It's 5 o'clock somewhere....

It's an American right of passage to complain about the price of gasoline every Memorial Day, as if your complaint is going to be the one that brings back sub $1 gallon prices. Gas is obviously more expensive this year than it was last, but not by much. Then again, we are at "historic demand" and there is a "historic low reserve" to draw from. Ever notice that we're always at historic levels whenever economists try to explain why gas is so expensive? How about this one: the average grunt working at the refinery makes over $100,000. We haven't built a refinery in this country in over 30 years. We have a supply and demand model that forces the price of oil to spike every time Iran wants to get uppity, Chavez wants to throw his weight around, or one of those 100k a year oil guys gets a cold.

While we're complaining about gas hitting almost 3 and a quarter a gallon, apparently it's chaos over in Iran. The Ayatollah raised the price this week of a gallon of gas from 30c to 38c. I can't wait to see how they're going to manage to pin the price increase on the Israelis (where by the way, they're paying almost $5 a gallon).

Even though I'm not exactly thrilled about ponying up $43 for a tank of gas this afternoon, it's my own fault. Afterall, I CHOSE to buy a vehicle that requires high octane gasoline (an extra $3.64 a tank over regular). I also chose to drive into Boston last night, when I could've walked to the commuter rail. Life is full of choices, and some of those choices end up costing us a couple of bucks.

I don't care if you impeach Bush, pull out of Iraq, and skewer the CEO of Exxon/Mobil in front of a jeering crowd - the price of gas still isn't going to get much lower. However, if the price of gas continues to go up, I may have to make some tough financial decisions, such as switching from Glenfiddich to Dewars. Hopefully we'll have switched to E-85 before I am forced to make such a life altering decision!