"It's getting up there, but it's not at that point yet where I have to do anything drastic about my driving," said Kenny Nguyen of McCully. "Right now, I'm just being kind of conservative — just kind of watching how much gas I use."

Nguyen was filling up his Honda Civic yesterday at the Chevron station on the corner of Beretania and Ke'eaumoku streets, where the cost of gasoline ranged from $2.17 to $2.37 a gallon.

"It's pretty annoying," Nguyen said. "I don't really understand why this is happening."

Across the pump, Jon Rhee of Tantalus was thinking the same thing.

"It's really unbelievable," he said. "I'm waiting for one good explanation why prices have gone up so high, so quickly."

Rhee is one of many Hawai'i residents who have had to make adjustments for the rising cost of gasoline.

"Nowadays, I always make sure I turn in my mileage forms at work," said Rhee, a clerk at a downtown law firm. "You can't afford to be giving it away anymore."

Last week, the average price for regular gasoline rose to a record $2.091 a gallon on O'ahu, pushing the statewide average to a high of $2.182, according to AAA travel club. Hawai'i trails only California for the dubious distinction of having the nation's highest gas prices.

At Costco Gasoline in Iwilei yesterday afternoon, the price for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline was $1.919. That's why the eight pump queues ran at least nine cars deep, with overflow gas buyers blocking traffic on the street. Attendants said business at the station is steady from 8 or 9 a.m. until early evening.

Sandra Edwards drives in from Hawai'i Kai every other week to fill up her Ford Escape. If she had her way, that would be the longest trip she ever takes.

"I try to drive as little as possible," she said.

That's all Floyd Honda of Ho-nolulu can do to stretch his gas, too. He spends about $20 a week on the two family cars.

"We're lucky because we don't have to travel very far," he said. "It's not like people who live in Mililani.

People like Virgie Hernandes.

Hernandes, a stay-at-home mom, said she has more incentive to stay at home these days.

"Before I would take the kids and we'd just drive around and do errands," she said. "Now, because of the gas prices and how crowded the roads are, I rather just let my husband do it on his way home. It's too expensive for both of us to be driving back and forth to town."

Hernandes stopped at Costco to get gas on her way to City Mill.

"That's how I have to do it," she said. "If I go out, I've got to plan where I'm going and try to link things up. Otherwise it's like throwing money away."

Pulani Cumpston of Hawai'i Kai said rising gas prices have trickled down to her 14-year-old son, Kainoa.

"I don't pick him up from school as often," Cumpston said, laughing. "Sometimes I make him catch the school bus."

Cumpston's daughter Mahina, a student at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, is feeling the squeeze, too. Cumpston said Mahina wanted a car to drive when she's home on vacation.

Will she get her wish?

"Nope," Cumpston said, still laughing. "No car for Mahina."