From our local paper

Four bucks a gallon? &%$#@!!! Forgive my language. Perhaps I'm jumping the gun. We're not at $4, not yet, and we don't know if we'll ever get there.

Forecasters are cautious to predict the future, what with the zany nature of the beast. But with the recent average price of gasoline rising like this winter's snow totals, consumers are tired of this issue.

We have war and health care and immigration. Oh my.

And we have gas prices.

The people who use those long poles to change prices on marquees now head back up the ladder before their feet touch down.

Boing!

Return from a week long vacation and a gallon of milk is the same price. But not a gallon of gas. Blink and it's higher. Sneeze and it's higher. Take a nap and you're broke.

A gallon of self-serve regular averaged $3.063 statewide as of Monday, 80 cents higher than this time last year. And expect it to be more soon, perhaps by the time you finish this column.

"It isn't a good situation," said Jim Saltmarsh, vice president of operations for D. McLeod Florist downtown. "It's like everything else. You go to the grocery store and everything else has gone up. It's affected the cost of flowers."

Flowers are often delivered. That means gas is needed to survive. Ouch.

"Oh yeah, it has an impact on everything," Saltmarsh said. "It has an impact on the price of our flowers. If it keeps going the way

it is, we will have to increase our delivery charges. We've tried to absorb it."

The shipping industry also feels the pinch, which means you and I feel it, too. Steve Brown, the president of Ross Express in Boscawen, was unavailable for comment yesterday. But here's the company's phone message:

"Thank you for calling Ross Express. Please note that the Ross fuel surcharge will change to 18 percent effective Monday, March 3, 2008."

And so it goes.

We've heard the theories, the explanations of why a tank of gas these days rivals the cost of a Sherman Tank. Joe Broyles is the energy program manager for the Governor's Office of Energy and Planning. He knows the score.