four cents

i buy gas these days at the snowco store.

for all of you from away, that would be a store that sells sunoco gasoline. it happens to be the only gas station in my town, and unless you count the deli up at the ski mountain, it is the only store in my town.

it costs four cents a gallon more to buy gas there than a lot of places on most days. it costs me a dollar and a half more every ten days or so, but i think of it as a small investment in the place.

you maybe don't need to think about it, but if your one and only local gas station goes out of business, that might could be trouble for you.

plus there's a lot of road construction on route two, and so far this season the decreased business on account of the construction has cost the store owner thirty thousand dollars.

so far.

how would you be doing if your business revenue was down thirty thousand dollars halfway through the year?

you might hope your neighbors would pay the extra four cents a gallon.