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The Gasoline Blues


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My Dad and I drove his Jeep out in the desert and up the mountain today. We sweated under the desert's heat. We shivered and changed into long-sleeved shirts at the top of the mountain. We started in the dust of the desert, enjoyed the snow on the mountain, and had a safe trip home. We spent $30 worth of gasoline. I had a good time.

When the price of gasoline reaches a level I can't afford, I'll have to quit driving. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the old-fashioned, gas-guzzling, American-style, off-road, vehicle. There's nothing like it. I'm enjoying exploring southern Arizona before the summer heat rolls back in.

We found a fake cow in the desert. I wonder who put it there? I'm including a picture of me with the fake cow. No, I'm not drunk! My Dad's camera caught my eyes in mid-blink. :lol:

I drive a four cylinder, low gas usage, family car to work everyday. On the weekends the Jeep is fun as hell. The memories of the times with my Dad can't be replaced. The Jeep BURNS through the fucking gasoline. And I don't give a shit.

Edited by wesbed
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  • 3 months later...

Fuck. $35 dollars, today, to fill the gas tank on my Plymouth Breeze just so I can drive my worthless ass back-and-forth to work. :tdown

I'm hopped up that I don't depend one of those SUV's for my daily driver. Still, fuck me and the current price of gasoline.

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Fuck. $35 dollars, today, to fill the gas tank on my Plymouth Breeze just so I can drive my worthless ass back-and-forth to work.  :tdown

I'm hopped up that I don't depend one of those SUV's for my daily driver. Still, fuck me and the current price of gasoline.

What do you expect from the "Oil Administration" ? Bush chills at the ranch while prices just keep going up.... I have a Saturn wagon that gets 30 + mpg and I'm still burnin' up the petro!

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What do you expect from the "Oil Administration" ? Bush chills at the ranch while prices just keep going up.... I have a Saturn wagon that gets 30 + mpg and I'm still burnin' up the petro!

I expect the "Oil Administration" to, at least, protect the national borders. They aren't fucking doing that either. If they can't protect the U.S borders what the fuck do they care about the price of gasoline? Oh yeah, they don't.

Maybe we should manufacture some more shit in China? I love purchasing all those Chinese imports. Anybody remember what it feels like to wear a pair of American-made shoes? I don't. :angry:

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Maybe we should manufacture some more shit in China? I love purchasing all those Chinese imports. Anybody remember what it feels like to wear a pair of American-made shoes? I don't. :angry:

If we had to go back to wearing American-made shoes, we'd be complaining about the price of shoes AND the price of gasoline.

Guy

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Last week I took a look at cowboy boots. I live in Arizona and western boots are very available at many stores in the area. To my surprise, the 'affordable' cowboy boots are now manufactured in China. Yeah, the Chinese boots cost fewer dollars. But, the Chinese boots are not the same product as the boots made in Texas. The Texas-made boots are still made of leather. Who knows what the fuck the Chinese product is made of? I don't believe the Chinese product is made from a cow. :lol:

If the manufacturers are going to give us a cheaper product, why not make said product in the USA? I'm willing to pay more money for the genuine article and to keep my bretheren employed. I'd still have the option of purchasing an American-made, cheaper product (if I didn't want to spend the required dollars for the real thing) while keeping my friends, family, and countrymen working.

Dr. Martens shoes used to say 'Made In England' on the bottom. Now, they say nothing on the bottom but they do say 'Made In China' on the inside. Again, the Chinese product is not the same product as that which was manufactured in England. However, the retail price is about the same.

And, the southern U.S. border is wide-the-fuck open. Come on terrorists! Come on in!! There's NOBODY watching you. Nobody. We have the airports secure but our borders are wide open. So, don't waste your time trying to 'fly' into the USA. Just 'walk' in. It's easy. I'll show you where you can cross and nobody will notice. I've done it myself.

Errr... yeah, could I buy some o' them Chinese-made cowboy boots? It's the way I likes 'em.

Well if you ain't never been there then I guess you ain't been told

That you just can't live in Texas unless you got a lot of soul

It's the home of Willie Nelson, the home of western swing

He'll be the first to tell you, Bob Wills is still the king

Edited by wesbed
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I feel for you, man. I can only imagine paying that much for a gallon of gasoline.

When you live in a town, such as I do, that was built around the automobile, the car becomes quite a necessary item.

When you have governmental leaders, such as I do, who appear incapable of protecting the borders of their own country... I'm thinking the price of gasoline is not the first thing on their mind.

Edited by wesbed
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I want gas prices to go through the roof! Maybe super-high gas prices will wake up all these crazy SUV drivers around Boston. I drive my Prius along and I'm literally surrounded by behemouths. I figure if I get in a "fender bender" with one of these beasts, I'm getting a bumper in the head.

Where the hell is our government in this fiasco? The cafe standards were allowed to expire and this is the result. The car manufacturers were supposed to be working to make more fuel-efficient cars. Now that the CAFE standards were allowed to lapse, cars just keep getting bigger & bigger.

Just the other day, a guy I play volleyball with was telling me they can't enough V8 Mustangs in. He complained that they couldn't sell the V6 versions for nothing. The thing is, the V6 version has balls! It can smoke most cars. But people want that V8.

Make gas $5. Maybe then people will think about conserving.

Kevin

I wish I could look at the world the way you do, my man. This is singularly one of the craziest posts I've ever read.

Now, on the Mustang issue, I agree, the 6 is more than capable enough, and I've had this discussion with my own parents (they want one, and they want the V8, or they did until I showed them the specs and the price difference. Now all of the sudden, the Bullit edition suddenly isn't so important).

But, here's where I mock those who whine about SUV's: in many cases, they serve the exact same purpose as a minivan and get comparable gas mileage. But one's okay and the other isn't? That's completely fucked thinking. And the whining about what will happen if an SUV hits your little car is screwy as well. You KNOW that there are tons of SUV's on the road (and there's at least one Hybrid SUV available at the moment as well, thank you very much), and yet you still went ahead and bought a tiny little automobile that won't survive a crash with one. Whose fault is that? You knew exactly what you were getting into.

As for me, my next car will be an SUV because I've torn up my back too many times getting drums out of a VW GTI. And as much as I love VW's, they're too small. So, the next one will be a Jeep Grand Cherokee. And when somebody in some tiny little car hits me and their car turns into an accordian, I'm gonna tell 'em that it serves them right.

That said, I wish that every company were forced to develop hybrid versions of all of their cars (Corvettes and other niche market cars excluded, natch), so that we'd use less gas, conserve energy and be better off financially AND environmentally.

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My 2 cents about this energy mess.

I wish the Government would take a good hard look at what's going on in Brazil and put together a strategy to move us in that direction. Biofuels, and the way they are using them in Brazil, makes sense to me. I know that Biofuels were mentioned in the new bill, but do we really have a comprehensive strategy?

I love the idea of hydrogen fuel cells, etc. but there's no reasonable way to deliver it even if we could get it to market in a reasonable amount of time.

In Brazil, a high percentage of new cars (25% maybe? Sorry, don't have time to look it up right now) include a regulator that can automatically adjust according to whether a vehicle is running on Gas, biofuel or any combination of the 2. Also, biofuel can be delivered using the same gas station equipment that's used today for gas. There couldn't possibly be a less painful transition.

If the government could create incentives for car makers to offer the regulation equipment, gas stations to offer biofuel (there only needs to be one pump in my whole damn area and I'd go out of my way to use it) and for consumers to buy the equipment than there'd hopefully be a big enough demand to get the ball rolling with this stuff.

I don't believe that trying to get people to conserve or trying to make them feel guilty about driving an SUV is anything but a very small part of an overall strategy. Geez, I have people sitting next to me at the office who throw paper in the trash rather than walking down the aisle once a week to dump it in a recycling bin. People don't give a shit. IMO, hybrid vehicles running biofuel (even in varying percentages to start) is the way to go.

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The Jeep BURNS through the fucking gasoline. And I don't give a shit.

Oh I get it....you heard that the Exxon-Mobil CEO (Lee Raymond) stepped down last week and you're looking to land the job? :excited::P;)

Having just made the DC to Maine & back trip on #95 and taken evasive action to avoid collisions twice, under no circumstances will I ditch my large 8-cylinder sedan for the type of small vehicle Kevin mentions. I'll pay $7..$9...$11 a gallon and, if necessary, sell off every jazz cd and '69/'70 Red Sox baseball card!

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My 2 cents about this energy mess.

I wish the Government would take a good hard look at what's going on in Brazil and put together a strategy to move us in that direction. Biofuels, and the way they are using them in Brazil, makes sense to me.  I know that Biofuels were mentioned in the new bill, but do we really have a comprehensive strategy?

I love the idea of hydrogen fuel cells, etc. but there's no reasonable way to deliver it even if we could get it to market in a reasonable amount of time.

In Brazil, a high percentage of new cars (25% maybe?  Sorry, don't have time to look it up right now) include a regulator that can automatically adjust according to whether a vehicle is running on Gas, biofuel or any combination of the 2.  Also, biofuel can be delivered using the same gas station equipment that's used today for gas.  There couldn't possibly be a less painful transition.

If the government could create incentives for car makers to offer the regulation equipment, gas stations to offer biofuel (there only needs to be one pump in my whole damn area and I'd go out of my way to use it) and for consumers to buy the equipment than there'd hopefully be a big enough demand to get the ball rolling with this stuff.

I don't believe that trying to get people to conserve or trying to make them feel guilty about driving an SUV is anything but a very small part of an overall strategy.  Geez, I have people sitting next to me at the office who throw paper in the trash rather than walking down the aisle once a week to dump it in a recycling bin.  People don't give a shit.  IMO, hybrid vehicles running biofuel (even in varying percentages to start) is the way to go.

:tup

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Bought a new monthly bus pass. . . . Still cost only ten dollars. :excl:

Lon,

please have people in Austin talk to people in Chicago stat. $70 for a monthly CTA pass is ridiculous and only economically viable if you use the CTA for all of your transportation needs.

I would take public transit everywhere if I could.

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Having just made the DC to Maine & back trip on #95 and taken evasive action to avoid collisions twice, under no circumstances will I ditch my large 8-cylinder sedan for the type of small vehicle Kevin mentions.  I'll pay $7..$9...$11 a gallon and, if necessary, sell off every jazz cd and '69/'70 Red Sox baseball card!

Man, I know what you mean.

When I drive the Jeep I feel much more safe than in my lower-gas-usage Plymouth Breeze. I've often thought, if I was smart, I'd drive the Jeep, pay the money for the gas, and live a little longer. I can picture one of these new, lower-gas-use vehicles (such as my Plymouth) bouncing right off the Jeep if contact is made while driving out on the street.

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Aren't Jeeps a high risk for roll-overs? Certainly higher than a sedan. I think the Plymouth has more side and front protection as well. Actually, my late wife survived a head-on collision with a Silverado in our Breeze. It wasn't pretty, though. The floorboard, where you put your feet, was pushed up to within about 6 inches from the base of the seat.

I have to say that I'm a little dismayed by the fact that it's come down to "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." I took a trip up north this last weekend, and I can't tell you how many times a goddam Dodge Ram maxi-cab 4X4 towing a trailer full of quad runners came up on me in the passing lane doing between 85 and 90 mph. Of course, they would invariably sit right on my bumper until I got around the car I was passing. F**K! How about a little courtesy??? And I'm NOT going to buy an SUV that I don't need just to feel "safe".

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Well, I would still pay 70 dollars a month for use of CTA. I am determined to NOT buy a car and 70 dollars a month is very cheap for all one's transportation needs.

When I stopped playing in bands and didn't need to haul my drums around I soon found over the next years that I did NOT need to DRIVE. My wife too does not drive (which is good because she is SCARY BAD behind the wheel).

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