Yesterday morning after dropping my son off at school (I've been on the Mr. Mom duty this week with my wife out of town for a family emergency - and my son hasn't been able to ride the bus to and from school for three weeks now due to a leg brace he's wearing for a knee-cartiledge issue (gotta be in it for another four weeks or so)), I decided to top off my tank at the store where our lab is. The price for gas was $3.59 a gallon. There were a lot of cars so I circled once, parked and pumped what I needed.
By lunch time, the store had bumped their price up to $3.89 per gallon, following suit to all the other stations nearby. And still the cars were lined up.
I picked my son up from school at 3pm and, on the way home, all the high school drivers were pulling into a station near the school selling at $3.99 a gallon. I laughed and told my son they should go up the road about a mile or so as I had passed those stations and they were still selling at $3.69 a gallon. As we passed those two stations, one was overflowing with cars trying to fill up. I checked the place across the street - it was empty, and their pump handles were covered up. Out of gas.
Wow. Just wow.
I know that Ike has hit Texas hard and that includes the off-shore pumps, but it seems like everyone in the southeast has freaked out over possible gas shortages. Tie to that all the retailers willing to bump up the prices to get what they can - and still people are paying it. Crazy.
I figure it'll be a temporary bump, but I'm not planning on burning through my tank quickly just the same. Might run one errand tonight, but tomorrow I'm home for the day. Gotta sleep in some during the day as I have to pull a third-shift for a software install tomorrow night for six stores (10pm to 6am). Then I'll sleep a bit Monday morning and adjust back to the normal schedule for the rest of the week.
2 comments:
I've never understood that kind of thinking. You line up to save $0.30 per gallon? If your tank holds 18 gallons, that's a savings of $5.40! How long are you willing to wait in line for $5.40? Or less?
Jim, really. The only thing all those folks doing a panic-run on the gas stations did was to create a shortage. As of last night, there was no gas to be had in our small community just south of town. I can understand gasing up if you need it - but I don't understand running out and filling up every car you have, every gas can you have, etc. I saw a guy riding down the road last night on his moped with a plastic gas can strapped to the back that he just filled up. Crazy!
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