Today was the first day I went to fill my gas tank when I felt complete, utter shock when it came time to pay. I am not sure why it took me so long to feel stunned. It is all over the news. For the most part, I have had resigned acceptance about the prices of gas. I don't do a lot of driving that I don't have to do so I pretty much figure I don't have a choice.

All the gas stations in the area have stopped allowing you to pump gas unless you pay first. To be honest this is a complete pain in the bottom because I am one of those wierdos who fills up when he goes to the station. That means, I have to bring them the money, come back and pump, then go back in to get my change. It is frustrating. I understand they are probably doing it because people are probably driving off without paying.

I usually wait until the fuel tank gets down to a quarter before refilling. I have always worried that I would run out of gas so I never let it go lower than that. I have a 15-gallon tank so that means I am usually throwing in somewhere around 12 gallons in when I do a refill.

When I went to fill up, the gas was at $4.05 a gallon. God knows what it will be when I am driving home since they seem to rise by the hour. Anyway, I dropped off $50 bucks assuming that would be more than enough. I was actually telling myself that if I got a $5 bill back, I would stop off at Dunkin' Donuts for a coolata. Well, that decision was made because the total came to $49.96. You can't get too much coolata for 4 cents!

I felt so embarrassed because I told the woman in the station that I would be back for my change when I was done because I assumed it would be more than 4 freaking pennies! I felt like an idiot going to collect them. I sorta felt I had to because of what I had said. I tried to laugh it off by saying I had thought I needed to put less than that in my tank.

I guess I should look at the whole thing is the fuel gods making sure I behave and not get too much coolata! They definitely accomplished that if nothing else.