Where’s My Hovercraft?

If it’s not one thing it’s another. The stock market seems to have stabilized for a while, jobs are being created, albeit slowly, and housing’s not as bad as it used to be.

In fact, pending home sales in California climbed in January from December, and were up from a year ago, according to a recent California Association of Realtors’ report.

Now there’s climbing gas prices.

U.S. gas prices were up nearly 9 percent toward the end of February since the beginning of the year, according to the Energy Information Agency. Gas hit an average of $3.65 a gallon in late February, a record for this time of the year.

According to a survey late last month from Rasmussen Reports, most Americans think gas will top $4 a gallon in the next few months and most surveyed think we could even see $5 per gallon. The report shows 55 percent of Americans think it is at least somewhat likely gas will reach $5 per gallon or more in the next few months.

But instead of wondering what this’ll do to our still-fragile economy, it got me to asking myself: Where’s my hovercraft?

I attribute that oddball, borderline-zany, thought in part to a comment from a reader on InsuranceJournal.com. The comment was on a story about the Washington Senate passing a $100 annual electric car fee to make up for the lack of gas taxes electric car owners pay.

The reader, going by “Baxtor,” stated: “I wonder if they’ll (tax) hover crafts when we get them? They don’t use the roads. They’ve been talking about those since I was a kid.”

They have been talking about hovercraft for a long time. When I was in grade school in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I remember my science teacher talking about such possibilities when we hit year 2000. I had recently seen “Star Wars,” and I even had plans on how I’d have my hovercar decked out.

I also recall the oil crisis around that time that had the entire nation questioning its dependence on foreign oil.

As it turns out, 30 years later we’re still calling into question our use of fossil fuels and only now are we starting to turn to electric vehicles, hybrids and other alternatives discussed so long ago.

And like Baxtor, I’ll just continue to daydream about my hovercraft.