I paid $7.13 a gallon.

Actually, the sticker price was $7.15, but I got a two cent discount for using my 76 card. I might have gotten a few cents more if I used the app, but every time I’ve tried there’s been a hurdle I couldn’t jump. Like my PIN. I mean really, how many PINs/passwords am I supposed to remember? I contemplated looking up the requirements earlier in the day, but I was so damn busy, wasn’t my time worth something?

I used to go to the Shell on Van Nuys. It’s one block north of Ventura. I was always in that neighborhood now and again pre-Covid. But now I don’t go anywhere, other than at night to hike. So to go to Van Nuys is a time-consuming and now expensive schlepp. Yes, I’m willing to drive there, but with gas so expensive it’s gonna cost me $3.50 or so to do so! And my tank isn’t that big, how much can I save?

I buy my gas in Bel-Air.

I know, you’re chuckling now. But ever since my friend Andy was involved in a holdup at a gas station on La Cienega Boulevard, during broad daylight, I’ve been wary of stopping at gas stations in sketchy neighborhoods. Saving a few cents is not worth my life.

And no, I’m not ignorant, I don’t stop at those insulting stations where gas is a buck or more more, like the 76 in Beverly Hills. I mean I’ll overpay for my safety, but I won’t be ripped-off.

My car uses premium. I know, I know, you say that’s all B.S. But not in my machine, it needs the octane.

So I’m paying a bit more.

Then again, I don’t use that many gallons.

And brand is important too.

So I was driving east on Sunset and I saw the Chevron station at Barrington was charging $6.99. I laughed, I was not going to stop there, it always charged a few cents more. And it’s a weird station, the lights are very low, maybe so the luminaries in the neighborhood don’t have to wear their sunglasses at night.

And I’m off of Chevron.

Back when I owned my 2002… Leaded gas started to disappear. Starting in 1975, cars used unleaded. But mine was a ’74. And ultimately the only company that sold leaded was 76, so that was my preferred brand, ergo the card. Yes, I’ve got gas credit cards, a relic of the eighties, or maybe the influence of my father, this was before the points extravaganza. To tell you the truth, I never use points. I’ve got no idea how many I have. Even with the airlines. I’m my mother’s son, she refused to clip coupons and… Oh, did I tell you about earning a free trip to Paris using Sprint? This was when it was a long distance company, before it even sold cellphones. You had to dial extra digits. And I got a letter and was intrigued…but what would I do once I got there? That wouldn’t be free.

So I’ve got 76, Chevron and Shell credit cards. I used to have Mobil, but the only Mobil I pass by is the one at Olympic and Westwood, and it’s one of those rip-off stations. You can tell them, because they’re always empty. There used to be three gas stations at that intersection, now there’s only one. The strip center with the Poquito Mas used to be the BMW dealership, and before that it was a Chevron station. And across the street, where the Bigg Chill is, the best frozen yogurt on the westside? That used to be a gas station too, but so much time has passed I no longer remember which brand.

So, after my 2002 got totaled, I ultimately favored Shell. My 325e got just a little more oomph. I’d mash the accelerator and the car would jump a bit.

But then I ran out of money and started using ARCO. I could put in three bucks and drive for a week. That was back in the nineties. But Arco dried out the rubber in my fuel pump so I swore off it and went back to the brands that took credit cards, yes, ARCO, Atlantic Richfield, was cheap, because they gave up credit.

So I’m at the exit by Sepulveda, having just been on the 405 for less than a mile. I’m my father’s son here too, he’d go out of his way to get on the freeway, although it was called the “Turnpike” back in Connecticut, and at the time it wasn’t free.

And I’m sitting at the light, which is very long, and I’m looking at the prices, the Chevron and the 76 stations are across the street from each other. And they were both over seven bucks! I couldn’t believe it, six was one thing, SEVEN? What, are we living in Europe? I wish we were, then everybody would think about the size of the automobile they drove, its fuel efficiency. Then again, SUVs have made inroads on the Continent, but electrics are now too.

So I’m sitting there contemplating this. The Chevron is $7.09, but the 76 is $7.15, and usually they’re the same damn price, but every once in a while one is less expensive than the other, but not by much.

Yes, in Bel-Air I feel safe. Especially at eleven o’clock at night, when I was stopping.

And I pulled into the 76 station and it was a ghost town, and it normally isn’t at this time, there are always a few automobiles coming in and out. An Aston Martin SUV was filling up right in front of me a while back, and then this teenager came out of the mini-mart and got behind the wheel. That’s Los Angeles. A giant suburb where as Rod Stewart put it, people have a lot more money than sense.

Oh, I’ve got to back up. I couldn’t go to the Chevron station. Yes, I’ve experimented, multiple times, the gas there just isn’t good enough, there’s a problem with it. Is it at every Chevron station? I’m not sure, but I don’t want to risk it.

Here’s what happens. I’m driving up a hill, and the car starts to buck, like a bronco, like one of those mechanical bulls they have in bars. And it’s frightening, and only one time was it dangerous, but my main concern was…WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY CAR??

At some point you’ve got to call it quits, give up the ghost, crawl from the wreckage into a brand new car. I wasted too much money on my 325e before killing it, I don’t want to do that again. Especially now. You don’t want to be forced to buy a car now, during the chip shortage, you’re gonna pay a fortune.

But it turned out to be the gas!

No problem at 76 or Shell, but terrible problem with Chevron. So I’m not gonna buy Chevron unless my car is on E and there’s no other station for miles.

And as I look at the price on the pump at the 76 I’m wondering whether I should bolt for the Shell on Van Nuys. I mean I’m the only car in the station. But then a twentysomething in a brand new SUV pulls up and I decide to go for it.

So I inserted my card, and I got that two cent savings, WHOOPEE!

Oh, that’s another reason to have a gas credit card. For a while, at that Shell station on Van Nuys, you didn’t have to push any buttons after inserting it, and this was a huge advantage, at least during the early days of Covid-19 when we were all panicking.

And I’m kicking myself for not figuring out how to use the app, but I’m here. Gas… Used to be you didn’t think about it. But now you go somewhere and you realize it’s a four dollar trip. Like I said, driving out of your way to save a few cents is no longer worth it.

So as I’m washing my windows, the pump pops to a stop. And I see that I owe $84 and change. Yes, I have a small tank. And I always remember my father saying there was dirt at the bottom of the tank and not to run it too low and if you haven’t lived in the east you don’t know all these issues…not only dirt, but if you don’t have the tank at least half full you risk the gas freezing during a cold spell. You learn to put anti-freeze into the gas, and to keep the tank topped-off. Which is all to say I used to fill up like my father, when the needle dropped below halfway, but that’s too much of a pain, but when it hits three-quarters, I fill.

$84. That’s essentially a C-note. Does anybody even use that term anymore? I got $600 cash to go out of town fifteen months ago, and then I couldn’t, because the vaccine didn’t work, and that same $600 is still sitting in my wallet. We live in a cashless society. Oh, they’re forcing businesses to keep taking cash because poor people don’t have credit cards. (Can you use the word “poor” anymore, do you have to say “financially-challenged”?) But still, there are so many places that will not accept cash.

I mean a hundred dollars, that still means something to me. But after filling up Friday night I realized my money perception was way off. I know someone who made 90k only a couple of years out of college, and was not a professional or in banking. And a pastrami sandwich is twenty bucks and…I realized I’ve got no idea what a dollar is worth.

But my car is small, I only needed eleven gallons. What if you were one of those people who purchased a big SUV because of social pressure, sat high and had an inherently less safe driving experience just so you could look cool?

Oh, that’s another dirty little secret, the rich don’t care about gas prices. If you’re making five hundred thousand dollars or more, what do you care about the price of gas?

But what if you have to drive to work, like everybody in Southern California, commuting is necessary, no one lives close to their job. Then, through no fault of your own, even if you drove a relatively fuel-efficient car, you were burning bucks.

I mean I don’t have to leave the house. I’m driving less than ever. The price shocked me, but I could cope. But what if you’re driving your kids around or..?

And I’m mad at the oil companies, booking record profits. But those who think it’s all Biden’s fault…

Someone tweeted FDR today. This is what they said:

“‘Democracy has disappeared in several other great nations, not because the people of those nations disliked democracy, but because they had grown tired of unemployment and insecurity, of seeing their children hungry while they sat helpless in the face of government confusion and government weakness through lack of leadership,’ he said in a 1938 radio address. ‘Finally, in desperation, they chose to sacrifice liberty in the hope of getting something to eat'”

The authoritarians make the trains run on time, and then your vaunted freedom is down the tubes.

It’s like the entire world didn’t think beyond tomorrow. Let two plants in Asia make all the chips, after all it’s less expensive than making them here. And the electric car and climate change naysayers say it’s all a hoax, fossil fuels forever!

And having lived through two plus years of Covid-19, it’s been made clear that the government doesn’t have that much power, and even worse you can’t make people do what they don’t want to. We’re on the verge of chaos 24/7. And I always knew you couldn’t live in Northern Idaho, not as a Jew, yesterday confirmed it.

So I’m glad I live in SoCal. And I don’t mind paying gas taxes for clean air. Bad air shortens lives, not only views.

But man, I feel your frustration.