Lifestyles of the poor and nameless

Why is gas SO expensive?! Usually, gas at my local station costs $1.89. It was like that for weeks. When I first moved to PA, I was kinda skeptical of going there. It looked pretty shabby, the sign was never lit up, and "Diane" told me that she buys her gas on the main street where gas was $2.10/gallon at the time. But, because I was cheap (or economical as I prefer to say), I figured Diane was just being bougie, and I'd go to the nearby bootleg gas station; I'd just pray that they weren't putting cooking oil in the tank.

I kept going there for the next couple weeks and it was always $1.89. The car didn't shut down on me, so I continued to go back. Then I went away one weekend and when I came back, the station had a brand new neon sign....and the price was $1.94. I figured it must be a temporary thing, so I'd wait it out. When I got back from work that afternoon it was $1.99! I decided not to wait anymore. Good thing, because in the space of 2 days, it went up to $2.02. It seems to have leveled off at $2.04, but since the U.S. government is graciously giving out free fuel to the good people of Iraq, I'm sure that U.S. citizens will be seeing an increase in gas prices in the near future. They don't call it CRUDE oil for nothing (hardy har har).