A bit over a decade ago, my wife was the pastor of a small rural congregation of the United Church of Christ in southern Illinois, and I worked for the county mental health agency in the next county. We lived in the century old parsonage next to the church and a cemetery that dated back to the Civil War and half-a-mile from the nearest neighbor.

Neat as that was, we were also 10 miles from the nearest gas station. Even so, I would often play the "how low can you go" game with my car's gas gauge in the last few days before payday -- and inevitably lost the bet five miles from the nearest gas station. Fortunately, a county sheriff happened by a few minutes later and took me to town for gas. It never dawned upon me that there might be something newsworthy about my situation.

But the fine folks at the Washington Post seem to think there is.

Brent Saba had just dropped a church group off at Philadelphia International Airport on Sunday morning and was heading north on Interstate 95 when it happened: His 15-passenger van ran out of gas.

Saba, a 24-year-old church pastor, made it to the shoulder just past the Ben Franklin Bridge and waited more than 30 minutes for someone to stop and lend him a cell phone. Then he waited a while longer for AAA to arrive with fuel.

With gas prices hovering at $4 a gallon, motorists like Saba are putting less fuel in their tanks _ then coming up empty on the highway.

Though national statistics on out-of-gas motorists don't exist, there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that drivers unwilling or unable to fill 'er up are gambling by keeping their tanks extremely low on fuel.

DUH! If you put less gas in the tank you run out sooner or need to fill up more often. If you run out of gas because you have tried to stretch enough fuel for 150 miles to drive 200 miles, you are not going to be successful unless you have gale force tail winds at all times.

And the MSM thinks this is news? I guess there aren't any serious issues to report on.

Posted by: Greg at 12:50 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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