Traffic for 2005 September 5 (entry 0)

(6) Mon Sep 05 2005 21:33 PST Oily Times: Gas is now $2.99 here. I am told it is $2.85 in Youtah. Rather than complain, I'll just accept it for what it is. Consumer demand sets prices, not wars in Iraq and quasi-oligopolies such as OPEC. So it's all our faults for fueling the fire. Nuff said.

I'm not sure how the topic came up, but Susie was talking about writing for her high school pape. She couldn't remember the name, so I helped her remember. Being the drillers and all, I thought "Oily Times" would be a clever name, if accompanied with the following tag line: "It was the best of times, it was Oily Times." We laughed. Will you? I wonder if this is one of those stories where you had to be there, cuz we really laughed.

Work is going well. Thank the Lord for deadlines, otherwise this project would drag on way past September 15. And I am more than ready for 70-hour weeks to come to an end.

Last Friday night Susie and I went to, guess where, California Adventure. Upon disembarking Tower of Terror, there was a boy at the bottom of the stairs crying. Susie took pity on him and volunteered to wait with him until his parents got off the ride--he chickened out at the last minute and was quite disoriented by the emergency exit. I think people are generally willing to help in such situations, but often don't. They are afraid that, instead of being praised for their service, the parent will play the abductor card and, next thing you know, you're on the "list" or something. It's sad to think it's come to that. But this little boy was glad for the comfort he received while waiting for mom and dad.

Comments:

Posted by Rachel at Mon Sep 05 2005 23:33

If my kid didnt want to go on a ride at the last minute I would go through the emergency exit with him. Not to judge, or anything...

gas is a lot more than that here. Cheapest I've seen lately is $3.19. But what can you do? Besides, I feel bad complaining about high gas prices when people have lost their homes, loved ones, etc.

BHS' newspaper was the Blue and White. I wrote for it my sr. year. But susie wrote for the AHS newspaper.

Posted by Sumana at Tue Sep 06 2005 02:39

Er, there's two parts to price, right? Demand and supply?

But yeah, the US's demand for drugs and oil help keep the markets going. We can't create an infinite supply of oil by wishing and we can't end the supply of drugs by wishing (or through legislation and enforcement).

Rachel, I too of course feel awful for the survivors and victims of the hurricane, but I think it's ok for people to worry/whine a little about the jump. For some people this means that monthly expenses have gone up $100. And for Big Picture reasons -- global economy, agriculture, commodities in general -- you and I are quite worried about the end of cheap gas....

My high school paper was the Tokay Press. See, the Tokay is a wine grape (I went to school in Lodi, White Zinfandel Grape Capital Of The World, home of more churches than people), and thus there's a Press.

Oily Times! Ha ha!

Yeah, in this absurdly litigious/entitled age I worry about touching or accompanying a strange child for any reason. The customer service people who post to Customers S**k

http://www.livejournal.com/community/customers_suck/

regularly report an incident of this type: Inattentive parent doesn't notice that her/his child is about to do something dangerous or wrong. Protagonist stops the child verbally or physically. Parent yells at protagonist for interfering, proclaims that she/he is in charge and knows what child is doing, chastises protagonist for any number of perceived offenses.

Yay Susie for comforting the child. Ditto Rachel on staying with the kid. This is an indirect reason I don't want to have kids until/unless I have LOTS of neighbors/friends/family nearby to do spontaneous babysitting.

Posted by Susie at Tue Sep 06 2005 07:18

It was John who was pretending I wrote for the paper. oily times... *chuckle*

Posted by John at Tue Sep 06 2005 08:59

Yeah, I wondered why the mom didn't leave either, considering that the wait time was 10 minutes. Oh well, I think he ditched at the last minute, thought he'd be ok, and felt like the wait for mommy was a little longer than he anticipated. I was more surprised that some Disney cast member didn't help him somehow.

Posted by Frances at Tue Sep 06 2005 09:59

Arvin High paper: Bear Facts? Bear Tales? Something like that.

Posted by Susie at Tue Sep 06 2005 11:19

Bear Facts.