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Gas Station Roulette

  I think someone is spying on me. How else can you explain why whenever I buy ANYTHING, the price is guaranteed to go down the next day? This works for gas, groceries, clothing, doesn't matter.

  That's why I'm convinced someone is following me, just waiting to report to any gas station owner whose station I might be near that I look ready to give in and buy.

  One morning when I drove to a local popular fast-food drive-in for my daily gigantic styrofoam container of tea, large enough to fill my gas tank if I could figure out how to make it run on tea, I noticed the gas prices.

  I had broken down and filled up my tank the day before so, of course, the price immediately dropped four cents a gallon before I could even get the nozzle back on the gas receptacle. That is the way it usually works. If I gamble that it'll get better if I wait a few days, the Gas Station Barons will raise it ten cents. This is why I've come up with the idea for a new game called “Gas Station Roulette.”

  Obviously, the lottery isn't panning out.

  So here's how it would work: You get in your car and start driving around town comparing gas prices. Then you make another circle to see if any have changed their prices. If you live in a large enough city, this could take a couple of days.

  You just know the Gas Station Barons are sitting in their luxurious yachts off the Caribbean coast, wringing their hands in delight and twirling their mustaches like an old-time villain as they watch cars circling their stations like a band of wagons in an old western movie, from the remote feed on their laptops.

  If the price has been lowered, now you have to decide if you take a chance on the price going down again or cave,  buy a tankful, and watch as the price will surely plummet.

  If you have a strong enough constitution and enough gas, you might try holding out a few days. During this time period the gas station owners will send out a message to each other that Mrs. Harris is playing 'Gas Station Roulette' and immediately raise the price ten cents just as I pull up to the pump.