Pardon the diversion, but I have to share.

Gas prices are steadily rising and the AC on my 1998 Honda Civic is teetering on the brink of a nervous breakdown. So as of June 1st, I decided to embark on a mission to get through the summer* on one tank of gas**. (Driving is for sissies!)

With approximately 11 gallons in a full tank, and let’s say conservatively I get 25 miles to the gallon around town, that leaves me about 275 miles of driving through the end of August. That’s approximately 20 miles per week.

In the 20 days since I’ve started my quest, I’ve already burned through maybe 1/5 of a tank. Fortunately, if you can call it that, divine intervention is preventing me from burning through any more gas at the moment. I very flat tire. I’ll probably just let my car chill till the weekend and get it fixed then. In the meantime, I am getting used to walking and biking just about everywhere — the grocery store, the gym, work.

Not only does the flat tire prevent me from immediately driving, it also forced me to clear out all the junk from my trunk in order to access the spare and jack. I bet I’m at least 40 pounds lighter back there. I knew I had junk in my trunk, but not that much junk.

I realize that this is nothing. Many people take the car and gas problem totally out of the equation all together. Still, I think for me, this is a reasonable and positive goal for my wallet and the planet.

Take that, oil cartels of the world!

And check out Nick’s post on Gas Saving Tips for some more ways you can save on gas.

*My “summer” will run from June 1st to August 31st.
**I’m also cheating — I can’t count the one trip to Duluth I have planned (which pretty much burns exactly one tank of gas.)

Tags: Environmental_Issues, Green-Energy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 10:34 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.