What do you think of gas prices?

[Joliet Jim]

Aren't we ALL on "fixed incomes"?  I work 40-hours each week for the same pay.  Every week.  Week after week.  No different from retired people.  Well, except for the working 40-hours part...

My mom used to tell me that all the time, and I was salaried so no extras for me until the annual small raise. My first social security raise was better than my last five raises as an employee percentage wise.

Re gas prices I keep looking for that $1.98/gallon I keep hearing about. Over $3 up here.

[bad Chad]

Salesmen are not on fixed income, they live and die by a number of factors.  Hard, smart work habits often help a lot, but luck plays a real part in most folks lives too.

[Tkelly]

When I was a boy we walked to school uphill both ways.

[DoubleGuzzi]

Some people appear to have missed the point of this divergent/ing discussion. No pity was intended, merely an illustration of how different people view money and the impact of it's variance, depending on a number of factors.

[Things were different when I was earning enough for a higher tax bracket.]

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

A bit of privilege here, but I don't tend to pay much attention to gas prices at the pump, only the cost influence on other goods and services I buy. At the pump if I need gas I buy gas. If it's cheaper across the street, I didn't read the sign to know and I likely pulled into the station that was easier to turn into and out of, or a bigger brand name in hopes that they move more volume and are less likely to have bad gas or crud and water in the tanks. Not something I am going to go out of my way to save a few cents on (NGC). I have noticed the most expensive pumps I've been to in the CONUS though. Roy's in Amboy, CA is probably the most expensive followed by one somewhere that's nowhere in Utah. No surprise as those pumps are low volume use and geographically far from any infrastructure. I do track my fuel economy on every vehicle I own. Not so much to assess cost as to tell if there's a dramatic change in performance and to have an educated guess at the fuel range.

The V7 850 has a lifetime average of 50.2 mpg on Premium, and for comparison the best in my fleet is a Honda Trail 125 with a lifetime avg of 96.0 mpg on Regular.

As for comparing the cost of things over time, I think fuel is an interesting one to look at because it influences the cost of so many other things, unlike TVs which used to be very expensive, but now people feel like they're owning some luxury because it's relatively affordable to buy a huge TV, while it's relatively less affordable to buy a house to keep it in.

[faffi]

My V9 has averaged 58.5 mpg over the 7500 miles I have owned and ridden it, meaning the pump price has a relatively minor impact on the overall cost of owning and riding a motorcycle.

[Kev m]

When I was a boy we walked to school uphill both ways.

Could be true...


.... If your house and school were on different hills. 

[SIR REAL ED]

Some people appear to have missed the point of this divergent/ing discussion. No pity was intended, merely an illustration of how different people view money and the impact of it's variance, depending on a number of factors.

[Things were different when I was earning enough for a higher tax bracket.]

Exactly!  Culture is both localized and era dependent.  Many people may not be able to forget the good/bad (pick one) ole days.  Others can never overwrite previous BIOS software.

Myself, I will never pay more than $50 for a watch, and I won't buy bottled water.

And of course as my wife likes to say "It's all about priorities!"  and also "There is nothing that can not be turned into status!"

What is important and enjoyable to you?  How much are you willing to pay?  Form or function?

The beauty of choice is a wonderful thing.

"Doing without!" was a source of pride and status to a lot of the adults who influenced my formative years.

[faffi]

Well said, Sir

There are two things I have never filled my life with; envy and bitterness. Instead, I deliberately focus on gratitude. Simply because avoiding the two former and focusing on the latter, whatever situation I am in will (for me) feel at least less bad. I have seen what especially bitterness can do to people, some in my own family. The bitter person is, in my experience, always the one who comes off worst. YMMV.

[SIR REAL ED]

Well said, Sir

There are two things I have never filled my life with; envy and bitterness. Instead, I deliberately focus on gratitude. Simply because avoiding the two former and focusing on the latter, whatever situation I am in will (for me) feel at least less bad. I have seen what especially bitterness can do to people, some in my own family. The bitter person is, in my experience, always the one who comes off worst. YMMV.

 

That sir, is an excellent practice, that so many wise souls have taught throughout the ages.  In my experience, none are more miserable than those who live a life believing that others are responsible for their thoughts and emotions. They have chosen to surrender to influences beyond their control. The certain misery or discontent that results from the desire to be “important” in the minds of other people strikes me as a mechanism of justice.

I think you will enjoy the following:

"Between stimulus and response, man has the ability to choose."  - Viktor Frankl

"The mind is a place in itself; it can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven." - John Milton

"We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavor to shine.  We labor unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence and neglect the real.  A great proof of the nothingness of our being, not to be satisfied with the one without the other, and to renounce so often the one for the other!" - Blaise Pascal

"I am quite my own master, agreeably lodged, and perfectly at ease in my circumstances.  I am contented with my situation, and happy because I think myself so."
- Alain Rene’ Le Sage

"The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the grief he proposes to remove." - Dr. Samuel Johnson

"My third maxim was to endeavor always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and change my desires rather than the order of the world, and thus render myself
contented." - Rene Descartes

"Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts and happenings.  Life consists mainly of the storms of thought that are forever blowing through one's mind."
- Mark Twain

"Our thoughts determine our responses to life.  We are not victims of the world; to the extent that we control our thoughts, we control the world."

"The sovereign good of a man is a mind that subjects all things to itself, and is itself subject to nothing.  Such a man's pleasures are modest and reserved, and it may be a question whether he goes to heaven, or heaven comes to him." - Seneca

[John Croucher]

My Koehler 750cc v-twin lawn tractor gets 2.5 miles per gallon at 3 mph.

[SIR REAL ED]

My Koehler 750cc v-twin lawn tractor gets 2.5 miles per gallon at 3 mph.

 

Highway or city driving?

You should contact Beetle and get the fuel injection system re-mapped...

I would think disconnecting the belt to the mower would improve the MPG considerably.....

Please keep us informed!

[wirespokes]

I've noticed in my cross country trips that the west coast has much higher gas prices than the midwest, and maybe ever farther east. Is it the gas companies or taxation?

[Moparnut72]

In California it is the high tax rate as well as the cost of special blends for different seasons.
kk

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

It's also the geographical isolation and lack of infrastructure connecting things on the west side of the Pacific Crest to other hubs in America.

[faffi]

That sir, is an excellent practice, that so many wise souls have taught throughout the ages.  In my experience, none are more miserable than those who live a life believing that others are responsible for their thoughts and emotions. They have chosen to surrender to influences beyond their control. The certain misery or discontent that results from the desire to be “important” in the minds of other people strikes me as a mechanism of justice.

I think you will enjoy the following:

"Between stimulus and response, man has the ability to choose."  - Viktor Frankl

"The mind is a place in itself; it can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven." - John Milton

"We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavor to shine.  We labor unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence and neglect the real.  A great proof of the nothingness of our being, not to be satisfied with the one without the other, and to renounce so often the one for the other!" - Blaise Pascal

"I am quite my own master, agreeably lodged, and perfectly at ease in my circumstances.  I am contented with my situation, and happy because I think myself so."
- Alain Rene’ Le Sage

"The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the grief he proposes to remove." - Dr. Samuel Johnson

"My third maxim was to endeavor always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and change my desires rather than the order of the world, and thus render myself
contented." - Rene Descartes

"Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts and happenings.  Life consists mainly of the storms of thought that are forever blowing through one's mind."
- Mark Twain

"Our thoughts determine our responses to life.  We are not victims of the world; to the extent that we control our thoughts, we control the world."

"The sovereign good of a man is a mind that subjects all things to itself, and is itself subject to nothing.  Such a man's pleasures are modest and reserved, and it may be a question whether he goes to heaven, or heaven comes to him." - Seneca

Now this immediately derailed back somewhat on topic without so much as a comment 



So many nice quotes, BTW. Pity my memory is too slippery to remember them all

[SIR REAL ED]

Now this immediately derailed back somewhat on topic without so much as a comment 

 

Amen!

There's two kinds of Stoics. 

Those who don't like to talk about their feelings, and those who don't realize they are feeling rather than thinking......