fuel cost

FUEL COST


After our discussion of my burning desire to flee screaming like a little girl, which has of course not passed but at least has somewhat subsided, I had another clever idea. I haven’t made up my mind weather I should leave the relatively crowded confines of suburbia northern Nevada style, but that paranoia and fear are tampered by a few cold hard facts. At my present location I have several options financially- if I move I have no option B. If I leave I will avoid fighting off starving masses but I also have no social contacts that might prove useful after a crash. In effect I would be a hermit wandering in after the fact with nothing to offer anyone other than my shining hair. Also, the water issue. Five miles from the river, even with rain catchment and storage, I would still be much more vulnerable with the water issue which might negate the advantages of moving ( I don’t think a well would be successful there even if I had the money to drill ). But my idea was this. Instead of picking some damn expensive Yuppie idea for a secondary location like a $3k storage container, a $500 shed ( both with huge neon letters on them saying “steal me” ) or whatever, I can easily go with the “underground tent/cache”. If I dig a two foot wide trench eight foot long and three foot deep, in theory I can dig the thing in one visit ( leaving a hole for discovery might not be a great idea ). Put in the buckets of wheat, some water, some wool clothes, a filter and grinder and if I really want to get fancy a firearm with ammo. Dig the edges away from the trench to hold cross brace 2x4’s, a covering sheet of plywood and a few inches of dirt over a piece of plastic sheeting. In a separate location dig a shallow spot for a shovel and pick. No one will know its there unless they step on it. Come time to use your supplies, dig into the side of the trench and use the space for a sleeping area, which should still be pretty cozy even if it isn’t very deep ( have another piece of wood, a reflecting blanket or whatever for a door over the access hole ). No one sees the thing and the cost is $25 in wood and plastic ( in theory you could buy a used pick and shovel at a garage sale for a few bucks each ). Of course, my location has dense dirt where shoring isn’t a necessity- I realize it is still dangerous to sleep in a trench like this without framing, but come on! You are homeless AFTER the collapse with no supplies or shelter in this scenario.

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We haven’t blathered about bicycles for a time. Let’s just revisit or pedaled friends with an eye towards fuel cost. First off, I trust you all now have a dependable bike after the reports coming out of Tokyo which stated ALL bikes had been bought up and folks were either fleeing with them or using them as the sole means of transportation. In Japan, most workers either live close to work or with mass transit in mind. And the bicycle is by no means rare there. The government never went out of their way to make owning a car easy, what with taxes and what not. And I’m sure gasoline isn’t cheap. Here in the Oil Age Wonderland, we live vast distances from work, place our resupply stations even further away, and ninety percent of us would have a heart attack if put atop a bicycle. So now is the time to get used to riding one. Japan showed us how easy it was for the supply to instantly disappear and how even in more favorable carless environments it was easy to be stranded without transportation. I would be accused of being rude and uncompassionate if I wished upon a falling star for The Big One to rip LA from the state of California out into sea forming its own country without fresh water or food, but please remember that you don’t need the same set of circumstances as Japan to see transportation issues ( although I’m positive that the New Madrid earthquake will be much worse than the Japanese quake, and our twin disasters will be that and Yellowstone blowing- watch out Creekmore! ). Just a continuation of middle east tensions could see our oil imports dry up overnight. And boy howdie will a bike come in handy right about then. Just have a good lock to keep your suddenly priceless asset safe.

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Even if fuel is available, at four dollar gasoline the car has far higher fuel cost than a bike. Obviously. But let’s do the math. It takes fifty calories a mile to ride a bike. That is exactly one cent a mile, using whole wheat flour you grind yourself. In contrast, just the auto insurance for a car will be a minimum of three cents a mile. And gasoline twelve cents even for a nice fuel efficient vehicle which you won’t be able to get replacement parts for very soon ( I can almost guarantee you that getting those factories back up in a radioactive zone with a surrounding population of starving and freezing unemployed in an imploded economy with fuel costs skyrocketing [ the nukes were all that was available for the available energy, they weren’t used because they were cheaper than petroleum ] is simply NOT going to happen ). Even without any needed maintenance, without factoring in purchase cost, best case fuel economy and lowest available insurance, the cost of operating a bike verses a car is 1 to 15. If you are making payments the difference is obscene. But just the gas cost on an old paid for rice burner should underline for you the urgency of getting in shape and peddling. I can almost assure you that the ratio will widen. And remember, in a car, one day the fuel won’t be available. On a bike, if the fuel isn’t available you will be dead, so transportation will be the least of your worries.

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