Gas Prices Continue to Rise

Gas Prices

The national average for a gallon of gas is sitting right around $3.88 a gallon.  So my question is will anything happen to help bring this back down, or are we going to have to get used to paying $4.00 a gallon?  Or is this just the beginning, and before long we will hit $5.00 a gallon?  I can remember when I was a teenager and gas was at $1.00 a gallon, and when a new Kroger opened in the area and they got into a gas war with Meijer for a few days where each place had their prices down to $0.10 a gallon!  I'm starting to consider what I'm going to do to avoid spending so much of an already tight budget on fuel, and here are some of my options:

Parking the SUV.  Luckily I have more than one car, so I have the option of which one to drive.  The one I will be leaving at home more often is the 2010 SUV which gets about 20 miles to the gallon.  So for now, I'll be soon cruising around in my 2002 Saturn SL2 with Manual transmission.  I knew I kept this car for a reason!  The Saturn has 180,000 miles on it and can get close to 30 miles per gallon.  So if I drive the Saturn that would save me about 20 gallons per month or $80.  This will be a sacrifice on my part going from a vehicle with 3,000 miles on it and is still brand new, to a car which has it's side mirrors being held on by Gorilla Glue, moon roof does not work, drivers side window every now and then will not go back up, radio switches channels on it's own, and the wiper blades will go off on their own from time to time.  This car is a like a grumpy old man, it's going to do what it wants and does not give a shit what anyone else thinks.  It smells like a combination of sweat, alcohol, greasy food, and fish bait.

2002 Saturn SL2

Option 2: Using other means of transportation.  What have people used since the beginning of time and is an effective way of getting from place to place?  Themselves!  So walking or running to places is an option, but I'm not sure of how reasonable an option this is for me.  First off, I would have to set some parameters to how far I would be willing to travel somewhere on foot, and I'm thinking 5 miles would be a reasonable distance.  So where do I go that is within 5 miles?  No where, so that idea is out.  But the distance I would be willing to travel to some place on a bike would expand to 20 miles and now we are getting some practical options.  I could ride a bike every day to work.  I would need to purchase a bike to make this happen, because I don't think the old 20" Dyno BMX bike is going to get it done.  My other concern is getting ran over by some jack wagon, who failed to see me peddling along.  Also, not a fan of coming into work with helmet hair every day and we are currently in monsoon season in Ohio, so for now that idea is out, but still an interesting thought if gas were to ever rise past $5 a gallon.

Public transportation is scary, you have to waste time waiting on a bus, and it's embarrassing, here in Ohio at least it is.  Never seen someone waiting at a bus stop that you stop and think, "there's a successful person, they look like they have life figured out, winning!"  There is a reason why certain upscale places and locations fight to not allow public bus stops to be put in close by.  Like it or not it's a fact of life.

So for now I'll just be cringing every time I go to the pump in the old Saturn, praying to God, Obama, Muammar Gudaffi, and anyone else I can think of, in hopes that we will begin to see some relief at the pumps.