I can drive 55!
Gas here in Los Angeles just hit $4.67, I’m sure to my european and canadian friends that seems like a small enough amount, but you have to put it into perspective, first there’s the sheer number of miles that we have to drive (sprawl, and distance makes this a big issue) our lack of interest in public transportation, we don’t have as many taxes on our gas so that we aren’t paying into infrastructure, we’re just paying profits and the fact that we have an oil man as president, all make the gas price issue very hard to swallow.
Here’s a couple of links: drive55.org
I can drive 55
Wired: With Gas Prices
sierra club pledge
drive 55 save gas get flipped off
Enjoy!
xox,
Heather
wiffersnapper said,
June 11, 2008 @ 12:07 pm
Two thoughts:
1) I don’t think people would be yelling half as loud if the price hadn’t gone up so quickly! Around here, it’s gone up like $2.50 in a year and a half. That’s crazy!
2) I have to feel badly for teens these days- working a minimum-wage job, most of what they make goes into their tanks so they can go to work! I gave my 17-y-o babysitter $20 the other day and thought, “Wow- that won’t even fill your tank!” But if they don’t work, people think they’re slackers!
frontierpsychiatrist said,
June 11, 2008 @ 12:42 pm
Television lessons:
Oh man, that one’s great! My brother and I used to watch Dora and go along with all the stuff on it (as teenagers, lol) just to annoy my mom.
ddrplant said,
June 11, 2008 @ 5:19 pm
So, why does Hathor have her baby in a sling while getting gas??? I don’t get it. Talk about an awful lot of extra work to get the baby out of the car seat and into the sling just to pump 10-12 gallons of gas.
I suppose this could imply something else… though I hope we’re not advocating slings as do-it-yourself car seats…
kaybelle said,
June 11, 2008 @ 7:46 pm
I feel guilty for saying this…but my husband owns a convenience store/ gas station. we participate in the monthly Exxon boycott with about 10 other local stations, and the company almost always lowers the local rack price by 10 cents after 2 days of no gas sales. We dont make money from the gas, but I still feel bad for providing a service that puts more and more $ into the already wealthy pockets of Exxon Corp. oh, and ddrplant, most people dont come there for gas, but for “convenience item.” Perhaps Hawthore needed a swig of organic apple juice??
Julinda said,
June 12, 2008 @ 4:39 am
Maybe she wasn’t paying at the pump and didn’t want to leave the little one in the car without an adult. Maybe she just didn’t feel right drawing a Hathor comic w/no little one!
It’s up to just over $4 here last time I checked - I don’t follow the price that closely. )Kind of like my weight - I know it’s way too high so I don’t really need to know day-to-day just how high!) And prices of everything in the stores have gone up with the gas prices.
Kaybelle - I bet you guys get a lot of flak over the gas prices but we should all understand there’s not a whole lot that can be done about it at the local level!
mamaof5 said,
June 12, 2008 @ 7:42 am
ddrplant: sheesh. don’t read so much into the comic. Hathor always has a baby with her.
as for gas prices and driving… i have started driving 35 in town (remember that old Hathor comic with the family in the car going 35 mph?) which is pretty easy were i live as most streets it is 30-40 mph speed limit. and when i pull out away from a light or pull into traffic i go slow no ripping up the pavement to pull out. i have noticed an increase in my mpg. we are going on a vaction in a few weeks (driving) and i think we will just go 55 mph.
peace out mamas! lol
heather in tucson
mamaof5 said,
June 12, 2008 @ 7:44 am
the tv comic we funny.
we no longer have a tv (but we do watch videos on the computer) but i remeber when the kids would watch stuff like that and i would always be the crazy voice in the back ground be a goof. lol i guess that is why my kids are smart pantses (is that a word i just made up??) LOL
heather in tucson
Hathor said,
June 12, 2008 @ 8:34 am
hee hee hoooo, if Hathor had appeared without the baby I’m sure there would have been worry that she had left the baby in the car alone! (I leave the baby in the car while I pump gas personally, especially now that I can pay at the pump and I have an 11 year old in the car with her ;o) for that matter my baby is about to be 4! yikes!
xox,
Heather
wiffersnapper said,
June 12, 2008 @ 9:33 am
I have to chuckle- my 3-y-o daughter loves to go get gas, because the tank is on “her” side of the car, and I leave her in and play peek-a-boo games with her while the car fills! (I also leave her window down a smidgen so she can talk to me while we wait.) This also takes my mind off of the obscene amount that I’m paying for said gas- we live in the country, so there are many places we have to drive to get to. Luckily, we can walk to the grocery store, as long as we don’t need too much!
ddrplant said,
June 12, 2008 @ 5:50 pm
My baby is usually asleep when I get gas, so she stays in the car seat.
Sorry, to sound uptight, but car seats are just one of my hot buttons…
mrs.mama21 said,
June 12, 2008 @ 6:54 pm
This is a great comic! I was confused for a second when I saw Hathor pumping gas. Then I remembered that is how almost every other state does it. Here in Oregon, I get to stay in the car with my munchkins while my gas is pumped by an attendant. I wonder why more places dont do that? I would think it would create more jobs. Hm.
julie said,
June 13, 2008 @ 8:58 am
Is that a van that Hathor is filling up? The cow goddess drives a VAN?
The only places that they have attendants fill the tank are places where the gas attendants still have a strong union, I thought. It’s all self serve in MI.
cottonwood said,
June 13, 2008 @ 9:10 am
I had an existential crisis due to rising gas prices too! Funny how that happens.
I had no idea about how much more gas gets used the faster you go. Thanks.
esper_d said,
June 13, 2008 @ 11:47 am
It’s 3.76 here now but I hardly drive as it is. I will be commuting when I start school this Fall so I’m buying a new hybrid
esper_d said,
June 13, 2008 @ 11:52 am
ddrplant: I don’t know how things are where you live but if you’re paying in cash here you MUST pay inside! I wouldn’t leave my child alone while I did it.
Yes we pump our own gas here too.
gypsymomma said,
June 13, 2008 @ 12:28 pm
In Oregon and New Jersey, gas is considered a controlled substance that you have to have a liscence to dispense, so all gas stations are manned with attendants. I don’t know of any other states who have this rule, although some places you can still get your gas pumped for you. I live in a mid-sized town and our gas is at 3.83 which while high is less than alot because we have less taxes on it, most of our road revenue comes from casino money. we try and limit our driving, and I am greatful the speed limit in town is 35 or less. If we had better public transport I would sure use it.
Oh, and I think if you gotta to go into a pay, taking the baby in the sling, is lots easier than carrying it without, when mine fit in one, I just kept my sling on all the time, and took the baby in and out of it as needed.
twitchy said,
June 13, 2008 @ 3:17 pm
i thought that the reason the oregon has attendants was because of a worker safety issue. a boy up here in british columbia died from trying to stop a gas and run and now you have to pre pay at all stations. i also live in a pretty rural area and so i would never bother to take my kids with me into the station to pay. i just shopped for dinner ingredients while my two youngest slept on in the van! i guess i have no point except that your comments make me thankful!
ddrplant said,
June 13, 2008 @ 6:52 pm
I never pay cash for gas and I always pay at the pump. I’ve never paid inside. Not once. So, paying inside didn’t even cross my mind when I saw the comic.
Hathor said,
June 14, 2008 @ 6:44 am
Okay, I’m going to seriously age myself now, but I can remember when my first was born, there weren’t ANY pay at the pump gas stations in my whole town! My dearest superhero was perplexed as to why I couldn’t do something as simple as put gas in the car, everytime he got into it it was on empty. It was just such a pain to wake a sleeping baby to put her in the sling to go in and pay something he couldn’t get because he was never in the car with just the baby, I was always there to sit with her while he went in to pay. (of course I could have used the car seat as a baby carrier, but no thanks ;o) Leaving her in the car wasn’t an option, it was florida in hot hot hot summer…anyway, I was tearful with joy when I saw the first pay at the pump, it was like the powers that be actually heard my complaints and answered them!
xox,
Heather