not really a rant. but almost.

A few years ago my my brother and I got into an argument over whether or not my friend’s car could fit into the back of his truck. He had never seen the little auto, or anything like it, but he knew cars, he said, and there was no way one could climb into the bed of his pick up. He was wrong.

Yesterday we were driving down Interstate 77. Memorial Day traffic was already backed up by lunch time. For kicks and giggles I noted the ratio of SUVs (I count trucks and vans in this category too) to plain old normal sized cars. Seventy-two out of a hundred on the first go around. Seventy-nine on the second. Good grief!

Last weekend The European got into a discussion with an extended family member over the price of petrol.

“Really though,” he said, looking at a driveway full of SUVs, “Compared to the rest of the world, you Americans are spoiled when it comes to things like this.”

“Not the working man,” said a short little Mexican who isn’t really a Mexican at all but who looks enough like one so as to be confused. “The working man can’t make it in this country. Not with gas prices like this.”

“Well, in my country – or any other country I’ve ever been to – the working man doesn’t drive an SUV or a monster truck or a minivan bigger than a house. And they still pay over $7 a gallon for petrol.”

He was right.

My mother gets mad whenever I mentioned gas guzzlers or public smoking bans and says it all sounds very communist to her. But it’s true. I’m not gonna get all environmental and jump down someone’s throat because they drive an Expedition or a Hemi. My sister has both and I’ve never heard her mention gas prices in her life. But please people. Don’t bring home a 600 pound gorilla and then moan because you can’t afford to feed it.