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Summer school is in session, which will certainly reduce the frequency of my posts, since any energy I have for writing would be better served composing papers for class.  I am taking “Age of Johnson”, the Johnson in question being Samuel Johnson; a class on Florida history; and another class on Romanticism, hoping I might be able to use what bits of information are still fresh in my mind from the spring semester.

The most agonizing part about summer school is that, with class occurring every day, any assignments are due the following day, whereas in fall or spring you have at least 48 hours before the subsequent session.

Another agonizing thing is paying $55 for a book which has almost identical contents to one I already own, but is just different enough to necessitate my purchasing it.

Six months’ post office box fee: $29.  When I first opened the box in late 2001, the fee was $19.  That’s about a 50% increase in less than seven years, and further proof that the cost of everything is rising faster than wages.

Eight summers ago milk was $2.99/gallon; gasoline was less than $1.50/gallon.  As prices for gas have steadily climbed since 2001, I imagined there would be a point at which milk would cost less than gas.  In fact, I thought that $4.00 would be that threshold.  Not so: milk is now $4.25.

Prices for oil took their biggest leap ever today, to $138.54.  Gas is already well over $4/gallon at most stations in Gainesville; $25 put only a half a tank in our Beetle a few nights ago.  These high fuel prices are making everything we buy more expensive.

I have no proof, but I am making a prediction: these high oil prices are a scandal waiting to be uncovered, quite like the high energy prices in California in 2000.

Today is Miriam’s birthday, and although I want it to be the most super-special day ever, the reality is that she and I are both at work.  On this date in previous years we have been in Venice (2001) or Miami (2006), or even in honeymoon bliss. It’s a sorry testament to the weak Dollar ($.64 to the euro) and the unprecedented high price of gasoline ($4.01 in Gainesville this morning) that we are unable to make as many pleasure trips on our own dime.  Miriam’s work, fortunately, is making up the difference, and later this month we’ll be in Chicago for a few days.  Later this year we may go to South Carolina and Washington, D.C. 

On the plus side, however, we are among the very fortunate who have been unaffected by the housing crisis, or the recent budget cuts at the University of Florida that have cost many their jobs.  We can still afford to have dinner out with friends and if I wanted to I could probably have the good root beer that comes in glass bottles.

So, Angel, happy birthday.  I promise that on some future birthday I’ll give you a kiss atop the Arc de Triomphe.