The Oil Crisis has gone too far

On our way to town today, I passed a gas station that was advertising:
"Free Mocha Latte with $30 fule purchase"

What is the world coming to? Remember the days when gas was cheap and fancy-pants coffee was expensive? When you had to sign away the blood of your firstborn to mingle amongst the capuccinos at Starbucks? Now it's "free", folks, when you put enough gas in your car to um, get around the block. (At least in our gas guzzling minivan, that's about as far as we would get on $30.)

I remember my senior year of highschool (no, not THAT long ago! It was the early 90s), mom would give me 20 bucks to fill up the car and tell me to bring back the change. I could fill the tank of our '86 Plymouth Reliant, buy a pepsi and sneak a pack of cigarrettes and STILL bring mom her change.

It's funny how rising gas prices are changing the way we, and many others live. We have actually pulled out the old calculator and figured that it costs us $8 to make a roundtrip to Fairbanks in the minivan, and $5.50 in the trusty Subaru. Before you think we have way too much time on our hands, we were trying to see if it was more economical to drive to Fairbanks to fill up on the $4.14 gas, vs the $4.27 gas in North Pole.

Our lives are changing. We are learning to make more things from scratch, give up items of convenience, and go back to the "old" ways of doing things. We haven't turned back to the college days of Ramen Noodles, but we sure are figuring out ways to stretch my husband's really decent salary as far as it can go.

Anyone else wonder if we are heading toward more than recession, into another Depression Era? Maybe not, but I sure am glad to have known my grandparents and great-grandparents who lived through it, long enough to glean some of thier money saving strategies.

IN OTHER NEWS:

-Madderbeans and I will be participating in the weekends fun run/walk, The Mosquito Meander... a 5K around Pioneer Park. I am bringing the camera for that event, so we WILL post pictures, as soon as I can find the USB cable to download photos.
ANY LOCALS- if you can walk or run and have some time to spare, come on down! It's sponsored by the Fairbanks Counseling andadoption Center... a good cause- walkers, cyclers, runners, rollerbladers, strollers, and even 4 legged particiapnts (on leashes) are welcome. $15 gets you in, gets you a neato looking t-shirt, and enters you in a drawing for a mountain bike, along with various other door prizes. An extra 6 smackers even got Madderbeans a scarf to wear (no, I'm not telling her it actually is for the 4 legged participants).

-We finally have word on our furniture! HOORAY! Our household goods are in town and will be delivered on Thursday. I have spent the better part of the day trying to remember how much stuff we have and getting excited over seeing my stash of cloth diapers, Madderbean's toys, and my nice, big, comfy bed again, not to mention the pots and pans, the bread machine, my stash of Charlie's Soap laundry detergent, and various other comforts I've been missing.

-And finally, tomarrow, we make big fire. The landlord is supposed to be securing a burn permit and we are going to set fire to all the debris piles in the yard. My husband (a firefighter) says he knows how to do this. Me, I'm glad we are well insured. LOL

Hope everyone is having good days, wherever you are on the planet!

Happy Moose Trails!