Your Humble Editor was at the gas pumps of a local establishment earlier this week when he overheard a conversation a few feet away.

A young child was leaning out of the window of a vehicle, repeatedly asking his mother if he could get something to eat because he was hungry.

The mother finally sighed, and said, "Mommy needs to spend her money on gas to get back and forth to work."

Has it come to this?

What kind of sacrifices are being made in order to be able to afford gasoline?

As this is being written, the cost of one gallon of regular gasoline is nearing $2.40 locally.  Some say we can soon expect to pay $2.50 a gallon.

Wow...

Horrified (or just plain unable) to fill their tanks, many people have gotten used to stopping for a quick splash of $5 worth of gas.

Five dollars for two gallons of gas.  How far will that get you?

We certainly aren't targeting local store owners because they are at the mercy of their suppliers who, in turn, are at the mercy of people above them.

But how long will it be before delivery services must cut back on their routes?

Will truck drivers be forced to limit their runs?

Will our children have to miss out on things like school field trips, extracurricular activities and "away games" due to high gas prices?

Ever-changing fuel prices make it impossible for households and businesses to establish (or keep) budgets.

Some say we will just have to pay the high prices and go on.

But we honestly feel it's getting to a point of hardship for many.  People are suffering, and it's beginning to show.

Take last week's 127 Corridor Sale, for instance.  Many vendors we spoke with said the number of shoppers was down drastically -- possibly because of high gas prices.

And if you pay real close attention, have you noticed you don't see as much traffic as before?

If you're like us, you may feel it is beyond time for the government to step in and do something.

Do they even care?