I will join you in all of those activities, except for the whole spitting in the wind one. I did that once, it didn't turn out like I thought it would. But because I'm chicken, I'll shake my fist at the sun twice to make up for it.

Beth, I agree that spitting into the wind isn't for the faint of heart. But I have one word of advice (or, actually, two words, but hyphenated, so I'm not sure what the counting rules are for that): Gore-Tex.

Be sure to wear sunscreen, by the way. There's nothing worse than a burned fist.

I'm with Beth on the spitting into the wind. I tried to spit out the car window once, but didn't have the window rolled down far enough so it hit the glass instead. Near as I can tell, little boys DO practice spitting, but little girls do not.

The MC filled up my car yesterday while we were out (he always does that for me because he knows how much I hate to do it) and the gas stations were packed with crazy people. We just thought it was Monday ... apparently it was the day before the boycott.

There is, indeed, a certain skill involved in spitting. I'll admit to being far from accomplished in that regard, as my wife will attest based on her experiences of sitting behind me on a tandem bike for lo these many years and (windy) miles. We don't need to go into detail, do we?

But whatever gender gap does exist can be overcome with diligence; she's a pretty good spitter (and I know how much she appreciates my sharing that with you!). You sort of have to be in order to be a cyclist (or a runner, for that matter).

Regarding the boycott, there are misconceptions on both sides of the aisle. I laughed at one interviewee on the news last night who said he wasn't going to participate because he believed in letting the free market do its thing. In fact, regardless of how faulty the reasoning, a voluntary decision by consumers to stop buying a good or service they deem to be overpriced is a perfectly legitimate instance of the free market at work.

Well I do have a deck about 20 feet above a broad grassy driveway. I COULD practice spitting with relative impunity. Work on range and targeting.

Re: boycotts. Yes ... NOT buying a particular product is indeed the free market at work. And I discriminate all the time at the grocery store :)

Boycott? I had no idea. My tank is out of gas so I guess I will not be participating. I would join you by shaking my fist at the sun but the sun is not out today. I don't think I can jump very high and I can't spit, so I guess it's a lot of sternly arched eyebrows for me. ;-)

Gwynne, I'll bet you've got a mean sternly arched eyebrow though.

Beth, I'll bet you're right. In fact, I suspect her gaze, when sufficiently provoked, could be classified as a WMD (Weapon of Mascaraed Destruction). ;-)

Shoot. I bought gas yesterday so my tank is full. Otherwise I'd be sure to fill up today when there would be no lines.

i just had a good laugh at the thought of eric doing all of these things in one strange trip onto the front lawn; because after all, efficiency on a day like this only makes sense. imagine a neighbor from across the street seeing a man walk outside, shake his fist, jump, spit, and give the evil eye. then turn and walk right back inside.

Beth, Eric, you guys are most hilarious, but I have to tell you, nobody has ever been the slightest bit intimidated by my gaze, "sternly" arched brow or not, mascaraed or not. I've tried, but it gets me nowhere. ;-)

I don't know, Gwynne. I went all jello-like inside when you arched that brow at me.

Kyle, I'm afraid that what they'd really think is, "hmm...just another normal day in the 'hood."

Gwynne, next time try it without the sweet smile. That's what they call a "show" in the world of pøker. Or so I've heard.

No, wait. It's not a show; it's a tell.

Or maybe it's both. You know, a show and tell.

No wonder I can't play pøker.

If just one oil company would make the decisions that prevent the shortages of gas that ALL the various companies miraculously have at the same time, thus reducing it's cost of gas I would drive fifty miles out of my way just to honor their intelligence. And would still get my gas from them even if all the others miraculously dropped their prices to match.

My low fuel light went on while I was driving home - I went ahead and filled up. There was no line and it saves me having to get up early to do it tomorrow. And that about sums up my feelings on the whole gas situation - we need it (until we come up with a better alternative - and ethanol aint it) when we need it. Period.

But hey - no line! :)

You forgot to stick out your tongue and say, "Nyeh."

Aw crud, I was low on saliva yesterday and missed out on a perfectly good opportunity to do some vindictive spittin'.

But rather than boycott the gas companies, maybe we should be sticking our collective tongues (eww!) out at the automakers & advertisers who keep snookering consumers into buying cars based on mostly useless and inapplicable performance - most often, horsepower.

There's little or no reason for any average commuter to own a vehicle that's powered by a 6 or 8-cylinder engine. Now, sure, there are people who use their vehicles for tasks that require more oomph. But I'm talking about the folks who drive $40k quad-cab Ford Lariats, Chevy Tahoes, and other monstrously oversized vehicles for doing nothing more than commuting to work - alone. The prevailing attitude here - and I suspect most other areas of this country - is something like, "By God, if you ain't got yerself a big d!ck truck, well heck, ya just ain't much of a man, now are ya?"

We've been programmed to believe that big, burly, gas-guzzling SUVs are safer - but they're not - and that small, fuel-efficient, commuter-appropriate vehicles are puny and effeminate - but they're not.

We've got to find ways to begin to alter people's notions about cars - these things are transit. Bigger and faster is NOT better.

Okay, now I've worked up some good spit!

I have got to start reading more news sources. I thought the gas boycott was a painfully flawed attempt to protest Mexican restaurants.

Which I could never support.

The boycott, that is.

Will you also be tugging on Superman's cape?

And I hope you'll forgive a visit from the language police.

By returning to earth after you jump perhaps you could be said to be "flaunting" the law of gravity. Jumping as high as you can would more correctly be termed "flouting" the law of gravity. (Of course if you don't achieve escape velocity with your jump, I'd expect that you'd still be bound by the law regardless of how high you jumped.)

I'll also be flouting the laws of grammar! ;-)

I'm surprised no one else pointed out that faux pas. I'm very picky about things like that, so I appreciate your pointing it out. I'll probably leave it as is, however, because I'm still toying with the escape velocity thing.

Rob O. ..... I'm sorry, my friend, but I have to disagree ..... as our family preps for yet another weekend trip out-of-town for a soccer tournament, I find myself glad we're driving a new Tahoe, and not my old Camaro, or my wife's old Sentra. We have found our red behemoth to be VERY user-friendly, and a pleasant alternative - at least for trips around Texas, and into New Mexico - to flying.

The only thing it lacks is a blogger detector .... this past weekend, on a trip to a tourney in San Angelo, we passed within a few miles of Cowtown Pattie (who was visiting Robert Lee), and never knew it :-(

There was a boycott? How did I miss that?

Hey Jeff, no doubt, there are times when you do need a vehicle of that size and passenger capacity - although a less hip 6-cylinder minivan could possibly seat more folks and almost certainly get superior m.p.g. - we used to have a Grand Caravan that seated 7 adults.

My issue is with folks who use those hulking, 8-cylinder, resource burning beasts as single (or at most double) occupant commuter vehicles.

Then of course, there's my other rant about how we paid less for our nice home just a little over 12 years ago than many of the beastly SUV & pickups that I see being used as commuter vehicles cost. Of course, it isn't any of my business how people spend their money, but it does seem a bit foolish to piffle away close to $50k on an automibile when, if you're frugal, that would be far more than half the price of a very decent house even with the Basin's current grossly inflated property values.