I am beginning to believe that we will all have to accept that prices for gasoline will be between $3.50 and $5.00 per gallon for the years to come. As prices go up, driving habits and car choices have hardly changed at all ... we can't, we are all so dependent. Like with credit cards, we have adopted Scarlett OHara's maxim, "fiddle di di, I'll think about it tomorrow" and hope gas prices will magically drop (and sometimes it does, giving us a false sense of 'yes, we can drink up gas').

To lower prices it will take the public moving towards more fuel efficient cars, fewer big ass trucks and SUV's, commercial fleets moving to bio-diesel and other diesel alternatives, a greater push to mass transit and dramatic changes in city and county planning and zoning (good luck LA area).

I am afraid it will take at least a decade for enough changes in our buying habits to have any real impact on fuel cost. That is a long time guys.

In the meantime, my car gets 41 mpg! This hurts but not too much yet.