In an adjoining gas lane, Cindy Wright spoke of the pain high gas prices cause the single mothers who make up many of the clients at the public health clinic in Torrington, where she is a nurse.

"They can't afford to drive," she said. In another sign of the times, Ms. Wright said, a relative who owns an auto repair shop arrived at work one morning recently to find that thieves had siphoned gas from vehicles left there overnight.

Of course, similar stories elsewhere abound:

• What's behind $3-a-gallon gas?
• Gas prices forcing some boaters to rethink plans
• Gas prices teach life lessons: Parents, help teens figure out how they'll cope with ugly reality of $3 or more a gallon
• What are you doing differently because of higher gas prices?

What about you, TOD readers? Have you substantially changed your normal patterns in the past few weeks? Have you started to make sacrifices in other lifestyle choices in order to keep up with your addiction to oil? (That's a tongue-in-cheek use of the phrase, OK?)