Fill It Up!

It took me about 15 minutes longer than normal to get to work. I'm sure those of you with much longer commutes are rolling your eyes but when it's 30 minutes door to door, that's a big deal! Why, you may ask, did it take 50% more time? It wasn't an accident, as my trusty NPR announcer told me, or a particularly slow school bus. No, it was 20 or so cars lined up on the street to get gas. That's right, we are having a serious gas shortage in Charlotte and reports have been flowing in about price gouging and fights breaking out over the pumps. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/100/story/210621.html

There are three gas stations on the same corner about a mile from our house and not a single one had gas yesterday. DH had to fill up the SUV (the gas light had been on for days - don't freak out Natalie, it all worked out) and he ended up driving around for miles before he found a gas station that actually had gas. Surprisingly, despite price gouging reports, I have not seen an increase in prices. It's been pretty steady for the last two weeks at $3.99 a gallon. There was an initial increase to $4.50 or so when Ike first hit Texas but it settled back down. How have gas prices compared in your areas?

I think that the scariest thing is that I remember filling up the Chevy Corsica with gas at $0.85 a gallon. And I'm not that old! Really, I'm not... DH and I are fortunate that we don't go through a lot of gas on a weekly basis because of my short commute and the fact that he works from home. So the sharp increase in prices over the past two years has not negatively impacted us. Also, houses are newer in Charlotte so few of them have oil as the primary heating source. I can't imagine how much money I would have to pay out during the winter if I was still living in Somerville or Medford.