I have a horrible confession to make...I must rid myself of this burden...

I went snowboarding Monday at Mt. Snow, Vermont. I usually go with this one guy who skis, and is the epitome of the hard workin' Joe. He has all his sick days and personal time figured out six months in advance, and rations his mid-week trips to the slopes, where we use local ski-club passes to get wicked-cheap lift tickets. (I'm "just an artist," therefore I don't really work :hippie: ) and he volunteered to drive to Mt. Snow since the Family Truckster was in the shop. I offer this background information for a reason. We have kind this kind of weird Oscar-Felix thing going on, wherein he plays the tough guy and I'm the faggy artsy guy. Our daily lives couldn't be more different, yet we get along great, even though he displays an outward disdain for us faggy artsy types who don't really work for a living and can still afford to go fucking snowboarding when he has to take time off from his crummy 60-hour-week job yada yada yada. Get the picture? Despite the differences, I like and respect the guy, mainly because he is as honest as the day is long, and has more integrity in his little finger than most people have in their entire bodies. Anyway, I won't bore you with illustrations of this guy's character, but plug in your own stereotypical image of a son-of-immigrants factory worker who has never forgotten an obligation, never missed a child support payment...

I've written about him before. His family has always voted republican. He never knew why other than that is what dad always told them to do, and always bitched about democrats, so he grew up voting republican. George W. Bush in 2004 turned him away from the republican ticket for the first time in his life. So there is hope for him! He is well-versed on the Wal Mart issue, yet wont go so far as to not shop there...the deals are too good. Which brings me too my confession, and wrapping this all up in neat little package...we remain friends in large part because we generally avoid discussing politics at all costs. I'm probably as far left wing a friend as he has. He is open minded and fair, though, as I've said, and the fact that he cast his first non-republican vote against W (but not for Kerry) made me view him with a certain respect. He's not really a republican, he just doesn't realize that he's continually voting against his best interests. So anyway, on the way back from Mt. Snow Monday, I told him that I'd fill up the gas tank for the return trip home, just stop at a Citgo station someplace and they'll at least have Green Mountain coffee. We pass about five 'em between the mountain and the interstate. He suggests waiting until the entrance to I-91 in Greenfield, where there are multiple gas stations and a Dunkin' Donuts. He wanted to reach the big roads before dark, since it had been snowing all day. Fair enough.

We get to the interstate, and I am way ready for a cup of hot black coffee after 16 or 17 runs in fresh snow all day! That's when it happens...

He pulls into an Exxon station.

There is a Citgo across the street, but across a median; left-hand turn around the block required. "Uh, I don't use Exxon, man," I said. "Could you hit the Citgo station?" There was even another Citgo station on the other side of the highway, I believe owned by the same company just for this reason, to service both the north and southbound interstate traffic so they don't have to cross the turn around. I started to mention that, but he cut me off..."I came here specifically because it was on this side, and since we have to backtrack to get to Dunkin Donuts anyway..." He was missing my point...he didn't seem to catch the part about two Citgo stations. He obviously didn't want to hear my hippie boycott shit, and I finally resigned myself to the fact that I never stipulated WHERE I'd gas up his car, and it wasn't worth the aggravation, when he said "Citgo, they're probably owned by Exxon anyway, aren't they? They're all the same!"

I got as far as "Actually, they're owned by the Venezuelan government, who is paying for heating oil assistance in Massachusetts..." and he already had the nozzle in the tank, waiting for me, both of us freezing our asses off in the 19 degree wind.

So, for the first time since the Valdez accident, I made a purchase at an Exxon station! By fucking credit card, no less. My name, actually scanned into one of their systems. AAARRGHHHH. We gassed up, and 17 of my mamby-pampy candy-assed artist dollars electronically transferred to the ledger sheets of the biggest, nastiest, horriblest corporation on earth. It had been such a great day of snowboarding, on fresh powder all day. It was like I was carving perfect tracks in the pristine snow, came over a rise, and all that snow was covered in crude.

We crossed under the interstate to the Dunkin Donuts..."I think the Carlyle Group is buying these guys," I managed not to say. *sigh* As we backtracked to the hiway, we passed the other Citgo station. My friend said "Hey, there's a Citgo right there, too! We'll have to remember that for next time!"

I feel like one of those oily cormorants on the shores of Prince William Sound.

Just chalk it up to experimental error.

good.:eyes:

It's not like you were filling the tank of a monster king cab pickup truck to the tune of fifty bucks, and you did try to get him to go elsewhere.

He's just thoughtless right now. Perhaps in the future he won't be. However, the next time you offer to pay, tell him you'll pay ONLY if he finds a Citgo station. Don't bother with the harangue, just tell him you've done a lot of research on the subject and that's just the way it is.

He'll make that left turn.

after he pays for his friends gas then he should lecture him. I would, and I would start off by saying this gas is gonna cost you something (time/education not $)

It was probably good my car -- a six-cylinder 4x4 -- was in the shop, although I sure would have felt better with it in all that snow on the mountain roads! Saved us a bundle on gas. It was $2.24 along the interstate, up about .12¢ in the last couple weeks.

Atman. Don't beat yourself up over it. At least you care enough to always buy Citgo. That's what's important. :hug: Donate to the Wildlife Federation, you'll cleanse your soul. ;)

that's what's important.

follow your principles when you can -- and when you can't give yourself a break.

We didn't expect it, but it was snowing like crazy, so there was fresh snow on every run. Best conditions I've seen this early in the season in a long time. Good bumps if you like 'em (I don't!) and most of the trails open. Enjoy!

You can't always control what other people do.
If this dude didn't want to go to Citgo out of convenience than there is nothing you could do to stop him you were not driving.

It's an apt metaphor for the country you know.

We don't want this shit.. but because other people do not want to think,don't want to hear the truth,change the way they live,don't want to be inconvenienced we take shit. And because many left wingers don't want to be assertive,risk offending the offensive,and do not want to assert themselves even if it makes the other party resentful or burdened..Too much we on the left are like passengers in a SUV unable to screw up the courage and assertive action to wrest the wheel away from the right wing,take responsibility away from the irresponsible who do not care about the ethics of the corporations they get gas from because they need gas,and gas is gas in their simplistic self absorbed minds.You can enlighten until you are bluer in the face, if they do not want to be "enlightened" they won't be. You can't force someone to care. But you can force them to comply with better policies by TAKING the CONTROL away from the ignorant by any means that works.And "enlightenment" is ineffective against changing people that don't give a shit..

I salute your patience.

So, i take it your friend didn't actually get the message about citgo and the heating oil?

He works his ass off to heat his home and this winter he broke into savings and spent $2400 to install a wood stove so he'd be ready for high oil prices, and he hasn't had to fill his tank once so far, and he's spent every weekend gathering/cutting/stacking wood, but boy it sure is warm in the house, and he isn't asking anyone to help him fill HIS oil tank! Y'know what I mean?

I bought something at Wal-mart the other day (but not with my money, still I felt bad about it).

I think I'll have to shop at Target next week, also... and maybe Best Buy.

For groceries, I go either to Whole Foods for Kroger (where I also get gas).

The way megasizing works, we're not given many choices any more.

I console myself with the fact that I'm not addicted to consumption... and I've invested
in alternative fuel and energy companies, which aren't doing very well right now.

Sue

THAT anti-Repuke... I buy my flavored water at Wal-Mart!!!!

But mostly I make my husband go do it. I do ALL the other grocery shopping, but since I don't really ENJOY plain water (yes, its' better for you) I need a little incentive to drink "my daily fluid" intake!!

SCREECH!! We are ALL compromised in some way so don't feel so bad! But I DO fill-up at CITGO!!

I've not spent a penny at Exxon since Valdez. I'd rather run out of gas. I'd rather walk in traffic with gas cans. I'd rather get coal in my stocking at Christmas -- the ones I wear. I won't even use their rest rooms. I'd rather pee my pants.
:silly:

not quite as bad as the other oil companies but close. Besides Citgo is out of my way so screw them.

there are Citgo stations owned by Exxon and Exxon stations owned by Chevron. Most are owned and operated independantly of the oil companies themselves, and simply contract with the larger companies for the use of their logo. All the gas is the exact same stuff (with maybe some additives.

in fact, if you were in Vermont, the odds are good that the gasoline was bought, by the stations, from Bradford Oil (www.bradfordoil.com/wholesale) the largest purveyors of wholesale gasoline in New Hampshire and Vermont, selling to both ExxonMobil stations and Citgo stations.

I appreciate the idea of the boycott, but it's really not worth going out of your way for, the only way to really hurt the oil companies is to stop buying their products altogether.

I appreciate what you're saying. Do you know anything about Citgo in MA? They seem to have a long, peculiar relationship with the state.

(my dad lives in Shelburne Falls) It's probably from Rice Petroleum (also in Greenfield) www.ricecompanies.com/petroleum.html in fact, if it's the one on Mohawk Trail, it is Rice (http://www.ricecompanies.com/cstoresmass.html) most likely, since they wholesale everything else at the place. And the Mobil as well. It's the exact same stuff, from the same company. With a different label slapped on it.

Just won't do it.

And he said.."Hey, there's a Citgo right there, too! We'll have to remember that for next time" People change a little at a time..and you never know what just one word will do to help that change occur. He did hear your message...and he will remember it...and he may now at least "try" to buy Citgo and he will now see Citgo stations and remember them...he will, I believe...begin to buy Citgo gas only. Your message was heard.

Allllllll that reading, and the whole story was about you *gasp* having to buy exxon LOL

I mean, I appreciate the Citgo vs others issue etc, but when I saw the thread title and the short novel therein, I thought for certain it would be a story worthy of my time. Talk about being deflated when I got to the end LOL

I know this obviously meant a lot to you and I'm sorry you did something you were against, but it probably could've been summed up with a "I gotta get this off my chest guys, my buddy and I went skiing the other day and on the way home I said I'd buy the gas. I mentioned Citgo but he just ignored me and pulled into an exxon. I tried to plead but in the end, since I promised to buy gas but didn't stipulate where, I had to actually buy that fucking exxon gas. Aaaaarghh, I don't believe it!" See? that probably woulda had me feel like I hadn't wasted so much time LOL

:)

Of course it was a story! An amusing mental exercise on a slow afternoon. If I'd wanted to tell it your way, I could have, sure. But then you might not have even got one LOL out of it.

station I would have been deprived of this GREAT story! You have a gift of story telling.