Free Fall

Tuesday

True to form, I predicted here that gas could be down to $2.15/gal for Election Day. By the time I passed through Allendale Tuesday evening, all the gas stations were at $2.14.9/gal.

Wednesday

Actually, I paid $1.89.9/gal for gas, because I had two coupons from the grocery store. (grin) The base price was still the $2.14.9/gal. The manager said, "gas prices going up."

Ah, but here the plot thickens. Actually, gas dropped to $2.12.9/gal by evening.

Thursday

$2.09.9/gal in K-zoo in the morning.

Friday

$2.04.9/gal in K-zoo in the morning.

On the way home, in Standale, Meijer's had $2.01.9 and Marathon $1.98.9. In Allendale, the prices were $2.02.9 and $2.01.9 and $2.00.9/gal.

Now What?

Couple inches of sloppy snow for Sunday. Then clearing. Economy down. So... does gas fall below the two dollar mark? Or start the creep back up again?

Enough to drive you nutty.

Dr. Phil

Go Broncos!

On A Cold, Wet, Rainy November Weekend

For those of you keeping score, I teach Physics at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo MI. That's some distance from where I live, hence my interest in keeping track of gasoline prices.

The WMU Broncos play Division I football in the Mid American Conference (MAC) and they regularly schedule a Big Ten opponent every season.

From The Loser Field Of The Detroit Lions

This year Western scheduled up the University of Illinois, but instead of playing in Champaign-Urbana or in Kalamazoo, they rented Ford Field in Detroit. That's kind of cool to have a "home" game over on the other side of the state, given the sheer number of current students and alumni who are from Southeastern Michigan. More to the point, the game was the culmination of WMU in Detroit, "a series of activities and events for Metro Detroit high school students and WMU alumni."

While watching the Northwestern game, there was a score update Illinois-7 WMU-20. Oh really? Well, actually... really. Final score was Illinois-17 WMU-23.

Go Broncos!

It doesn't matter if you think Illinois sucks this year. Even during the worst of Northwestern's seasons in the 1970s, they were still a Big Ten football team and still fully capable of beating up on teams from lower level conferences -- they just chose not to do so. For Western to play a "home-away" game and beat a Big Ten opponent, well let me just say, "Well done."

Yeah, Right

Of course, in looking for details of the game at the WMU homepage, the Bronco Athletics page was:

Our site is temporarily unavailable due to scheduled maintenance. Please check back later.

Why do I think that's not the right error message? (grin)

The Purple And White Did Not Fare So Well

This was like the second time this season that Northwestern, my alma mater, broke into somebody's Top 25 list. And just like that time, were not destined to stay there for long. We played at home, but invited Ohio State to come and play with us. 45-10.

I think ESPN was saying that in the last five meetings between the Wildcats and the Buckeyes, Ohio State has outscored us 230-35, or something like that.

But I'm Not Complaining

I love Big Ten football. Watching the Penn State/Iowa game in the background right now. And Iowa City is cold, wet, blustery (22mph winds) and miserable. No cute little cheerleader uniforms, everyone is bundled up. And they're still there.

You can have your wimpy California football. The Big Ten saves that for New Year's. (grin)

Dr. Phil

TV Commercials - Ur Not Doing It Rite

Huh?

Twice now on ESPN, I've seen commercials for Capitol One which had the music and sound effects track, but not the human audio tracks. WTF? First one was the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea giant squid, the second was Armadillo Man.

One sounds like a mistake. Two seems like a problem.

Doesn't anyone check these things anymore?

Dr. Phil