Gas Prices

Gas prices reached $4.049 / gallon in Pennsylvania today . . . meaning that I'm saving $10.75 in gas today. In actuality, though, money savings might actually be significantly bit higher when I bike in. Sure, there's stuff like automotive maintenance, but I'm talking about lunch here -- when I bike in, I really force myself to keep to whatever food I can bring with me and/or keep at the office (and, because food is relatively heavy, I typically try to keep fruit, granola bars, oatmeal, and the like at the office at all times). Those of you how know me know that I have a healthy appetite -- and I wouldn't be surprised if I save an additional $6/day in food alone when I bike in.

Of course, today is different, as my wonderful wife drove in with Wyatt to have lunch with me. See, we participate in a veggie box, and they included strawberries in this week's package. Being me, I left them at home, so she offered to bring them to me, and we had lunch while she was here. I'm still not sure if the following counts as a "salad", but it was good, and biking 20 miles in 90° heat will undo most of the damage:

• salad greens
• carrots
• tomato
• steak
• bacon
• bleu cheese crumbles
• onion rings
• bleu cheese dressing
• honey oat roll with butter

It was yummy, if not exactly "healthy" like a salad is supposed to be.

Another real benefit of the ride is the audiobooks that I'm listening to -- mind you, I typically am listening to some sort of audiobook whenever I'm in the car, but spending two hours listening really makes for good progress. Right now, I'm about midway through Wolves of the Calla, book five of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. It's the best of the books thus far - I absolutely love how he intertwines characters and plots from his other stories without ever making the stories actually reliant on those other items. I mean, so far, there have been clear references to The Stand and 'Salem's Lot, and I'm sure there have been a bunch more. King just brings back memories of these stories, but never forgets that he's telling his own, new story. Anyway, the books are fun. Now, I need George R. R. Martin to finish up A Dance with Dragons from his Song of Ice and Fire series.