Flutterby™! : Ode to Gas O I love it I hate its cost 2008-04-20 13:57:45.501026+00

Ode to Gas O I love it I hate its cost

2008-04-20 13:57:45.501026+00 by ziffle 13 comments

Here in Mayberry gas (high test) is now $3.69; diesel is $4.09. I am not used to that.

My main car used to get about 18 mph around town and that was fine; and NOW it gets ONLY EIGHTEEN MILES PER GALLON and its NOT ACCEPTABLE!

Funny an ounce of gold buys as much gas now as it did 40 years ago. Could it be that a debased dollar is the problem? that our money is so deflated that the oil producers do not want it?

Yes, Viriginia its true. and the culprite is our government. George "more war now" Bush thinks we can spend trillions of dollars and no one will notice.

I miss gasoline, my old friend. He does too. he is right - it smells good, if you are not a girl (unless you are a female river guide I presume). Its so handy. Clean the floor, burn the brush; wash your hands.

When I was a young boy I read "Penrod" by Booth Tarkington Jr. They loved gas too - it was romantic.

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-20 14:04:14.380728+00 by: ziffle [edit history]

Ziffle, - I'm loving my Mini. I love my 10+mpg truck when I need it, but I really am loving the 35+ mpg I'm getting.

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-20 19:34:38.840816+00 by: mkelley [edit history]

The gas prices made me really think less about getting a new car. My commuter car gets about 33mpg and I fill-up twice a month. It's a 96 and still runs well, so aside from vanity, why get a new(er) car? I think we're just going to focus that car payment money on getting a house closer to downtown Chattanooga. The more we pay in gas, the more I hate living outside of the city.

we carpool. kind of convenient working at the same school. then again, not so convenient when needing some "space"!

"Funny an ounce of gold buys as much gas now as it did 40 years ago." - This kept bouncing in my head.. I've heard a lot of serious financial-ish people talk about how the gold standard always seems to work as a basis, and how screwed up our financials became when we moved from it. I don't think it's got quite as much intrinsic value as it once had, but it still seems to work.

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-21 13:46:53.256368+00 by: JT [edit history]

I fueled up in LA yesterday at 3.99 per gallon. Of course, I'm in a large SUV (Honda Passport 4x4) so I only get around 18mpg. Since my most recent drop of about 3% with new tires, I'm changing thermostats, upgrading my spark plugs and spark plug wires to a more efficient set, and replacing my air filter with a K&N setup out of hopes of eeking another 3-5% efficiency out of it.

When I was a kid that stuff was out of reach because it wouldn't do anything but increase performance a bit and you'd never see a return on your investment. I figure over the course of 6 months now, I could see a full return.

When snow season's over, I may look at getting some lighter and more streetworthy tires to try to increase gas mileage, but the economic feasibility of an additional $500-700 may outweigh my personal cost/benefit ratio.

The shameful thing is that purely for efficiency, we're looking at buying another vehicle. Our old one doesn't magically disappear when that happens though, so in order to save ourselves some money, we'll be adding to pollution, landfills, etc by abandoning yet another hulking American monster (girlfriend's taurus) to replace it with something that gives a temporary financial benefit (hybrid car) Imagine the following in the voice of Hubert Farnsworth from Futurama's global warming episode... "I suppose the environment can take one more hit for the team..."

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-21 15:46:28.652837+00 by: jeff [edit history]

I recently bought a 2009 (early model release) Kawasaki KLX250S dual-sport motorcycle. Depending on how I use it (off-road trails or street), I'll get 65-80mpg. I have a 1.8 mile commmute to the office, or if I stretch it to warm-up the engine more, maybe 3.5 miles, one-way. I've been riding it every day since the weather has turned Spring-like here in Ohio. It's been fun refilling the 2.1 gallon tank (wait a minute, I have not done that yet!).

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-21 16:08:30.718429+00 by: ziffle [edit history]

I learned so much working for Ron Paul this cycle. Things are not going up in cost; rather the value of our dollar is going down relative to reality becuase our government is printing money out of thin air. Money is created in Virginia using a desk top computer and a mouse. The fed then clicks the increment to add billions to the supply by then loaning it to the government. Thats it! What happens when too much money is created? The money in circulation goes down in value. This caused the housing boom and all other booms. Like a junkie who needs another fix they just give the economy a shot in the arm and figure it won;t matter. Problem is they have injected trillons now into he economy and we can not handle the debt load anymore. We are at a tipping point.

Yeah, with Charlene's commute we're looking at various vehicle options, but I think replacing her Sentra won't be cost effective for a while. We're paying roughly $4/gal for mid-grade, and having it go over $4 wasn't nearly the psychological impact for me that having a fill-up exceed $50 was.

I'm trying to find historical data on gasoline in unadjusted dollars from before 1990, but from 1990 to present I'm pretty sure gasoline isn't one of those things that has remained unchanged in ounces of gold.

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-21 16:40:56.969726+00 by: ziffle [edit history]

#Comment Re: made: 2008-04-21 17:25:06.427428+00 by: jeff [edit history]

The "dumbing down" of mainstream America and the "dilution of our currency" continues unabated (for a number of reasons, but led mostly by special interests in D.C. and on those on Wall Street).

Continuing to build sprawling suburbs with 4,000 square foot homes is not a scalable socioeconomic model, given the current available energy mix and energy distribution methods. All of this in combination is leading to a bi-modal distribution of wealth in our society, similar to that which is part of the experience in South America, and other parts of the world. The middle-class is slowly disappearing, and being redefined in a way that will hurt many (relative to the once great society).

When not peg the dollar to an "oil standard" instead of the "gold standard"? I bet Shrub would have jumped for that!

Replacing a Sentra would be a bad idea for a little while. Instead, get it tuned up well and drive more gently.

My 2004 VW Jetta TDi had leather seats, 16" wheels, and got 40 mpg even doing 100mph between Vegas and San Diego. But we sold it because I get better gas mileage out of the RTD bus and my bicycle. We still have Asha's pickup - which is paid for - and we rent cars when we need to drive someplace.