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PLEASE bear with me. If you haven’t cared enough to notice, I’ve
been bitching about fuel prices the past few weeks. Who hasn’t?
Unless you’re a major stockholder in Petron, you’ll definitely
feel the pinch of these very trying times. My conversations with
friends during drinking sessions have been reduced to prolonged
whining about fuel prices. The only glimmer of consolation for us
drinkers is the fact that beer is now cheaper than unleaded
gasoline. Especially if you happen to drink at roadside watering
holes where beer is cheapest.
Just the other night, I discussed the issue with
my editor, and he said he spent about P350 on fuel every day just to
drive from his house in Marikina to this paper’s offices in Manila
and then back home again. I told him I probably spent around P200
daily to go to work. The fact I shell out P150 less than he does
every day is no source of comfort for me. Two-hundred bucks still
hurts. It could buy you two decent meals already.
And so the belt-tightening begins. Where do you
start? Which expenses do you cut down on? Which purchases are based
on needs, and which ones are simply motivated by wants? Do you forgo
Friday nights with the boys? Try answering these questions and see
if you don’t groan. Desperate times do call for desperate
measures. They call for the kicking of bad habits and the forming of
good ones. Or, to be exact, they call for the kicking of expensive
habits and the forming of economical ones.
More important, there’s the matter of
reforming the way we use our cars. Some say they’ll counter the
fuel-price hike by practicing eco-driving, not revving past 2,000rpm
nor going faster than 80kph. Others say they’ll plan their trips
better. Or share cars with friends and neighbors. Or discard their
SUV in favor of a small car. The resolutions are endless, which sort
of makes you wonder why it had to take this current crisis for us to
start adopting positive motoring habits.
My own driving resolution? I’ll never fall in
love again. Yes, you read that right. Never again will I get
suckered into this thing called romance. You know, that phenomenon
that makes you do things that directly or indirectly take their toll
on your fuel tank. What has falling in love got to do with fuel
economy? Allow me to explain.
When you’re in love, you constantly have the
itch to be with the other person. On weekdays, you fetch her from
work. And because you want to spend time with her, you don’t drive
her straight home. So you go to a restaurant or a bar, or you simply
just go for a spin. Either way, you waste fuel. Actually, you
already wasted fuel the instant you decided to load your car with
one more adult body—which wouldn’t be the case if you were
pathetically single.
I remember going out with someone who lived in
Susana Heights in the south. She was one of the most geographically
unappealing dates I have ever had. But because I led myself to
believe I was in love, I would defy logic on a daily basis and offer
to drive her home. Which would have been all right if my house
wasn’t located in Baclaran. I cannot now bring myself to compute
the total amount of fuel I burned—there were even occasions when I
took her home in a hulking Ford Expedition—just because of that
warm, fuzzy feeling I thought I had in my stomach. Good thing fuel
wasn’t that expensive then. (Which was probably why I didn’t
mind the folly of it all.)
When you’re in love, you drive to the rarest
of flower shops or the oldest of churches or the farthest of beaches
just to impress her. All of which do nothing to help you save on
fuel. You offer to drive her mom to the supermarket. You volunteer
to fetch her sister from the airport. You insist on bringing her
whole family to their province. Very chivalrous indeed—and also
very hurtful to the wallet.
You want to really minimize your fuel expenses?
Take my advice: Hold the thought of falling in love until after the
price of fuel stabilizes again. If you’re a sucker for romance and
can’t help it, find someone who drives her own car. Or someone who
lives next door. Until you find such a person, believe me, it’s
better to stay home and be miserable. It’s not the most pleasant
feeling in the world, but at the very least your car is still
running.
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