Let's be rational here.

You know, I have noticed something that is so silly and irrational that I simply have to address it. Now I am more than willing to agree that gas prices have gotten quite a bit out of control the last year or so. I do not like paying more than 4 dollars a gallon for gas.

I am also very aware of how, high gas prices, can create havoc with people's budgets.

My husband Don and I disagree a bit on the higher prices. I tend to agree with many of the "experts" who point out that if gas had kept up with inflation over the years, we would be paying 3 plus for gas and not thinking a whole lot about it. If you look at the facts, and adjust for inflation, an argument could be made that gas is cheaper now than it was thirty years ago.

Luckily (for my own peace of mind) I'm not a fanatic about this. Don cares a lot more about our Country's current gas woes than I ever will. There is something about his intense interest and disdain of the whole situation though that makes NO sense to me.
There is a service station in our nice homey little town of Kennewick that Don always patronizes. Now knowing how crazy he gets about high gas prices, one would think that his favorite station would be the one that consistently had the lowest price.

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, every time he needs gas he heads to this quaint little service station named Mike's Exxon. Now let me tell you a bit about Mike's Exxon. Don loves this station because it is "full service". They not only pump your gas for you they also wash your windows and check your oil. At least that's how he sees them. I've gone there before and all they have ever done for me is pump my gas.

So yes, I do have to admit to having a bit of a grudge.

That is neither here nor there of course. My point about my husbands favorite station is that they charge anywhere from 7 to 13 cents more a gallon than anywhere else.

I ask you, does that make sense????

Here we have a man, who daily expounds on the oil industry. And yes, I am absolutely aware that prices are coming down quite rapidly. I don't think that means much to Don. He just can't help being angry about gas prices no matter what. I don't think he will be happy until prices hit the 2.50 range.

So why on earth, does this man of mine, insist on going to a place that charges so much more.

It makes no sense to me. But do you want to hear the really ridiculous part of it all? I point out to him that he has no business complaining about high prices when he continues to go to Mike's Exxon and continues paying some of the highest prices in the whole Tri-City area. And he says to me (absolutely unaware of how ironic he is being) That the difference he pays is so small that it's no big deal.

Can you believe this guy?

If Don was the only one who was this irrational when it comes to gas, I would probably not be able to work up enough interest to write this post. Unfortunately I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to gas, people are simply not capable of being rational.

Of course, I have evidence of this which I plan to share.

Every Wednesday, when the newspaper has the grocery ads, I can't help but scoff at Safeway's ad. Apparently, they are so concerned about your bottom line, that they have a program where, for every 100 dollars you spend, you will get 10 cents a gallon off on your next fill.

This is a really clever and rather duplicitous gimmick to my way of thinking.

When I need gas, I will wait until I'm almost empty, so when I get gas it is usually a full tank. The most it has ever taken to fill up my tank would be around 16 1/2 gallons. Therefore the biggest savings I would ever realize with Safeway's generous 10 cents off a gallon would be a dollar sixty.

A dollar sixty!

Wow, doesn't that just help my weekly budget?
And even if you have a big enough tank to take, oh say, 25 gallons, what have you really saved? Two fifty? Sorry, but to me, that lands flat on it's face in Oh Big Woop territory.

And please don't forget how much money you will lose by doing 100 dollars worth of shopping at Safeways in the first place. There have been times when I have had no choice but to buy needed items there, and trust me, we are talking prices more than double what they would be at Walmart or Winco. So for me to save that ten cents a gallon on gas, I would probably have to spend twenty dollars or more on whatever I buy to make it to 100 dollars.

The really sad thing though, is that people must agree to play their game, because they haven't discontinued the program. Do you see my point?

When it comes to gas, people are just plain irrational!

To further prove my point I have another example. Several years ago, when two fifty a gallon sounded outrageous, there was a radio station that had some gas gimmick going on. I don't completely remember how it went so if I get it wrong (local readers) feel free to correct me.

Anyway it pretty much went like this; At a given time each day they would tell you of a participating station that was taking, I think, maybe 20 cents off a gallon. You had only an hour to get there to take advantage of the "incredible" offer. Oh yeah, you also needed to listen to the station for a big part of the day because you never knew when the announcement would come.

Just in case you were wondering what was in it for them.

Well there came a day, when I had the radio turned on, and turned to the right station, and I heard the announcement, aaaand I just happened to be within a few miles of said gas station, with an almost empty tank no less.

Talk about my lucky day.

Naturally, I wasn't going to miss out on such a deal as 20 cents off a gallon. I headed right over. And guess what? There must have been at least twenty people in line already. Not to be deterred from such marvelous savings I joined the throng.

I waited. . . . . . . and waited. . . . . . .and waited a little bit more.

The longer I waited the more I started to notice the other sheep, um, I mean people, who were waiting right along with me. There were several very nicey, pricey cars there. And sitting in those cars were some very nicely dressed business people. And several of those nicely dressed business people were drinking 3 and 4 dollar cups of coffee.

This got my mind working.

I realized that I was sharing company with people who probably paid to have their lawn mowed. People that most likely splurged on dining out at the best restaurants on a weekly basis. I'm sure that they never colored their hair at home or cut their children's bangs themselves.

But here they were wasting their entire lunch hour to save 20 cents a gallon on gas.

Suddenly it made no sense that I was still waiting after more than 15 minutes to save what might have been three dollars on gas. And you know what? I bet ya anything that these same people, if someone had come up to them, and offered for 4 bucks, to wait in that line for them, they would have considered it a bargain. In other words they would have paid the amount they could have saved on gas (who knows, maybe even a little bit more) to not have to spend their lunch hour waiting to buy gas.

That was one of the greatest revelations of my entire life.

I got out of that line as fast as I could and went up the street to pay the going price. And I was suddenly happy to pay 20 cents more for gas. That was also when I realized that when you make a game out of something or make it sound like a special treat that only certain people will be privy to that you can scam just about anybody.

I learned a valuable lesson that day.

If there is ever a time when I am tempted by these silly offers, I quickly calculate the savings, and then I can rationally decide if it is worth it or not.

And you want to know something?

Most the time I realize that I would pay the amount I would have saved (sometimes even more) to not have to play the silly game. So please take my advice, (that is if you haven't already figured it out yourself) pay close attention to what you would really be saving when one of these special offers comes your way.

You might just find that you are being played for a bit of a fool.

Oh, and back to Don and Mike's Exxon. I would say that at least 60 percent of the time he gets out of his car and follows everything the pump jockey is doing. He looks at the oil stick as it is pulled out by the other guy. He looks at the tires, just like the station attendant will.

I think it's even hard for him to let some other guy wash his windows.

But, that is why he insists on going there.

For the great service!