That’s not a typo.
Yesterday morning on my way to church I noticed that I was running on fumes and the grace of God. I pulled off the highway at the next exit where I knew there was a station handy to the exit– EZ off, EZ on.
I pulled up to the pump and noted the different grades available: premium, roughly $3.50 a gallon, mid-grade $3.40, regular grade $2.30.
That isn’t a typo either.
I figured it had to be a mistake, but on the offchance it wasn’t I opted to fill my tank with it. Sure enough, I got ten gallons-plus of gas for a little over $23.00. I haven’t paid that little for a tank of gas in two or three years.
With a slight feeling of getting away with something, I pulled out and got back on the highway, half-expecting a fleet of Crown Vics with lights a-flashing and sirens a-wailing to fall in behind me. There were none.
A bit later, during a short break in choir practice, I thought a little more about it.
Maybe I should have said something.
No, and what the hell for, since Big Oil has been gouging us ever since the start of Bush II’s administration and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
I profited from someone else’s mistake, and given the extent of that profit I will make every effort to run out of gas in that general vicinity again.
But was it a mistake? I don’t know this guy’s attitude toward his supplier, or his customers.
I recall that old quote from Liz Taylor, about getting so much money to star in Cleopatra– that if they were fool enough to offer her that kind of bread, she wasn’t enough of a fool to turn them down.
Clearly this was a test of some sort. Morally, I think I probably failed it.
But given that it is gouging on the part of Sunoco– and Royal Dutch Shell, and ExxonMobil, and everyone else connected with the OPEC cartel– I don’t think that with this act of silence they’re going to be sleeping on a park bench under the Sunday papers anytime soon, and foraging for breadcrumbs with the pigeons.
29 May 2007 at 12:59
I hope it was a case of a shrewd businessman…but probably not. Most places a station owner isn’t free to reduce his price either from the oil company or, outrageously, the state.
I’d like to get the Church involved paying, say, half of everyone’s tank of gas for a day, etc. It’d be a fantastic outreach. Get the parishoners involved pumping gas for people and cleaning their windshields.
30 May 2007 at 9:13
Yeah, while I’m prone to imagine the various ways this might have come to pass, logic would have dictated that business calculations probably didn’t enter into it… probably someone fat-fingered a remote keypad somewhere in the back office.
I haven’t been back to that station yet, so I don’t know if they fixed the pump to get the price more in line with prevailing prices in the area.
If you’re talking about going into the poorer sections of town to help out with gas pumping and such, yeah, it would be a fine outreach indeed… and dare I imagine, you must have some wealthy churches down in Texas! The ones here in New Haven have their hands full with soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and partnering with Habitat For Humanity….
30 May 2007 at 12:01
Yeah, but I’d want to keep the megas out of it. It’s all recruitment with those guys.
Even if you could get each family to agree to buy one tank of gas, you could do a good work.