Jasper Jones

The price of gasoline continues to drop. There is plenty of gas available now, although after Hurricane Ike hit southern Texas we had terrible shortages the whole month of September. Thankfully my job is not far from the school campus, so I can get back and forth on less than one tank of gas if I don’t drive anywhere else.

I just filled up again this afternoon for only $1.59 a gallon at the BP. That is a huge savings over what we were paying back in August. The worst I saw was at $4.21 a gallon right before Labor Day. Being able to fill up now, just 2 months later, for under $25 is a great relief.

Is it just me? Or are there a lot more motorcycles on the road now? It seems like the parking lot at school has a big chunk of parking for motorcycles and scooters, as well as the old fashioned two wheeled bicycles, too.

My dad even has a motorcycle now. He bought a Harley Davidson from a guy that works for him who couldn’t keep up the payments. So my dad took over the payments and gave the guy an extra $500.

That opens up a whole wide range of Christmas gift ideas for what I can get for my dad this year. I’ve been looking at the web site called Biker Hiway and found some gift ideas, like motorcycle helmets.

Even if he already has a helmet, in Tennessee if you have a rider on the bike, both people must be wearing helmets. So I can buy him a scorpion exo 1000 and he can either use it for his own or use it when he takes someone for a ride. I just have to make up my mind if I want to get him the scorpion or the shoei rf 1000. They are both rad helmets and the cost is about the same. So I have to see which style my dad might like and just go with it.

According to Consumer Reports Magazine, if you are thinking about buying a new car this year you should factor in a number of costs above and beyond the sticker price of the car, such as

• the loan interest rate,
• depreciation,
• fuel economy and
• typical maintenance and repair expenses.

The average car’s maintenance and repairs should run about 4 per cent of the total cost of the car over a five year. Using this method, the magazine released their picks for the top 10 most expensive cars for maintenance and the 10 least expensive cars to maintain. Interesting list and even more interesting is that my car is not on either list.

With more and more families living paycheck to paycheck, any interruption to that paycheck can put a family in crisis.

My Uncle Mike was on his way home from work back in June when another driver crashed into his car and put him in the hospital for a week. He has been going to physical therapy three times a week and taking lots of medications. And obviously he isn’t able to work right now. So in cases like this, who pays the bills while he can’t work?

People seem to think that the car insurance companies are going to help you. In reality, the insurance company might help get the car fixed, but they aren’t going to help make the house payment and keep the utilities on, buy the prescription medications and take care of all the daily things for my Uncle.

At least Uncle Mike found out about a company that helps front you some money while your lawsuit is pending. They work with your lawyer to evaluate your case and if they think you are going to win in court they provide pre-settlement funding so you have money to pay the bills and get by until you can go back to work. You can apply right online and get an answer quick, and for lots of people this is a lifeline for desperate times.

Not everyone has access to a lot of cash for emergencies and of course accidents can happen at the worst possible time. So at least there are some places that can help tide you over. I’m writing about it here so if I ever have a problem I can come back here to find the link and get in touch with this company.

Do you ever just click on sites and type in random word URLs into the address bar? I do it every once in a while and come up with some pretty interesting places.

Just poking around looking at car sites, I came across a web site for used cars that has a lot more on it than just listings of cars. I started out at this site because they have a blog. It’s been all things blog for me this summer. If a site has a blog then I’m reading it.

But the purpose of the site is to help people find a good used car and other things that are car related. So if you are looking to buy a car, check out Netcars.co.uk and you will find listings of thousands of cars. But wait, there’s more! If you find the car you want and need to buy insurance, this site can help with that, too. You can compare quotes from up to 50 different insurance companies to find cheap car insurance.

If you need help with financing the car, there are links to help with that. And if you want to check out its accident and repair history, there’s a link for that. They have news, reviews and a forum to share your questions or thoughts with other users.

This site also makes it easy to sell your car. You can advertise here, including posting up to 6 photos, for 2 weeks. If I was going to sell my car this is where I would advertise. All of these features are easy to find and easy to use. So if you are surfing for cars and ready to buy, this is a good place to start your search for all things auto.