Oil hit $75 a bbl today - an new record high. Fox news claimed we would see $3.50 a gallon in Northern California shortly.

This sure crimps my plans - hard to think of taking a 2,000 mile trip with gas so expensive. I filled my Jeep this morning - 16 gallons cost me almost $50.

It sucks, and there is not a darn thing we can do about it, other than stay home.

But I would fill my tank in the morning - might save you a quarter to half a buck vrs filling this weekend.

 

I was thinking the same thing when my wife decided to do a trip from Temecula to St Louis in April. (bout 5000 miles round trip) The PSD towing a 30ft trailer..OH MAMA!. The only saving grace is that fuel was actually cheaper as she went east. Was an expensive trip though.

Luckily now I only work 10 miles from home. For the last 7 years I was commuting 54 miles each way back and forth to work.

 

I saw it go up 6 cents from this morning to this afternoon. sure glad I have a full tank.

 

They're saying on the news to expect seeing gas hit the $4.00 a gallon mark soon.

 

Just a tip: I try to always fill up in the early morning. That is the time that the fuel is the coolest so it is more dense. Gas expands a lot as it is heated. So maybe 20 gallons of gas expands to 20.5 gallons once it reaches ambiant temp. I once knew a guy who was a gasoline truck driver. He said that they had to puposely fill the truck and trailer at some amount less than full to allow for expansion. A couple of times they filled too much and he had gas coming out the hatch on top as he went up the grapevine. Jag

 

Unless you buy gas at stations that store their tanks aboveground, it doesn't matter what time of day you fill up. Once you get a couple feet below ground, the temperature doesn't change at all throughout the course of the day.

 

We are already paying over $4.00 a gallon in Canada. $1.09.9 a liter for regular this morning x that by 3.79 to make a gallon = $4.16.5 a gallon, so that means to fill my Bronco it will cost about $137.00

 

OUCH!!!!

But how much of that is the real price of gas, and how much of it is your tax?

 

Just trying to remember, I think it's between 40 and 50 cents a liter for tax and yet our roads are ladden with holes and concrete falling off bridges. Money must go towards government salaries.

 

Same thing in the bay area - property taxes are outrageous here. They repave roads that don't need it, and skip over the ones that do. I can't figure it out.

 

Property taxes are outrages because the property values are so high.

We're at about 1.12% here.

Luckily some of the older folks who bought their homes a long time ago fall under Prop. 13.

 

I know a guy in Half Moon Bay who pays $12,000 a year in property taxes. His house is worth maybe $850k (guessing). The property value can be somewhat justified - after all, anything is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, but $12k a YEAR in taxes? My parents have a nice house in Florida, and they pay about $600 a year in property taxes. There is absolutely no need for property taxes to be so high.

 

andym, you're right about the fact that property taxes shouldn't be so high.

Your friends house is probably assessed over the million dollar mark because it's in Half Moon Bay. If he's paying 12k/year on taxes, he either bought it recently and/or had some work done to it.

Notice our tax dollars at work when driving on 880.

 

Yeah, he bought it recently.

880 is such a wonderful highway. Maybe they'll widen the whole thing to 3 lanes someday.

 

I just returned from a camping trip to SanOnofre Beach. On the way down there, through LA on Interstate 5, one of the pot holes I hit was a pot hole from hell. I was towing my travel trailer at the time. The front end of my F350 felt like it bottomed out. The trailer was bouncing all over the place. The trailer has a rear kitchen so I had some picking up to do at the next stop. I thought for sure that I was gonna get a flat or two or.... Lucky I guess. I lived through it. The way home I took Highway 15 to 395. Muuuuch better but still some pot holes. Man, you'd think the State of California was broke, driving on the freeways. So much for gas tax.