I'm getting old Options

[*mipadi*]

I went to buy gas today, because my tank was nearly empty and my dashboard was blowing up with warning lights. I put in just over 12 gallons (yes, the gas tank is anemic), and it cost $34.25. Why, I remember just last summer, $2.30 was a lot for gas, and now it's $2.80 a gallon.

Heck, I remember when I was a little kid, and gas was less than $1 a gallon. I used to watch my dad fill up the car, and I still remember the first time that the number of dollars was greater than the number of gallons. I remember when gas was 89¢ a gallon, and a bottle of soda was 75¢. And that was expensive. My dad used to always make me get cans, because they were only 25¢ a piece. I wanted to get the fruit punch soda stuff but that only came in bottles; I always had to settle for Mello Yello instead.

I'm not even that old—I'm only 20—but events have been conspiring to make me feel old already, well before my time. I pay an arm and a leg for gas with a credit card—my own credit card. My cell phone bill comes to me. Several of my friends recently graduated—from college—and are already going to grad school or moving into their careers.

My dad recently almost had a heart attack. Dads aren't supposed to have a heart attack until you're old. He's thinking about retiring, too. Dads aren't supposed to retire until you're old, either. And now my mum is having heart troubles, which shouldn't be happening for much longer.

Things like that make me say, "Hey, when did I start to age? Shouldn't this not be happening for another few decades?"

Oh, and look at the price of Lego sets. They're around $35 now, even for the bad ones. Man, when I was a kid, the only one I really wanted was the police station, and I never got that because it was $40 and that was way too expensive…

[-sincerely]

I went to buy gas today, because my tank was nearly empty and my dashboard was blowing up with warning lights. I put in just over 12 gallons (yes, the gas tank is anemic), and it cost $34.25. Why, I remember just last summer, $2.30 was a lot for gas, and now it's $2.80 a gallon.

It's 3.08 over here. Just went down from 3.19