Economy bad...gas prices good!!

My little tirade about oil companies gouging us at the pump not withstanding, you've gotta admit it's nice to have gas prices at about 1/2 of what they were 6 months ago.

And, yes, I'm going to say it..."We really have it pretty good"

However...it could be better.

My wife and I spent 2 weeks in Italy in Tuscany near Florence the last two weeks in Sept. We rented a 4 dr. 2008 Volkswagen Golf TDI (turbo diesel) hatchback. We drove around for the 2 weeks on just the one tank and filled it up on the day before we left.

In that time we had covered about 760 kilometers or roughly 456 miles. I purchased 39 liters of diesel at 1.43 Euro/liter. That equated to 10.3 gallons at...wait for it...$7.27 a gallon!!!

And we complain here in the states?!?!?

There were a few things that were interesting about Italian driving habits.

First: Everyone drives like they HAVE to get there before you. You get passed at the most inopportune times on roads that are at times as narrow for 2-way traffic as one of our single lanes.

NOTE...we did not see one single accident there.

Second: Diesel is NOT the most expensive fuel sold. In fact it is the second cheapest only to Unleaded gasoline.

Third: Easily 70% of the cars we saw were Diesel and that same percentage were roughly the size of our Golf or smaller!!

The point here is that even though they pay almost 3 times as much for fuel, they're being as economical as they can in the cars they drive. We saw maybe a total of 1/2 dozen passenger vehicles that would equate in size to our SUV's or Minivans.

Our car got almost 44 miles to the gallon on diesel. A diesel that, by the way, was quiet, well appointed, fun to drive, sporty and NOT belching smoke

So, the question begs. Why do we not make use of more diesel powered cars here and why do we have to pay a premium for both the vehicle and the fuel??

It's not the ultimate answer...alternative fuels are. But...wouldn't you rather pay under $3 a gallon for fuel and get 44 miles to the gallon to boot?

Are you tired of the game....?

Yesterday, I filled my tank with unleaded regular from a national brand gas station. I paid $2.45 a gallon!! That's $1.90 less per gallon than I paid at the height of the sky-hi gas price craze!
Today, the crude oil futures closed at $63.22 a barrel which is over 50% off the high of $145.00+ per barrel during the summer. OPEC even announced it was reducing production due to less gasoline and diesel consumption worldwide. This normally would cause a rise in future speculation and result in a spike in oil prices.
The market didn't even flinch.
The news tells us that Americans are driving less trying to conserve fuel. I'm even driving less, BUT....I know I'm not driving 40% less, and I KNOW I'm not seeing 40% fewer cars on the roads.
Could it be that BIG OIL finally got the message and decided they'd made enough obscene profit from all of us, and set the price to something reasonable that we're more willing to pay?
Maybe the ball is in our court this time.

End of the Rainbow

I can hear it now...."There's now way you can actually reach the end of a rainbow.", but bear with me. I was driving from Salem to Eugene, OR and hit a small rain squall. What made it unique was that the sun was behind me to the Northwest, shining brightly while I drove through the rain. Ahead of me was a beautiful arc of a rainbow. As I drove, I could see that the cloud producing the rain had a definite end and was moving in a Southeasterly direction leaving the right side of the rainbow dead ahead of me on the freeway. I could even see the colors reflecting in the wet roadway. The rain stayed in front of me, the sun continued to shine behind me and as I reached the edge of the cloud, the last bit of rainbow danced in front of me and was gone as I passed onto dry pavement.
Now, of course, the logical side of me says I didn't really reach the end of the rainbow, but the romantic in me says I could swear I saw a glint of GOLD as I reached dry freeway. I'm just sayin'...you gotta believe.