I drive a PT Cruiser; you would think I would get good gas mileage with it. Heck, it's even a standard shift. Maybe I do; maybe I am just used to putting in far less money for gas and getting much more in my tank. I mean I went to gas up as much as I could (being that it was the middle of my paydays) when it was $3.99 a gallon and put $20.04 cents in the tank and it only moved the nice gas gauge needle a quarter and a line up from what the gauge originally showed - the nice needle just hitting a half tank. This means for about twenty dollars I get a nice hefty quarter tank of gas.

I used to put about $23 to $30 dollars of gas in my car and that would fill my tank. Now, it takes almost twice that to fill the tank - give or take a buck or two depending on where I get the gas.

I have been on the roads a few times this past week and noticed that even at $4.09 a gallon people are just whizzing by me and as impatient as ever. If these gas prices are affecting these other drivers I didn't notice. Maybe their jobs are high paying enough that a couple extra hundred dollars a month doesn't affect them.

I have slowed to 55 mph and coast as much as possible and try not using my breaks as much as possible to save on gas. This is what the news cast have been referring to as Hypermiling. CNN has a nice article on this.

This is suppose to save on gas and so I am doing my best to remember all the things one is supposed to do to accoplish the benefits of this hypermiling thing.

There are articles about running your car on water and articles about running your car on used cooking oil. The problem is that most of the options I have found are not easily done by everyone. I would like to drive around and smell french fries though.

I have been thinking recently about why I have a vehicle that I pay a monthly payment on that cost almost as much to put gas in it as it does the payment on it - not including the insurance. Surely others have had this thought cross their minds. Maybe I just think differently or maybe I'm just different.

For some people these high gas prices mean there are cuts that must be done elsewhere in the budget, such as food, or clothing, or whatever else you can think of while your laying awake in bed at night because your mind is switched on trying to find a way for you to cut back in your budget to give you more gas money to just get to work.

Do you have room anywhere at all for a horse? There's probably some crazy zoning law or something as to why you can't, so nevermind.

The sad part of this is that the folks on fixed incomes are no doubt hit the worst with this gas mess. If there is not a public transit system in your area or if you live in a rural area you are hit hard too. And if you are on a fixed income and live in a rural area, well, you can figure the answer to that.

So if you haven't guessed already I am still considering all my transportation options.

I like the horse.