Resslin' Around by Casey Ressler

Pumped up about gas prices

The pump couldn't be right -- it read $42, which couldn't possibly be the right amount I owed for a simple tank of gas, which cost me around 32 bucks last year at this time. Forty two bucks makes you stop and think a little bit about your driving habits.

On the way home, I started thinking about what other things I could do for 42 bucks, rather than stick it in my gas tank. For $42, my wife and I can take our daughter to Hermon Brothers Field, revel in the wonderful scenery and the top-notch baseball and come home with a T-shirt and a hat, and still have $2 left over for an ice cream cone on the way home.

I could take that $42 and buy a handful of flies and lures, some Cheddarwursts (the food of the Gods), a bag of chips and a couple of sodas and fish all weekend long, living out of a tent, with a couple bucks left in my wallet.

Forty two smackeroos gets you and your wife into several movies, although the candy and theater popcorn may force you to reach for another $50 bill. Bad example here -- movie theater food is the only thing more outrageously priced than a gallon of gas.

My daughter and I could rent a handful of movies, buy a couple tubs of ice cream and get deliriously hopped up on Shrek and sugar while mom is at work every Tuesday morning, and still have enough money left over to invest in her educational IRA, so someday she can major in economics and ultimately explain to me while I pay so darn much to fill my tank.

I could work like crazy all summer, putting on roughly 3,000 miles -- approximately 10 tanks of gas -- or I could take that $420 and fly to Las Vegas, where I'd still have about $10 to gamble with, according to travelocity.com.

All sound like great ideas, until you really analyze them -- I'd have to drive to Hermon Brothers Field, I'd have to drive to the movie theater, to Blockbuster to rent movies, to the grocery store for ice cream and I'd have to drive to the airport to fly to Vegas -- and they all require gasoline.

Perhaps the best idea is to become more cognizant of unnecessary trips, to only shop the stations with the cheapest gas prices, and to realize our dependence on oil and gas.

Casey Ressler (valleylife@frontiersman.com) is the Valley Life editor.