Playing the Gas Gamble
Sep. 21st, 2008 02:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sherron0Or why I never got into the stock market. Around here we still have gas, but places are running out. The Kangaroo, the biggest station around, ran out Thursday. Kroger, who'd also been selling it at reasonable prices ran out yesterday. Kangaroo had been asking people to only get 10 gallons (not a problem, since mine only holds 10.5g if the-out-of gas light has been on all day). Kroger, a little less trusting of human nature, just blocked off two of their eight pumps so that selling it went more slowly. At least that was my take on the blocked off pumps, which did not say out of gas.
Prices around here range from $4.99 to $3.59 (actually the lowest I've seen was $3.49 at the Kangaroo, but you see what happened to them) in a random sort of way, it seems. And fluctuate wildly.
So it's like the stock market, with the added thrill of actually NEEDING the gas. Do you buy at $3.89 right by the house, or hope that it's less over by the store you're going to? Thomas and I paid $4.05 – which was very cheap on Thursday, after Kangaroo closed down and gas stations realized they could charge what they want. It was late in the evening, but I had an early doctor's appointment the next day, and he had been driving all day on empty, light glowing. So we bought the 10.5 gallons @ $4.05. Next day, on the way to the doctor it had dropped to $3.99. Then $3.89 by evening on Friday, and then they were out by the time Thomas went to get the pizza Saturday evening. I'm wondering about others, like Min in Nashville, in cities, running out, and how high is the little bit of gas available? And is it fluctuating as wildly?
Oh, and what's all this about being dependent on foreign oil, if one hurricane, in the USA, can cause all this?
Would it be much worse, much faster if it were one of our middle eastern suppliers? And it makes me revisit my thoughts on the war in Kuwait, where every one was screaming, "it's just about the oil!" You know, even if that was the only reason, if it was to keep what's happening now from happening then, on a much larger scale, I say get out there and protect our oil interests.
Prices around here range from $4.99 to $3.59 (actually the lowest I've seen was $3.49 at the Kangaroo, but you see what happened to them) in a random sort of way, it seems. And fluctuate wildly.
So it's like the stock market, with the added thrill of actually NEEDING the gas. Do you buy at $3.89 right by the house, or hope that it's less over by the store you're going to? Thomas and I paid $4.05 – which was very cheap on Thursday, after Kangaroo closed down and gas stations realized they could charge what they want. It was late in the evening, but I had an early doctor's appointment the next day, and he had been driving all day on empty, light glowing. So we bought the 10.5 gallons @ $4.05. Next day, on the way to the doctor it had dropped to $3.99. Then $3.89 by evening on Friday, and then they were out by the time Thomas went to get the pizza Saturday evening. I'm wondering about others, like Min in Nashville, in cities, running out, and how high is the little bit of gas available? And is it fluctuating as wildly?
Oh, and what's all this about being dependent on foreign oil, if one hurricane, in the USA, can cause all this?
Would it be much worse, much faster if it were one of our middle eastern suppliers? And it makes me revisit my thoughts on the war in Kuwait, where every one was screaming, "it's just about the oil!" You know, even if that was the only reason, if it was to keep what's happening now from happening then, on a much larger scale, I say get out there and protect our oil interests.
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-21 08:03 pm (UTC)::shrug::
no subject
Date: 2008-09-21 08:26 pm (UTC)I just keep telling myself, at least it's not printer ink.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-23 07:05 am (UTC)Unfortunately it seems that for us... gas is pretty stable. At around 4.35 this week (sometime last week it was like 3.85)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-23 01:57 pm (UTC)