Is the Tank Half Full or Half Empty?

Yesterday the younguns and I were in town doing errands and to fill up the Mommobile 2.0.
At our local station the price was 3.75.9 per gallon.
It's been that price for, jeez, like over 6 weeks-Almost as long as we have been hearing the collective hand wringing and breastbeating in the media about gas topping 4 bucks a gallon.

I thought out loud to the younguns on the way home: What makes us so special? What is it about Missouri that allows us to have cheaper fuel than everyone else? Why are we-according once again to the talking heads- the cheapest in the nation? Since I'm not an oil biz insider I couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation.

So this morning I decided to do some research. Now I'll admit Gasbuddy.com may not be the absolute authority, and their intel is suspect, since they rely upon Joe Citizens to report local prices, but I figured they would be a good start to check into this meme about Missouri being the cheapest fuel in the country thing I keep hearing on the news.

Their list on the homepage surprized me.
True, right now Missouri IS the cheapest, according to them. But, interestingly enough if you take a gander at their list by state you'll see that 24 states have fuel somewhere in the area priced BELOW 4 dollars.

That's half the country!!

The top 3 for budget crippling, life inhibiting prices are (no surprize) California, Hawaii, and ironically, Alaska.

What to make of this? I dunno. But the way folks have been carrying on, you'd think that 4 bucks a gallon was universal-the average, the current standard. That EVERYONE was paying that and more.
Now I see it's only half of the nation. There's a vast region of the country's midsection that is just barely staying under that threshold.
True, still at this point 20 cents or so ain't gonna make that big a difference-we were severely cutting back on fuel use when it was 2.60 something. I was just surprized to learn that only half the country is paying over 4 bucks.
Of course, if you live in one of those 4 bucks plus states it's painful.
Any thoughts?

HEH!

Posted on a comment thread on The People's Cube by one of the merry pranksters with some mad Pshop skillz that inhabit that space.

HT: The Jawa Report

Thanks for Your Concern

To the many who have commented and/or emailed me wondering 'WTF, WTR?', here's the deal:

I R well. Really. The simplest explanation is, quite frankly, I have no time nor inclination to post right now. I'm single handily (just about anyway) trying to do the job of 4 people right now and dangit, I'm tired!

I optimistically began a project at the first of the year to rehab an old building and start a 'mom 'n' pop' type grocery store. All was well until my contractor bailed back in the end April-since then I have been trying to complete the job on my own. Spring heralds the busy season for builders, so finding a replacement for this scalawag was moot. I was on my own. This on top of trying to maintain a household as well with all the usual day to day stuff, like cooking, cleaning, laundry, minor upkeep and now, mowing, and tending to the needs of my kids, well...one can see where certain "luxuries" have to go to the wayside...this blog is one of them. So there you are. I'm multi-tasked to the gills. Heap on top of it the new logistics of trying to figure out how to anticipate what goods I will need from the local hardware/lumberyard well in advance to cut down on now expensive 40 mile round trip journeys to town and it's no wonder I'm stressed.

Another factor is our current situation. By 'our' I mean us as a nation. Over the past 6 months, somebody has been steadily upping the dosage of stupid pills and I can't take it any more. So much jaw dropping dumbness has been occurring that I can't keep up, let alone comment on it. So I'd rather leave it to the experts right now. (you know who you are.) I'm fed up. So my usual reaction to confounding madness is to withdraw and focus on my own situation...at least that I can have some control over and have a say in. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. It can be quite tiresome to lose so much blood out of one's eyesockets on a minute by minute basis, to say nothing about the now regular daily head explosions. Seeing the country you once loved, cherished and admired collectively commit hari-kari knowing that nothing short of armed insurrection can stop it will do that to you.
(Why, yes, I'm pissed. Why do you ask? Aren't you??!)
The handbasket we've found ourselves in is beginning to get quite warm on the bottom. Gee, I wonder where we're going?

Anyway that's the short/long story about what's up. If anyone is interested, I do find time to whine about my store project here.

Until whenever, folks...seeya!