I don't know if I'm turning into an insufferable Pollyanna in my early middle age,
but I would like to report that it is very possible to find something to be glad
about even in a local gasoline shortage. To wit: it's given me the excuse
civic duty to telecommute to work today.
Fortunately, Rudder and I
had both gassed up our trucks over the weekend without waiting in any lines.
(Apparently things were much wrse on the north side of town and I heard stories at
work about people waiting an hour or three at the pump.)
I still
don't have the measure of the Mozzie yet and its tank went down from half to one
quarter in the course of yesterday's commute. They were talking about trucks
rolling into town with more petrol overnight, so I decided to fill up on the way
to the gym this morning. It's only about 3 miles off but there are several
stations en route, this being the sort of place where you have to drive
everywhere.
Artificial shortages can make for some odd situations.
(Supposedly there's enough gas in town, but not all of it's actually at the pumps
and some of the problem is people panicking as usual.) So, first station: no gas.
Second station, no gas. Third station: people lining up outside the station for at
least a block.
But I thought I'd seen something and I turned around.
Sure enough, the station right across from the second one had gas, and didn't have
too much of a crowd. I lined up only abot three cars back from a working pump, bt
when the guy opposite pulled away and no one was waiting, I was able to pull the
nozzle across and fill up without moving the car.
So I have two
vehicles here with full tanks, but given that most of what I had to do today was
telecons and documents, plus the fact that reports are that this could take
anywhere from the rest of the week up to four weeks, telecommuting seemed like a
good idea. Since my boss did it yesterday I figured she couldn't really complain.
The fact that telecommuting is something I've been asking to do more of because it
gives me a precious extra 1.5 - 2 hours in my day? Not a factor at all, nudge
nudge wink wink.
Good thing Rudder and the Crush are off in
California where there isn't a shortage.
By the way, to the person who got here searching for "how to get rid of bus in
flour": what do you think sifters were invented for?