Gas (Gasp) Prices

I've been fretting of late, most recently to my younger sister, about the cobwebs on this blog. This is due not just to my neglect in favor of writing work that actually pays some cash and therefore keeps food on the table, but also to what has been, to my mind, a dearth of subjects to write about. I'm particularly concerned about this diarrhea of the fingers I invariably suffer from, and feel I should try to be pithier in my blog entries. Ideally, I'd be turning them into blurbs so they're a quicker read.  But I ramble...

I returned from Portugal a week ago, and today I ventured out to gas up the car. I've been reading of late — often accompanied by amused eye rolls and patronizing chuckles — of the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth in the USA now that gas prices have pushed up as high as $3.90/gallon in some places such as California, according to a Yahoo! headline just this afternoon.

I drove up to the supermarket station which typically has, within a few pennies (or should I say centimes) the cheapest prices around. I pursed my lips as my brain absorbed the sign: €1.51 per litre. Clearly my income really is meant to put food on the table. It doesn't yet extend to putting petrol in the tank.

Basic unleaded gas had been €1.40/litre when I'd left in late January, pretty much where it's been for the last few years, give or take. I had intended today to fill the tank. I settled for half that and shelled out €40 to the cashier. Had my French been good enough, I might have asked if that price came with an oxygen tank.

I came home and hit the trusty Google. It confirmed first that there are 3.78541178 litres in a gallon. (Sorry, I've been doing a lot of editing of Australian books so my fingers keep writing UK English.)

A currency check confirmed that €1.50 equals $2.10. So, according to my calculations, gas has jumped 75 cents a gallon here in the past week or so, to $7.95 per gallon. Yes, that's up from last week's $7.10-$7.15, a price we've been paying pretty steadily over the past few years, at least since 2007, if I recall correctly.

Oxygen anyone?