Car Woes

[bjarvis]

Well, they're not really woes, I suppose. More like random, pointless whinings from an overprivileged loser with an hyperactive sense of entitlement. But I digress...


While driving home from work yesterday, a sizable rock came flying at me from the vicinity of a dump truck in the next lane. As near as I could tell in the 0.1 seconds it was in view, it was about the size of my fist and since we were all driving at 70 mph, it carried considerable kinetic energy. Lucky for me, the rock struck the pavement just before my car so it did little more than bounce twice along the bottom of my car very loudly. If it had been a little higher, it would have done considerable damage to the front of the Civic; a little higher yet and I'm sure it would have gone straight through the windshield and possibly me. Very unnerving.


The Civic's maintenance light began blinking this morning, the usual flashing which indicates scheduled maintenance more than any particular problem. It's time for brake fluid replacement and I want to have the rear passenger door lock checked too. I'm not exactly sure when I'll be able to get the car to the garage and the $$$ the work will probably require isn't exactly filling me with enthusiasm.


On Sunday, following our hike in the west end of Virginia, we dropped Mark and discord35 at the Greenbelt Metro station, then circled into Beltsville to fill up the tank of the minivan. The first gas station was dry. So was the next. And the next. The fourth had only three working pumps and all were running remarkably slowly, 10+ minutes for 15 gallons. Yesterday afternoon, I tried to fill up my Civic before leaving Reston but the station nearest the office had no fuel. The hyper-expensive station in my home neighbourhood had run out of premium & mid grades but I was at least able to get 10 gallons of regular.

I've never witnessed fuel shortages like this. I know this was fairly commonplace in the energy crisis of the 1970s, but I was too young to drive or be more than peripherally aware that something was up. I'm very glad that our vehicles are rather fuel efficient and that I could work remotely from home if necessary. And having to hunt for fuel suddenly gives me a little extra insight to the hoarding mentality: I feel an irrational compulsion so keep my tank topped up constant now, just in case, even though I know intellectually that it's a dumb idea which would only make the more global situation worse.

Comments

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

I have not heard of stations being low on gas here as of yet but gas prices around Seattle have been hovering $2.85-$2.87 a gallon and some stations, namelyl the Union 76 stations charge as much as $2.97 a gallon. Premium gas now sells for $3.11 or so a gallon.

Thankfullly Boris' mileage, while nothing super could be worse and thankfully it only requires standard 87 octane.

I guess this will mean a little investigation to see if stations here are running out of gas yet. I do the oil shortages to some extent from 1979 but not the 1973 shortage. From what I've heard, I think we still pay less for gas now than we did in '79, and that's accounting for inflation.

[paigemom.livejournal.com]

No shortages here, and averaging about $2.959 for regular.

[pectopah.livejournal.com]

I was 10 during the first oil crisis. I still remember being in the car with my mother as we passed the cheapest station in town and her exclamation, "I will not pay 50¢ [$2.72 in 2006 dollars] a gallon for gas!" My grandmother would get up at 5 a.m. to wait in line (New Jersey had an odd-even system--even numbered license plates on even numbered days, etc.) She was impressed by the young men who would sell coffee and doughnuts to those waiting. At the time, she was driving a 1969 Mercury Marquis Colony Park station wagon that got 13 mpg on a good day.

That there are shortages now in places makes me wonder what is really going on.

In Montreal, gas is running about $1.20/litre ($1.06 US), but no one is really having a fit. Last summer, it got up to $1.35 ($1.19 US) and then people were in a mood. We buy our gas in Vermont, where it is running between 68-75¢/litre (USD).

[bikerbearbmw.livejournal.com]

We haven't been short on fuel here, yet. At over $3.00 a gallon (I paid $3.29/gallon yesterday) there might as well be shortage. Given the amount I have to drive for work, it's getting costly. Thank goodness it is expensible. Guess the motorcycle will be getting a lot more use these days.