My tribute to the greedy-little-bastards or, Why high gas prices are good for writers
I have left my Jeep under the house (I live in a stilt house, I didn't bury it) and bought a 2001 Miata. The Jeep got 15 mpg, on a good day, and the Miata gets 30 mpg most any day. I have gone from about $100 a week in gas to about $30. That's a pretty good savings. I am also a lot more aware of my running around in the evenings and on the weekends and schedule things now, like dinner, movies, a trip to the Hog's Breath, Schooner Wharf, the Tiki Bar – well, you get the point.
According to my friends, and reports on the news, I am not unique in this. People have begun to put the gas-guzzlers in the garage and turned to more gas efficient vehicles. Here in the Florida Keys that includes scooters and bicycles. I live 15 miles from downtown (not much in miles if I were still in LA, but miles and miles here in the Keys) and it's too far, and unsafe, to ride a scooter on US1, or a bicycle.
Before we all began to support the new robber oil-barons, I might have driven to town and had breakfast on Saturday morning at Harpoon Harry's and then come home to write. Now, thanks to gas prices and the greedy-little-bastards who bought our elected officials, I stay home Saturday morning and write or read.
I dislike big cities, but I suppose if I lived that kind of lifestyle, my daily routine may not have changed as much because of gas gouging, since there are so many places you can walk to (and face the possibility of being mugged) when you live in the heart of an overcrowded metropolises.
So, I can thank the greedy-little-bastards who are pillaging our savings, driving food prices to skyrocket and keeping many of us from taking vacations, because I am staying home writing my fourth novel and catching up on reading. If I had to guess, I'd say I am only about three-years behind in reading, where last year at this time I was five-years behind!
I've even stomped around under the house with a cigar and Jameson on the rocks, writing a short story built around vampires and the devil in Key West stealing body parts and think it is workable!* If gas had been $2 a gallon (yeah, get real, we'll never see that price again!) I would probably have driven downtown, stopped at Finnegan's Wake, Schooner Wharf, the Tiki Bar and the Hog's Breath, and maybe not finished the short story.
So, this is my tribute, and thank you, to the greedy-little-bastards for keeping me at the computer writing as they rape and pillage the American dream, horde their billions in quarterly profits, and eliminate – or least downsize – the middle class, now that they've bought Congress.
Of course, if Congress lacks the cajones, the American people should be trembling, because there is less and less for us to lose and the plundering may not be stoppable.
* I just signed a contract with Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine for the short story: Vampire Slayer Murdered in Key West. They haven't given me a publication date yet.
