I don’t know about you, but I have about had it with the high price of gas and diesel fuel. Living on a fixed income and not fixed expenses is starting to frustrate me. Or should I say that my reaction to higher prices is frustration. It seems that there is nothing that I can do about it. Not true!
Having lived through a true shortage of petroleum in the Richard Nixon era when OPEC actually reduced the export of oil from the Middle East, I know what it is to wait in line to get gas, to not be able to get gas because there was a real shortage. Frankly, I do not see a shortage of gas anywhere here in Michigan. How can other states or even areas of our own state, even city have such varying prices? I am not saying that some stations are price gouging or are colluding with setting prices, but I am a little suspicious.
In those days of true shortage, we learned some lessons that made the shortage of gas a little easier. Under Nixon a rule was passed that we could not drive more than fifty-five miles per hour. I Googled the savings one would have driving fifty-five instead of seventy-five miles per hour. They reported that a person could save thirty to forty percent, just by driving slower! I don’t think many people feel the pinch of high gas prices when people pass me at eighty miles an hour. If you drive really fast, don’t complain about the price of gas.
Other things we learned to do were to car-pool, do all errands in one trip, keep tires properly inflated, brake slowly and speed up slowly, and when possible, use cruise control. I know of more than one person who has limited his gas expense by bicycling. Other people have given up their car completely because they live near the grocery store, drug store, doctor and church. Imagine no gas expense, no insurance, no license, no repairs. How much could you save? Some people have switched to hybrid cars and get amazing milage.
I am not changing my driving habits much. I don’t see a shortage. I try to be frugal. Gas prices may be high, but not high enough to cause me anxiety. I’m too old to be anxious. As long as I can pray, read the Bible, pay my bills, and get to mass, and see my family, all is good. If I get upset, I will have two problems, high gas prices and being upset. I may not be able to change the price of gas, but I can handle not being upset.
“May the Lord bless and keep you. May he let his face shine upon you, be gracious to you and give you his oeace.”
