Finding My Peace…

May 31, 2007, 2:00 pm; posted by
Filed under Articles, Job  | 2 Comments

From the Best of Job, originally published in September 2005.

Of deserts dry / Of cool green valleys
Gold and silver veins / Of the shining cities
In this heartland

JeepI took this photo in the winter of 2003, and I took it for a volley of reasons.

It was the first time I ever relented and bought an ice scraper (visible on the hood of the vehicle). For the longest time I viewed those who owned ice scrapers as faint of heart. As flatlanders.

Second, it was -20 degrees.

Third, I thought gas prices were insanely high and should be documented for posterity.

Ultimately it was a bad morning, and I felt the need to record it to make a rosier time later on seem that much more gilded.

But of course its purpose now is to emphasize how naive I was about gas prices, naive to not realize we had it so good. I thought the apocalypse was nigh because gas dared to go over a buck-fitty. Gas prices are insane, agreed. But I found my peace recently and I wanted to share it with you.

I was shopping at Hannaford the other day and purchased a gallon of Snapple for $3.59.

A gallon of gas costs on average (for me) $3.29. For this gallon of gas to get into my Jeep’s belly, it must first be pumped out of the desert (a full 20,000 miles from me), then be piped for hundreds of miles to a port, where it’s loaded onto a tanker and shipped around the horn of Africa and across the mighty Atlantic to New Jersey. At this juncture it is then refined — not a short or safe process — into usable gasoline. Once cooled, it can be loaded onto trucks and delivered to fuel companies with names we know and trust like Mobil, BP and Exxon, then pumped again into tanks below the ground where it waits to be pumped into our various vehicles.

A series of amazing events, from Ahmed in the deserts of the Rub Al Qali to Tonya at the Jiffy Mart, and it costs me the grand total of $3.29 per gallon to power a six-cylinder Detroit engine over hill and dale for almost 20 miles.

Snapple? Some chick in Atlanta scooped some sugar into a vat and sprayed the hose over it for a few minutes.

I found my peace.

I bought the gas and the Snapple.


Comments

2 Comments to “Finding My Peace…”

  1. Katherine on May 31st, 2007 5:39 pm

    It is amazing how quickly we lose perspective. Like we will pay a dollar fifty for a 20 oz soda but say it is too expensive to buy fresh produce and eat healthy.
    I have found a way to avoid the gas issue, I walk to work and let my husband fill up the car.

  2. dsweetgoober on May 31st, 2007 7:19 pm

    You sound just like the other Mrs. Sweet. The one time she filled her own gas tank (in 25 years of marriage) I put a smiley face sticker om the receipt and posted it on the fridge door.

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