Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

Just buy a roll of duct tape and wrap that sucker like a mummy. These are desperate times. That alone may take your whole "economic incentive" check.
 

Sigh. Had a flat in the Birdmobile. Came home and got the truck and drove it slowly to Midwest City, where the radiator got fixed for $93 -- a lot less than I thought it'd be.

And now the engine light is on again, after a set of plugs even, saying the fourth cylinder is still misfiring. I'm gonna switch the coils and see if maybe it's one of them ($29 each). Plus, it's developed a tap when I first start it, which could mean a lifter ain't lifting, which is open-heart surgery to fix.

And, since neither vehicle is fit to drive far, I postponed the dinner date with the in-laws.

What a day.
 

We ain't gettin' no incentive check in this household. Still paying 2006 taxes, and got a six-month deferment on 2007.
 

Dare I ask how much petrol/gas is in your town? I doubt it is as bad as the UK where I use to live, Australia isn't too bad but this is only because I can remember how bad it was in the UK. It's getting worse here though, it's gone up around 40% in the last 2 years - that's some inflation. Maybe I shouldn't have bought a 4 litre car.

Lee
 

$3.39/gallon and up

www.oklahomacitygasprices.com/
 

My truck gets 13-14 miles per gallon. (Partly because it's running on only 7 of 8 cylindars, probably. It ought to get 16 mpg.)

The dang Mazda has issues, too. It sucks gas -- and that mans something is seriously wrong with it. It's a MAZDA. Sigh.
 

You know I own me a pickup that gets 12 miles to the gallon in town and zero when idling which it has to do a lot to run. Don't know what it gets on the road cause I ain't gonna take her there. Radiator leaks, burns and leaks oil, I'm looking through a cracked windshield and sittin on the metal springs of the seat. It was built after the 74 gas embargo and during the 82 gas down turn. It has two tanks hold 44 gallons total. I fill it up three time a year at most, but the truck only runs somewhere about once a week to do truck things, that sums to about 1,500 miles a year.
When gas hits its equalibrium in America at about $7.00 a gallon, I plan to get me a better truck. One with an air conditioner and that gets 14 MPG. I figure about that time pickemup trucks will be a lot cheaper than now and I can afford to buy a newer one (less than 25 years old and 300,000 miles on it) and treat like the auxillary vehicle that a truck should be.

I sympathized Redneck, but Erudite would turn your truck into a truck not commuter vehicle, and buy himself something like one of those suburban enclosed Jeeps for commute. Be careful though cause I have found that my youthful slim butt of a Datsun 510 fit now requires a Crown Vic or Muercury maqui fit. By the way did you know that both of those cars actually get 26 MPG at 75 MPH on the open road?

Between my wife and I we now own about .0005% of 20 different oil wells. Drive those cars, pump that gas. I love them checks that once were $1.25 every three months as they now come in somewhat larger than that each month.

Long winded old geezer aint I? Just don't want to go out and cut up a tree that has fallen in my yard.
 

Hi ER,

$3.39/gallon and up

Erm...I’m sure it was only a couple of dollars a gallon when I was over in the US 3 years back, however I have to get the calculator out to compare this to Oz prices today

That will be US dollars, and US gallons I assume – I make that 84 Aussie cent per litre – today’s pump price in Melbourne was $1.38/litre... So you’ve got it cheaper than me, since this comes to $4.91/gallon US style.

However, it is what you are use to I guess – a 40% price raise, is a 40% price raise.

On the subject of petrol prices, there is a strange thing that happens in Melbourne that the prices on Wednesday are nearly always 15 cent/litre higher than Tuesday – that’s around 50 cent per gallon difference. Some one is taking the piss – the prices are all over the place, but always change on Tuesday/Wednesday with a 15 cent price raise.


Lee