Is the gas tank half empty or half full?

In a sick way, I'm pretty happy that gasoline now costs around $4 a gallon, that the airlines are poised to nickel-and-dime us to death, and that just about everything is getting exorbitantly expensive due to the inherent fuel costs. In many ways, our culture has been built on this weird illusion that the oil was just going to flow cheaply forever. Now we're paying the piper. We are being forced by our pocket books to make changes.

Wasn't there a time when normal people didn't just fork over their hard earned dollars to fly to distant vacation locales? When you think about it, it's crazy that you can hop on a plane and be halfway around the world in a matter of hours. We don't fly much, but do have plans to vacation across the country in July. We've already bought the plane tickets for that. We also intend to fly to California next November for my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary. Both of these trips are extended family reunions, and I'm glad we'll be able to go. But I also think they may be the last plane trips we take for a good, long while. And maybe that's not such a bad thing. Who knows -- by November, if prices keep going up perhaps we'll take more time but travel by train to California instead.

Perhaps we will be forced to live more locally. I wish more of my family lived nearby, but wishes aren't fishes... We all make our own choices. I am glad to love the place we live. There's so much to see and do here. I don't think I'll miss vacations in far-flung places. Except for maybe France. I do hope to get back to France at least once before air traveling from here to there becomes totally out of reach.

Anyone else out there feeling just a wee bit happy that gas has become so darned expensive?