Humor to hybrids: How people cope
Laugh to keep from crying

Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, April 30, 2005
"When I fill my tank up I laugh," wrote Connie Batts in an e-mail.
"The speeding meter reminds me of National Lampoon's 'Christmas
Vacation' movie when Chevy Chase plugs his millions of holiday lights
in and his electric meter spins out of control, as does the fuel
meter."

Batts, 55, says she used to drive to Lake Tahoe and Reno, but has cut
back on such trips because of gas prices, even though her 1997 Toyota
Camry gets pretty good mileage. Other than that, she just tries to
keep her attitude in tune.

"What can we do? We're stuck," she says by phone. "I laugh to keep
from crying."

Straight into a big shot's pocket
Chris Hobbs conjures up a goofy image of a happy oil executive to keep
him smiling when the pump registers $70 as he fills his Dodge truck,
which runs on diesel fuel.

"When I fill up, I feel that some big shot for the oil company is
getting a new Mercedes and smiling all the way home," Hobbs wrote in
an e-mail. "He is the one with his head bouncing up and down like a
bobble(head) dash dog saying, 'Thank you, suckers' to all he passes."

Interviewed by phone, Hobbs, who is 56, retired and lives in Rancho
Murieta, seems to take it all in stride.

"It goes on a debit card; it's just the cost of doing business."

Hybrid vigor
Last fall, Lynn Van Horn bought a Toyota Prius electric-gas hybrid
vehicle.

"I'm now filling an 8.9-gallon tank every two weeks instead of a
16-gallon tank every week," she says.

"I could kind of see the handwriting on the wall; I've lived over in
Europe and we have a very unrealistic outlook on the price of fuel,"
Van Horn says. "We're going to catch up with the rest of the world."

She's become accustomed to a lot of curiosity and Prius envy.

"I've had so many people asking me about it, I should get a
commission," she says, laughing. And yes, lots of people ask where she
plugs it in (you don't).

She typically gets 50 miles to the gallon. She knows this because the
car has its own smug-ometer - a readout that tracks its miles per
gallon.

Van Horn, 55 and living in Sacramento, remembers the old days when she
bought 25 cents worth of gas to get home.

Now, she feels like she's on top of an evolutionary curve in
transportation.

"When I see those SUVs and they're taking $10,000 off the prices, it's
like, 'No wonder, they need to get rid of those dinosaurs,' " she
says.

Parking a dream
Angie Woodward bought a car - and then parked it outside her midtown
apartment.

"It's the gas price (that's) basically keeping it parked," she says.
"It's handy for storage, but I see no point spending money to buy
insurance and get it smogged until gas prices go south; it's cheaper
to bike or (take the) bus."

For Woodward, 35, it's easy to take the bus to her job, working in
database systems for Tower Records in West Sacramento.

She says she'll think about shifting her car out of park once gas dips
below $2 a gallon.

Easy riders
John Schmidt is an electrical engineer, which he says explains in part
his impulse to scoop up a shiny red Voy brand motorized electric
bicycle on clearance at Target. It was just $278 (the regular price is
about $400).

When he commutes to the state Department of Transportation in downtown
Sacramento from his home in River Park, he takes the scooter up a
freight elevator, parks it in a cubicle and plugs it in to a regular
outlet. It costs perhaps 15 cents, he figures, and takes a few hours
to charge.

The economy was a payoff Schmidt expected, but the admiration and
endless comments were a surprise.

"A lot of people stop me to ask about it - total strangers and even a
homeless guy in a sleeping bag on a lawn," he says. "It just brings
out the friendliness."

A job to fill it up
Elaine Hopkins says gas prices are pushing her into the workforce.

"I'm looking for a part-time job because the gasoline is so
expensive," says Hopkins, who has been a stay-at-home mom with her
four children.

Actually, stay-at-home doesn't seem the right term for her schlepping
lifestyle - ferrying kids to school, orthodontist, sports practices
and sundry other appointments.

"We drive and drive and drive," Hopkins says. "Teenagers have places
to go."

The family lives in the Rosemont neighborhood and the kids are 14, 16,
18 and 20 years old. Hopkins' husband walks or rides a bike to work so
that their 20-year-old daughter can use the Dodge Intrepid to drive to
and from her classes at California State University, Sacramento. (She
pays for her own gasoline.)

Still, the family manages to spend about $250 a month on the fuel.

"We don't go on any vacations; we don't do any extras," says Hopkins,
who jokes that the frazzle of finances makes her feel like she's "47
going on 65."

"It's just gotten to be ridiculous," she says. "We've gone into some
debt because of it, and we don't want any more."

Good to the last drop
www.fueleconomy.gov, a Web site maintained by the U.S. Department of
Energy and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, offers these ways to
get better gas mileage.

• Don't speed. (Improve mileage 7 percent and more.)

• Avoid excessive idling.

• Use cruise control.

• Avoid changing speeds unnecessarily. (Improve mileage by 5 percent
or more.)

• Use overdrive.

• Keep your car in tune. (Improve mileage as much as 40 percent.)

• Check and replace air filters regularly. (Improve mileage up to 10
percent.)

• Keep tires properly inflated. (Improve mileage up to 3 percent.)

• Use recommended grade of motor oil. (Improve mileage up to 2
percent.)

• Avoid driving at peak rush hours.

• Haul things in the trunk of car rather than on a roof rack.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/lifestyle/story/12807183p-13657544c.html

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        "Until last October, Christ had a very limited involvement in my life.  I believed in God; I just never had to prove I believed.  Belief is an absence of proof."
              -- Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling