Consider this: 1 US gallon = 128 US fluid ounces
Here on Maui, a gallon of regular gasoline sells for about $2.599 while 16 Oz’s of Starbucks coffee goes for roughly $1.75. I’m sure you’ve seen others do the math, but bear with me. Using these figures, a gallon of Starbucks coffee will cost you more than $37. Imagine if instead of burning gas, your car required coffee? What’s my point? STOP YOUR FUCKING WHINING ABOUT THE PRICE OF GASOLINE! You want to whine about something, whine about how much I spend on coffee every fucking day of my adult life! Sending two pygmy orphans from darkest Africa to Disneyland for a week would cost less.
I hear people fuming about the price of gasoline (the cost of milk, bread, fruit, etc) all the time here on Maui, mostly from tourists who I meet in my wanderings. I try to be polite, really I do, but sometimes I just have to push back a little. I gently explain to them that all things considered, a gallon of gasoline is one of the cheaper gallons of anything you can buy these days. A tourist will have absolutely no qualm dropping a deuce and change for a cup of Joe, but balks when faced with paying the same for a whole gallon of gas! Sometimes they need more than gentle prodding to admit that their perceptions are warped and that my friends and neighbors is when things get ugly.
I’ve had more than my fair share of arguments standing in line at Starbucks. I’ve been called numerous names and have responded in kind on every occasion. I could just walk away, true. But where’s the fun in that? Today a woman called me a stupid beach bum when I tried to explain how the cup of coffee she clutched in her gnarled fingers was 21 times more expensive by the ounce than a gallon of gas. I won’t repeat what I said in response, but will say she left red faced and humiliated. I don’t think she’ll count me among the friendly natives when she thinks back on this vacation.