I Hate Being Manipulated, But...

Once Again

It was just Tuesday when I posted about warnings to fill up your gas before the price surge, and sure enough, surge the prices did. Then receded a bit. Now with Hurricane Ike in the process of slapping Texas as I write this, this morning's warnings were about the shutdown of the Houston refineries. So though I gassed up on Thursday morning, I did so again here on Friday morning. $3.87.9/gal for seven-plus gallons.

Kalamazoo was pretty much the same when I got there -- but as I left work around four p.m., gas had jumped up more than twenty cents to $4.09.9/gal for regular.

Lemmings

By the time I got to Allendale, there was another of these end-of-the-world gas lines at the Speedway on the east edge of the township. Gas was still $3.88.9/gal. Was this Speedway station perhaps the last to jump price? No. The Mobil and the Admiral stations in town were both still $3.88.9 and the Family Failure was $3.87.9/gal. None of those three seemed to have particularly long lines.

Usually it's the Admiral which gets the ridiculous gas lines, which is bad because they're on a busy intersection. Speedway is on the main road, but the side street is just that, so there's room for cars to loop around and sit stopped in the middle of a 55mph highway.

Late Evening Report

My sister wendyb_09 reported 15-33 cents per gallon jumps in and around Atlanta today. MSNBC was saying that prices in what I assume were tourist parts of Orlando FL hit $5.49/gal.

Gouging or reasonable anticipations? You be the judge. But you know that I sort of side with the folks who point out it's the same damn gas in the underground tank. And that prices never drop as fast as they rise.

No news there. Why do I bother? (sad-grin)

Dr. Phil

And Then The Rains Fell

Huh, Rain

September dawned with a singular heat wave, the hottest day of the summer. Since then, we had some days in the high 70s/low 80s, then some Fall jacket days with highs in the 60s and now the temp has been in the low 70s for a couple of days. Despite a couple of nights of lows in the 40s and one night where it got to 37degF by our house, we've been humid and foggy overnight at around the dewpoint for a week.

Yesterday it rained on and off all day, and that continued into a very soggy Saturday. When I went out at noon to sent some things via the post, the low spot in our driveway was about as filled as water as I've ever seen.

This Is Nothin'

Of course I'm merely reporting about the coolish, damp weather. I am not complaining. Not when the 2008 hurricane season has been bashing the Southeast up and down and around the coasts. Not when Ike flooded up Galveston and Houston and is still a potent rain force. That's real destruction going on.

Now a tropical storm, Ike will continue inland and up the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, to be a big messy Low. The current storm track, admittedly several days out, shows the Low passing south of us, but Allendale is in the 3"+ band and Kalamazoo in the 4"+ band. That's still nothing compared to what say Louisiana is enduring, but with the current rain, there'll be some strongly saturated ground and local floodings.

Of Concern

I've relatives in Texas and one cousin in particular living in Houston. She's only recently had another child and I worry about whether they have evacuated to other family, or if they're sitting in the dark along with four million other Houstonites.

And may the brave men and women of the United States Coast Guard keep themselves safe, even as they conduct their business along the mess.

Half a continent away isn't far enough to relegate this to "just news".

Dr. Phil

Spoke Too Soon?

Huh

Local TV is reporting an actual tornado on the ground in the viewing area -- I guess the affected warning area is Kalamazoo to Battle Creek, south of us. The local TV stations get excited quite a bit with strong weather, but we don't get too many tornado strikes on the ground in West Michigan. The lake tends to force storm tracks around. This one, however, seems to be going straight from west to east.

(sotto voce) Gouging (/sotto voce)

The New York Times says, "Gasoline prices rose Saturday by an average of five cents a gallon across the country..."

At Noon-thirty gas prices in Allendale had remained at $3.88.9/gal, as they'd been yesterday. Four hours later, Mrs. Dr. Phil swung by the grocery store and reported that the big three gas stations were all at $4.19.9/gal.

Yup. Thirty-one cents in four hours. Nothing wrong here, nothing to see. Can't be gouging if "everyone is doing it" I can imagine them saying. Latest I heard was that though the refineries can't refine on generators alone, they are expecting to get local, then regional distribution of gasoline up on generator power "shortly".

Watching CNN Developing Story

A woman from the NTSB is talking to the press about the Los Angeles train crash yesterday between a Metrolink commuter train and an Union Pacific freight train. The press is trying to tell her information that other people are saying, and she's saying No, That's Not How We Do Things. The NTSB is gathering their own information and will do their own interviews and accept reports from Metrolink, et al. "This is part of our process."

What she probably really wants to say is, "Don't try to do our job for us -- you're no good at it." (grin)

Dr. Phil

PS- "Los Angeles" isn't in LJ's spellchecker?