Gassing-up for the Labor Day weekend . . . last week.

Happy Labor Day!

Although it was never intended as such, Labor Day in most of North America is considered the unofficial end of summer and so most of us pack up the car and head out for our last big fling before hunkering down for a winter of discontent. This orgy of road travel means that everybody lines up at gas stations to fill up our cars, boat tanks, RV's, ATV's and gas cans.

Except for Alaskans, that is.

This year, we lined up a week early to fill up everything we could get our hands on.

The reason why is an overnight bump in the price at the pump that we all knew was coming.

On August 31st, the average price of gasoline in Anchorage was $3.18.

The price on September 1st was $3.27, a difference of eight cents.

That eight cent margin was the Alaska gasoline sales tax which, back in January when gasoline prices -- highest in the country then, and highest in the country now -- had begun to affect the economy.

The State Legislature placed the State gasoline tax on moratorium, giving us an eight-month-long, eight-cent-per-gallon break.

When that moratorium ended at the end of August, we all lined up (and did we ever!) to get the last of tax-free gas.**

So... even though Alaskans were lining up to head out of town this weekend most of us filled up last.

That, for guys with huge gas-guzzling tanks, was almost the end of life as they knew it.

For me and my non-gas-guzzling Toyota pickup with a 14-gallon tank and 23-miles-a-gallon fuel economy, that means an extra buck or so, each time I fill 'er up.

No biggie.

I leave five times that much as a tip each time I eat out.

So, here I sit on a beautiful Labor Day enjoying the sun, watching people feed the ducks and geese (not legal, btw) and maybe planning a short trip to Wasilla with the used utility trailer I plan to buy... and loving the quiet of the city while the gas-guzzling idiots are busy burning up the last of their cheaper carbon fuels.

I'll watch them fill their oversized gasoline tanks next week and smile.

It was an 8-cent holiday but it didn't last.

Eat that, Hummer driver.

**Tax-free gas means free of State tax only.

The federal gasoline tax never went away, of course.