Reflexes
Remember that thing at that museum … was it SciTrek? … that was designed to test your reflexes against those of a small bird? You put your palm on the palm-shaped sensor and when the light lights up, or the buzzer sounds, you take your palm off the sensor as quickly as you can. It displays your time. Then it shows you the time of a small bird. I think the goal of this machine was to make everyone think, “I AM A BIG DUMB SLOW APE, AND IF NOT FOR MY OPPOSABLE THUMB, PENICILLIN, AND ONLINE BANKING, I WOULD HAVE BEEN EXTINCT OVER AN HOUR AGO!!”
Well that’s how I feel at the gas pump lately.
I drive a small/medium pickup with a 16-gallon gas tank. Multiply that by $3.00/gal and you get $48.00 to fill up. Well, I haven’t yet been able to stomach the idea of paying over $40.00 per tank. I just can’t do it. Hello, my name is Tony Simon and I refuse to pay over $40.00 to fill up my 6-cylinder nature destroyer.
When was the last time you tried to stop a gas pump right on an even dollar amount? It’s damn near impossible. The price goes up so fast, You have to stop at least $0.25 early, but each subsequent squeeze of the handle is going to kick out at least $0.10 worth of liquid gold. It makes me throw the window-washing squeegee across the parking lot in disgust, but I guess this is the world we live in, so whatever.
I sometimes I wish I lived in the city (Baltimore, for me) so I could walk everywhere I needed to go and save a ton of cash on gas.
Then it occured to me that my rent would probably go up $500 for a city apartment, so I’d be better off with a car. Then I feel good about paying out the ass for gas.
Try having to drive as part of your job. I drive nearly 40,000 miles per year and drive what I consider a medium-sized suv, the Saturn VUE. I got the 4 cylinder to save some gas but the small tank is what keeps me at the pumps more often. Even with the smaller gas tank it cost me $40 to fill up today. I will probably fill up again on Friday too. So I’m clocking about $80 a week. Almost as much as the note on the car itself.
Um yeah Tony – I feel your pain!
I actually don’t let the tank get past halfway …that way it only costs $20 to “fill” it up. Granted I’m going twice a week but it is alot easier to handle that way…
I’m playing mind games with my own mind – what has this world come to …help me!
We fill up on or slightly after half a tank too — but it’s so we don’t get caught w/o half a tank of gas. The frikkin’ gas scare broke me of being at any less than half at any time. If I have half a tank, I can go about my business even if everyone else is going nuts.