leaf peeping

I met friends in Great Barrington over the past weekend for a movie with George Clooney and dinner with Koi. Good film. good food, good friends.

The drive was spectacular...the hills were alive with vibrating color. It was our collective opinion that we were dead center in Fall's prime leaf peeping weekend.

Although locals don't consider themselves in league with the peepers, I have to admit to not being able to keep my eyes on the road while I drove. I found myself drifting over the center dotted and solid lines more than once as I kept the hills in sight instead of the road. Luckily, very little traffic impeded me. Unless one was driving blind ...one could not help but do a little overdosing in the cornucopia of tantalizing colors through which the roads tunneled.

the first gas buy

Before I left home I had to pull out the Prius "manual. " It was time to figure out what sort of gasoline the car takes. I hadn't reason to fill up the tank since I brought the car home about a month ago. In fact, I still had about a quarter of a tank of gas in the car. The car's trip information computer tells me I am averaging about 45 mpg. Not bad. I stopped and put in $10 worth of medium grade gasoline which filled the tank half full. I figure this will last quite a long time at my rate of consumption (or the Prius'). I drive only 3-4 times a week, mostly short trips in the countryside. However a short trip in the mountains, when nothing is close by is always 15 minutes to a half hour before you reach a destination. So, $10 for gasoline every 3 weeks won't be too difficult to digest for the Prius or me. I expect to save about $25 a month on gasoline...the more I drive, the more I'll save. Not to mention the $700 tax deduction for buying a hybrid vehicle.

Pretty easy to figure out that the initial cost of the automobile will be offset by the dollars NOT spent in gasoline and federal taxes...making the car actually even less expensive to own and use on a monthly and annual basis.

Almost too good to be true, isn't it? Eat your heart out you non-hybrid drivers. I hear the price of gas just jumped again yesterday too. O.K., so maybe I'll be spending $13 a month for gasoline instead of $10. And you'll be spending what?

By the way, I am not driving a Prius for the gasoline dollars I'm not going to spend (although damn, it's a wonderful plus)...I'm driving a hybrid for the carbon emissions I'm not going to be responsible for creating.