I've got gas...really expensive gas...

Ok, I am the first to admit I hate hearing older people sometimes give me the "man, when I was your age, things were cheaper, easier, people were nicer, etc." But Monday night I had my first 'bout of the "when I was young I remember when.." in my own way.

I was on my way to my Physical Therapy for my shoulder at the clinic close to our house.  I must admit, while driving to these PT sessions I always get a little nervous on how much longer I am going to actually have to keep going. I know they are for a good cause and the more I do my exercises they give me, the stronger my shoulder will get, and the sooner I can go back to being running around crazy Jess, but they still freak me out. I worry that I will not make enough progress in them and that one of my real goals (the 1/2 marathon in October) will begin to start slipping away. I also have some new races popping up I am thinking of doing (one is an underwear race, where all the people run in their skivies (I am sure there are people that actually do run in nothing but underwear alone, but we know I am too shy for that. The other race is a run up 75 floor in the US tallest building on this side of the Mississippi in downtown LA (the stair climb might be more doable since it isn't until Sept). 

Anyway, as I am driving to the PT session on Monday night, I notice about 2 minutes before pulling into the clinic that my gas light flickers on. Crap. I hate when that light goes on. I am always so paranoid that it will go on, and I won't notice or won't re-act quick enough and will find myself stranded, on a busy interstate, with no gas. So, I made a mental note to get gas after my therapy.

An hour and 1/2 later, with my shoulder a bit tweaked with pain, I headed to the gas station for some "food" for the Legacy. I threw in my credit card, and let the unleaded flow. About 5 minutes later the total rang up....and I almost swallowed my tongue. $61 dollars!

That is when my "when I was a kid..." thought hit my head. When I was a kid, even before I could drive, I can remember gas prices being so incredibly small. Has it really been that long ago that things were cheaper?

When my parents moved out of the house I grew up in, I remembered looking through stuff my mom was going to shred and throw away. Some of them were old cancelled checks. And some of those checks were for gas stations that used to be up the street from our house. TEN dollar checks...to fill up a full tank of gas! Man, those were the days. 

What cracks me up..is that I am so used to gas prices being insanely high now that it even didn't phase me going home to Colorado. One of the nights we were there, I had to fill up our rental with gas. Currently (as of 2 weeks ago) gas in Colorado is about 20-40 cents cheaper. So when I went to figure out which gas to use, I (without thinking) choose mid grade cause it was only 4.21. How weird is that to say that I am so used to paying about 4.65 dollars for gas that mid grade gas didn't seem at all unusual.

I want to believe there is going to be an end to the expensive gas prices. That some miracle will happen. Until then, at least I can rest assured knowing that my commute, while hectic at times cause of traffic, is a lot less miles than it used to be.