Keeping the ol' jalopy up to date...
...I may have to actually begin doing that relatively soon...

Every now and then I go into an auto-parts store to pick up a quart of oil, or new wiper blades or whatever. I oftentimes stop and browse thru all the little customizing doo-dads you can get, like tachometers, tree-shaped air-fresheners, stick-on mirrors which allow you to see traffic through a rearview-mirror "fishbowl"...but I usually don't go for any of that kind of stuff since it's largely inessential, although from a 'gizmo' standpoint, they're fun to have. However, I have thought about updating my gas gauge, to reflect present times...

I've thought about getting a new gas gauge, one which measures the amount of expense outgo, compared to the amount of gas you're actually getting. This first gauge design takes a rather basic approach, but this might be the best way to go, since it seems to revolve around the directives of inverse proportions as related to gasoline purchases...if you wanna keep track of, in an approximate sort of way, your financial situation before and after buying gas, this gauge is for you...

However, if you're a real stickler-type of person who absolutely has to keep track of every penny, this next gauge is for you. Be forewarned, tho; it's going to require constant numerical updating, although it might be a deal if you could easily pop the gauge cover and replace existing numbers with new numbers, which in turn would just have to be updated yet again. Hopefully, whoever markets this gauge will include a few sheets of accessory paste-on numbers, much like the little stickers you get for labeling VHS movies. In that case, this gauge might give you a more accurate idea of just how much yer spending...



Of course, when things get really really bad, us drivers will have to resort to more extreme measures. From what I can tell, prices are going to, overall, keep rising, in spite of the fact that prices fell by a nickel today at my favorite gas station. That's how they lull us...they jack the prices waaay up high, then reduce things a little so we think we're saving money, then they jack up the price a whole lot more, then reduce it by a little bit again. Confusion runs rampant. So anyway, I can foresee a time when we hitch a ride to the gas station with a friend, and then have the attendant put, say, $20 dollars worth into a container like this:


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I'm not one for breaking the law, since after all, doing so is illegal...but if there was a way of building some sort of "gas still" in my backyard, well, I'd be tempted. Didn't our Prezzident say that "corn" is the fuel of the future? You could go out, buy a few dozen ears of corn, put 'em into your drill press and squeeze out gas. Hah. Then we'd get charged more for corn. Sheesh.