I'm Buying a Bike, I Don't Care If It's 8 Miles to Work!

Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

I drive a 1989 Chevrolet Blazer with a little worthless 2.8 liter engine. This car looks terrible, paint faded, chipped, and I don't care. The transmission grinds 2nd and 3rd gears, I don't care. The engine overheats when I turn on the A/C, I don't care. The SERVICE ENGINE SOON light comes on at random intervals, for no discernable reason, I don't care. I bought this car precisely because I expected good mileage, and hoped it would sustain me through some pretty outrageous gas prices in the two years I've had it. It has done that, not to mention I bought it with 265,485 miles on it, and I've since put 15,000 or so more onto it. You do the math. It's a good car, but it's hard to say anything that uses gasoline is worth what you paid for it anymore, even if you only paid $600.

I went to the gas pump today. Since most stations around here aren't more than about 8cents/gal different from each other, I just dropped by the 7-Eleven, because cigarettes are cheaper there. I read the board as I drove in: $3.97/gal. Ridiculous. I slid in my debit card, pulled off my gas cap, stuck in the nozzle, and went for it, thinking to myself the whole way...

$10.... "Cool..."

$20.... "Wow, only 5 gallons? I miss the $1.50 days."

$30... "Gotta be getting close to full."

$40... "Maybe I should pull out now and save my money... ugh"

$50... "In too deep now!"

......

$64 worth of gas went into my tank today! Roughly 16 gallons to fill my tank, which I assume is about 18 gallons. This is the same tank that, four years ago, would have been filled on HALF what I paid today.

I took a trip to Wal-Mart (where I usually don't shop) to find a new pair of sunglasses, because I'd rather buy them for $5 at Mal-Mart than for $25 at Sunglass Hut, thereby spending less money on companies who don't care about anyone while also fulfilling my need not to hunt down a more local-friendly place to buy a $5 item. By the way, I never actually BOUGHT any sunglasses.

While I was in the store, after feeling violated at the pump, I decided to take a look at a new bicycle. To my amazement, they had a screamin' deal on a very average mountain bike. It had everything I needed and didn't have all the stuff I don't care about. It was a good bike for me. Wondering how much?

Grand Total: (drumroll).......... $47.77 + tax. SWEET.

I didn't buy it on the spot, but it left me thinking. The one-time-per half-decade purchase of a $50 bike would make up for it's value in gasoline in roughly...... two weeks. This means about half a week after that I'd have paid for today's tank of gas in savings. Not to mention all the exercise I'd be getting, and I need whatever exercise I can get. I can break my addiction to gasoline if you hike up the prices high enough, but if they bumped up the prices on cheeseburgers and burritos I would probably still pay it. If I start riding a bike all the time, I don't have to worry about the junk food because I'd have a boatload of extra money in my pocket to spend sampling our local delicacies, and I'd be getting all the exercise I needed to work it off. Then it'd come down to the choice between supporting my local burger shop or riding down to the McDonalds.

For any of you who don't believe that the foreign policy of the Bush administration has had an effect on our gas prices, find the mean (average) nationwide gas price for a single week or month in 1992, then find it for 2000, and finally find it for 2008. Then, find the percentage of increase between 92-00, and 00-08.

Bottom line:
Our gasoline addiction can be broken if we remember a very good, very simple principle

The first human beings walked the earth. Only in the past century have we become glued to motorized transport. We need to start taking our health and our independence back. Take control of your life and your money and don't let yourself be gouged or swindled over something that really has no value.

"You are the witness of change and to counteract, you gotta take the power back!" - Rage Against The Machine

P.S. I think I'm going back down to Crap-Mart tomorrow and buying that bike. Spending $50 there once every few years sure beats pissing away $60 every time at the pump. Think about it, everybody!