I am online checking everything out when I hear on TODAY a little snippet about "Subtle Butt" that catches my attention. It's a disposable gas neutralizer! It is a 3-1/4" square with an antimicrobial layer and a charcoal layer. You stick this in your underwear so if you pass gas, the "stench" adheres and is neutralized. OMG! Who comes up with this stuff?
Oil prices hit a new record high today of almost $128/barrel. Are you surprised? I am not. I don't see it going down either because people have to have it; there is no choice right now. If people are willing to pay (or have no choice to pay), why should they lower it? The record profits the oil industry is seeing is really irritating. Their pockets are lined with money while the general public's are lined with only lint after visiting a gas station.
Who the heck is going to do something about it? Nobody.
They are, of course, expected to go higher.
Gas by us is between $3.74-$3.89/gallon regular unleaded. That's outrageous. Of course, it goes up $0.20/gallon shortly before Memorial Day weekend when all the travel starts. Good timing of the industry to do that eh?
What's the answer? I don't know.
Democrats want to pass a bill for an excess profit tax on oil companies (Consumers First Energy Act). Republicans don't agree and say it will make things worse (Washington Post and Boston.com article). I found information on past Democrat activity re: petroleum on Technorati with their source of Rightvoices.com but I couldn't find the article on the link they listed.
Did you know that credit card companies collect $0.09 of every gallon of gas sold (according to source: CNNMoney.com). I didn't. Maybe we should all pay cash and get the credit card companies to back off to save a little bit. I wonder if it is the same if you use a debit card? Hmmm...something to find out! It's not like our credit card companies don't make enough off of us with the interests rates they charge. They are in essence double charging. Once at the pump and again with the interest on our monthly statement!!
Big Oil has raked in record profits the last few quarters. While we struggle to pay our bills and feed our children, the oil companies are raking it in. Nice.
To find the lowest gas prices in your area, check out Automotive.com.
This is not a sponsored post.
This morning I jump in my car to scoot to Wal-Mart to pick up the Hannah Montana cupcakes for my daughter's classroom birthday party at school tomorrow. I start my car and look at the gas gauge. It's on E. Uh-oh...when did that happen? I flip through the electronics and it says I have two miles left in the gas tank. Uh-oh again. Oops. I make it to the gas station, keeping a close eye on the gauge (like that would change anything at this point).
How did that happen? I never let it get THAT close to empty. I get that "beep" and light on my dash when I get within 40 miles of being empty. I don't remember hearing that the last time I drove. Then I remembered why. I had Alanis Morisette blaring on the stereo. I was listening to female angst at top volume and didn't hear the empty warning beep when it came. If I would've run out of gas before the gas station - talk about female angst!!! Nevermind the fact that my husband would never let me forget it if I'd run out of gas (like I never let him forget his speeding tickets) and had to call him for help...just the embarrassment of my car dying in the middle of the road would've been enough angst for me for one day.
The price of gasoline is depressing. I was going over my budget last night and the price I paid to fill my tank, $75.49, caught my eye. When I bought the vehicle, it cost me in the early 30's to fill it. It's more than doubled since 2002! How is that possible? Why? What can we do about it? *Syn stomping feet here* I WANT TO KNOW! *tantrum over*
If you want to know what gas prices are in any given area, check out fueleconomy.gov.
I thought of something this morning...do smokers complain about the cost of gas? I mean, if you smoke one pack a day, isn't that equivalent to a gallon of gasoline or thereabouts (possibly more than a gallon of gas)? Gas is a necessary evil for work, grocery shopping, doctor's appointments unless you are within walking distance or have bus service (we don't). Smoking isn't. Seems to me it'd be better to quit the ciggies and spend that money on that evil gas.
Addiction though right? I'd have to equate it to my addiction to chocolate and Pepsi but not quite (in terms of need, not price). I don't have a pack of day of either of those and a 2 liter of Pepsi is $0.99 (I refuse to buy it otherwise because I'm stubborn like that) and chocolate bar even less. I can get by for several days before I'm climbing the wall for a piece of chocolate or glass of Pepsi and neither of those will likely give me lung or throat cancer. Pepsi might rot my gut. Who knows. Bad comparison.
My husband smoked for 16 years (before I'd met him). He decided one day he was going to quit. He quit. Just like that. His willpower is phenomenal. I'm glad because I fell for him hard the first moment I met him and if he'd stank everytime he spoke to me or kissed me, I'm not sure I'd have married him, especially with my asthma. It would've been a health hazard to marry my man, lol.
It's not like I've never tried smoking. I did for awhile. A very, very long time ago. It wasn't something I wanted an addiction to, left a nasty taste in my mouth (cigarette burps are really gross) and I stopped.
I am one of those individuals who support the no smoking in public ban, as unpopular as that may be with some. I don't think anybody else has the right to inflict damaging chemicals into somebody else's breathing space in public. My asthmatic lungs can't take it. I don't think anybody should have the "right" to smoke in public and possibly kill me because of it. I don't even have to be right there when they're puffing away...just walking through an area where somebody has been smoking is enough to give me an asthma attack. The front door where I used to work was horrible. All the smokers would congregate there and if I walked through it, even when nobody was there anymore, the smell was still there and got me wheezing (I guess from the butts or something in the tray...maybe the smell infused itself into the brick...who knows).
One of my coworkers lost her voice box to throat cancer. She was a heavy smoker. Do you think it stopped her from smoking after that? I wouldn't have brought her up if she had quit. She didn't. Sad really.
I just read on ABC News the projections for gas prices this summer. They are forecasting $3.60/gallon by June with the possibility of rises to $4.00/gallon at times. This is ridiculuous. What family can afford this? When I spent over $70 to fill up my tank recently, I wanted to be sick. There is no way we, with six children - two of which we pay child support for, can afford those prices and for them to go even higher is an impossible expense for us.
I wish I knew what the answers were to this problem because I'd be making some noise to whatever agency I needed to in order to fix this. The problem is - I don't know what the answer is. I really don't.
It cost me $75.49 to put gas in my gas tank today at the Shell station. I was very disgusted. When I bought my new 2002 vehicle, I spent about $33.00 to fill up the tank. When is the rising cost of gas going to end? Not only end, but will the price ever go back down again or have we become too used to the high costs? If it isn't over $3/gallon, we are now okay with that? Is that right?
When is somebody going to do something about this?
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