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Some days it takes forever to get to the office.
Since I've been working late at night writing, I've been napping in the morning. But today was to be mostly sunny with reasonably dry roads and temps above zero, so it seemed a good day to go to the office and see what's up. Also use OUEST to work on the Fall Textbook Project.
Even though I actually went to bed early, I still napped after breakfast -- planning to leave around 10-10:30 so I could put in about half a day in my office. This I managed to accomplish. But it was also a gas day, and I needed to swing by the bank to nab some money. But then as I hit I-196 and went to use my windshield washers... nada. So I made an extra stop in Wayland at the Shell and checked to see if I had another gallon of blue fluid. I did. So I filled it. But now I was behind my time, so went ahead and used their restroom so I could make it into the office from the parking lot without exploding half an hour later. (grin) This is never quite a short procedure for me.
Anyway, eventually I got to Western and other than some wet spots, the place is plowed back and relatively free of snow. Yay.
But... earlier on this run when I got to the gas station, we discovered something.
Actually, let me back up and tell you this funny thing first. There I am, turning from 68th Avenue right to make a Michigan Left Turn and go east on M-45, when I noticed this truck getting ready to make its own Michigan Left Turn. Not a semi, but a long bed rigid heavy duty box truck. Maybe because it had a long frame, it didn't start from the left turn lane, but from the left lane itself, to swing around further.
Which is why I noticed it.
* Clear Cold * ARCTIC GLACIER Premium Ice
Man, you can just see the jokes coming. "It's not a delivery truck, it's coming from the mines here in West Michigan." I wonder how many times the last two winters the driver has gotten kidded about this. I almost asked him, because as I pulled into the Family Failure gas station on the west side, he was entering the station from the east side. And as I pumped gas, he was moving a big pallet of ice bags and loading them into the big white freezers outside the building.
Talk about shipping coals to Newcastle.
Anyway, that was the fun part. Now we're back at the gas pump.
For years the differential between Regular and Midgrade and Premium was 10¢/gallon, sometimes more on the premium end. A while back the differential started jumping up to 15¢/gal. Today, the three grades were:
$2.33.9/gal · $2.53.9/gal · $2.73.9/gal
Yup. The differential was now 20¢/gal.
I'm sure this is all related to the sub-three-buck gas prices we've been rolling around in for months. And a way for the oil companies to try to recoup part of this until the price of oil goes back to the Old New Normal, as opposed to this "unreasonable" New New Normal.
It does beg the question as to how much it takes to make a gallon of 89 octane or 92 octane, versus the 87 octane Regular. Is it a fixed cost per gallon or a percentage? If the former, then what's changed? If the latter, how come the differential jumped from 10¢ to 15¢ when gas was approaching four bucks a pop the other year?
Me? I figure that, like extra airline fees, it's a way to skim some extra money from the those paying more. And yeah, yeah, I know there are going to be a bunch of you tsk-tsking about how I'm wasting money using anything but the cheapest stuff. But the Blazer is a 1996 and is closing in on a third of a million miles. Runs better on Midgrade than Regular.
So it's just a little bit more expensive to run an older vehicle today.
And why oh why am I still complaining about gas prices when it's still just $2.53.9/gallon? (evil-grin)
Dr. Phil
Since I've been working late at night writing, I've been napping in the morning. But today was to be mostly sunny with reasonably dry roads and temps above zero, so it seemed a good day to go to the office and see what's up. Also use OUEST to work on the Fall Textbook Project.
Even though I actually went to bed early, I still napped after breakfast -- planning to leave around 10-10:30 so I could put in about half a day in my office. This I managed to accomplish. But it was also a gas day, and I needed to swing by the bank to nab some money. But then as I hit I-196 and went to use my windshield washers... nada. So I made an extra stop in Wayland at the Shell and checked to see if I had another gallon of blue fluid. I did. So I filled it. But now I was behind my time, so went ahead and used their restroom so I could make it into the office from the parking lot without exploding half an hour later. (grin) This is never quite a short procedure for me.
Anyway, eventually I got to Western and other than some wet spots, the place is plowed back and relatively free of snow. Yay.
But... earlier on this run when I got to the gas station, we discovered something.
Actually, let me back up and tell you this funny thing first. There I am, turning from 68th Avenue right to make a Michigan Left Turn and go east on M-45, when I noticed this truck getting ready to make its own Michigan Left Turn. Not a semi, but a long bed rigid heavy duty box truck. Maybe because it had a long frame, it didn't start from the left turn lane, but from the left lane itself, to swing around further.
Which is why I noticed it.
* Clear Cold * ARCTIC GLACIER Premium Ice
Man, you can just see the jokes coming. "It's not a delivery truck, it's coming from the mines here in West Michigan." I wonder how many times the last two winters the driver has gotten kidded about this. I almost asked him, because as I pulled into the Family Failure gas station on the west side, he was entering the station from the east side. And as I pumped gas, he was moving a big pallet of ice bags and loading them into the big white freezers outside the building.
Talk about shipping coals to Newcastle.
Anyway, that was the fun part. Now we're back at the gas pump.
For years the differential between Regular and Midgrade and Premium was 10¢/gallon, sometimes more on the premium end. A while back the differential started jumping up to 15¢/gal. Today, the three grades were:
$2.33.9/gal · $2.53.9/gal · $2.73.9/gal
Yup. The differential was now 20¢/gal.
I'm sure this is all related to the sub-three-buck gas prices we've been rolling around in for months. And a way for the oil companies to try to recoup part of this until the price of oil goes back to the Old New Normal, as opposed to this "unreasonable" New New Normal.
It does beg the question as to how much it takes to make a gallon of 89 octane or 92 octane, versus the 87 octane Regular. Is it a fixed cost per gallon or a percentage? If the former, then what's changed? If the latter, how come the differential jumped from 10¢ to 15¢ when gas was approaching four bucks a pop the other year?
Me? I figure that, like extra airline fees, it's a way to skim some extra money from the those paying more. And yeah, yeah, I know there are going to be a bunch of you tsk-tsking about how I'm wasting money using anything but the cheapest stuff. But the Blazer is a 1996 and is closing in on a third of a million miles. Runs better on Midgrade than Regular.
So it's just a little bit more expensive to run an older vehicle today.
And why oh why am I still complaining about gas prices when it's still just $2.53.9/gallon? (evil-grin)
Dr. Phil
Posted on Dreamwidth Crossposted on LiveJournal
