Gas Below 4 Bucks in Washington

Last Saturday the Puyallup Indian Tribe lowered the gas price at their casino station to $3.99. This caused long long lines at their gas pumps. Lulu and I filled up her van there in the wee hours of Sunday. The lines were short at that time.

Now, moving forward just a few days, the price here in the Puget Sound zone has fallen under $4 all over. People seem thrilled, near as I can tell, from what I read in the paper, hear on the radio, see on TV and in person.

Which leads me to wonder if we are not a nation of easily manipulated sheep. I remember when I moved to Texas, in 1999, filling up in Amarillo. Gas was $.77 a gallon. Two years later I was driving back to the Northwest for my mom and dad's 50th anniversary. Gas in Amarillo was $1.19.

On that trip I needed gas in La Grange, Oregon. It was $1.79. I'd never seen such high gas prices. I did not fill the tank, figuring it'd be cheaper when I got to a less isolated spot. It wasn't. By the time I passed through Amarillo again, a month later, gas was $1.39 a gallon.

A couple years ago gas was hovering in the 2 buck zone. I was down in Dinosaur Valley at the state park. People were abuzz with the fact that a gas price war had broken out in the nearby town of Glen Rose. Two stations were selling the evil liquid for $1.50 a gallon. I filled up. There weren't lines waiting to get the cheap gas.

A year or so ago, (it's easy to lose track of time regarding the ever rising price of gas) gas had gone over $2. People were not happy. And then it went back down under $2 and people were so grateful.

Which leads me to the point of what I'm rambling about. As in it seems we are being constantly conditioned to accept ever higher prices. It goes up suddenly and we are appalled. And then the price drops a bit and we are so happy. And then the cycle repeats.

It's like some clever manipulator somewhere is gleefully amazed that they are so easily conditioning people to paying an amount per gallon that is beyond their fondest hopes of what they could get away with.

I think the same clever manipulator must be handling the milk prices too.