-ratio-implemented speedometer will be installed on all cars to be made in the future (assuming we have any kind of future), and it will look something like this:

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Still trying to figure out my Paul McCartney comment? In the song "Live and Let Die", one of the lyric lines is, "in this ever-changing world in which we live IN." In closing, one of my erstwhile faithful commenters provided me with the above gas'toons. I've got more of em. I'll save 'em for another night in which I have no original thots I can call my own. Like tonite...