Thoughts

The price of gasoline is getting ridiculous. I know that in other countries gas costs much more than it does here, so we have little room for complaint in the grand scheme of things, but we are American. We don't care about the grand scheme, do we?

I filled up yesterday after work. $2.759 for regular gas. As it does every year, price of gas is expected to spike come Labor Day weekend. "Experts" (Who I am convinced requires no education) are predicting the price of gasoline in the state of Michigan to exceed $3 per gallon.

The repercussion(s) from the exorbitant pricing has been little more than complaints from motorists, or so I have observed. Until Monday night. Josh and I were walking to get some food after seeing Broken Flowers. I am either offended or flattered by the events that ensued on our walk. A young woman who had her back against a building approached us, nay approached Josh.

"Can you spare a few dollars?"
"How many is a 'few'?"
"Whatever you can spare."
"I have A dollar."
"Thank you."

So did she talk to Josh because he had on slacks and a nice button down? Were my cargo shorts not upscale enough for me to have spare dollars? Maybe he has "SUCKER" written across his forehead in some special ink that only girls can read. (That certainly would explain a lot.) If I should be offended at her reasoning, I haven't lost any sleep over the fact that I was not the one put on the spot to not give her money. Maybe she is like an animal that can sense...that I wasn't going to give her any money.

Anyway, this young, semi-attractive (in that I've had too many and shouldn't drive home kinda way) girl was clad in a tank top and jeans. She was clean. She was well fed. She was by all facets of the imagination, not homeless. Strange that she was asking for handouts on the sidewalk in downtown Royal Oak.

It was not until Josh and I parted ways that I believe I found the answer to this mystery of mysteries. On my solo walk back to my car, I passed a group of "misfit" teenagers. Piercings, mismatched clothing, strange dye jobs, a few more piercings....I was in Royal Oak. You get the idea. One of the spawn knew a kid that was also walking past (ahead of me) and they talked briefly.

"How you been?"
"Nah man, everything's cool."
"Yeah, me too."
"What are you up to tonight?"
"Just trying to hit up some gas money."

Boom.

Did you feel it? There it is. This fine young upstart was probably going to employ technique similar to the one used by Josh's new girlfriend. Stand in a busy downtown area and ask people for money. If they don't ask, don't tell. Though I wonder what they would say if asked... What a strange way to pay for gas.

Maybe things have gotten a little out of hand with gas prices.