Miscellaneous: June 2008 Archives

I should learn never to open my mouth. First it would mean a lot fewer nights spent sleeping on the couch. Second I would probably find myself in a lot fewer weird and unusual situations. In this particular context I would have had a much easier day and I wouldn't be in nearly as much pain. A few days ago I noted that Trina and Whitney had left town leaving Tiffany, Dakota, and me at home to fend for ourselves. I also noted that part of the challenge that I had was to find something for Dakota to do so that he was not so bored. Yeah, that was a really bad thing to say. No sooner had I written that then the entire universe started to crumble around me. Ok, maybe not the whole universe, just that little piece that Trina left me in charge of during her absence.

This week the price of crude oil reached another all-time high which in turn means that we will be paying more for fuel in the coming weeks. This has not been anything new, this upward spiral in energy prices has been going on for some time. As a result we are now seeing gas prices above the $4 gallon. Where it once cost me $25 to fill the Honda it now takes $60 to do it. And don't even get me started on what it costs to fill Trina's Suburban; I about have to take out a second mortgage to get gas. The thing about it is that I understand why prices are the way they are. The cost of crude oil is up. This means that every process or processor downstream of a barrel of oil will see their costs increase hence they pass those costs on to the next step until finally the consumer bears the brunt of the increase. I may not like it but at least that makes sense and I would expect that to happen.

It's funny how we seem to take things for granted that just work. You never think about it, you just kind of expect that stuff works the way it is supposed to. Take for example the light switch. If you walk into a dark room you reach for the light switch. You just assume that when you flip it then the lights will go on. If for some inexplicable reason the lights don't come on you immediately think it is a personal problem. You check to make sure you flipped the right switch or that you flipped it in the right direction. If the light continues to be difficult and not work you then begin looking for a replacement light bulb since that has to be the problem. It is only after exhausting these efforts that you finally conclude that perhaps there is a malfunction with the electrical infrastructure. Why is that? I think it is because we have become so accustomed to the fact that we have energy on demand that we are shocked when we find that is not the case. I remember as a kid growing up in Idaho, it seemed like the power went out every week. It probably wasn't that often but it sure seemed like it. In that environment you never took electricity for granted. You were just grateful when you had power. Since that time the electrical grid has become much more stable and my expectations are much greater that the power is always on.

I grew up in a small farming community in Idaho. At the time I thought I grew up in a big city in Idaho but it wasn't until after I graduated from college and moved to Arizona that I realized that the entire population of my home town would fit within the confines of Chase Field and it would not be a sell-out. I then had to come to grips with the fact that I was from a hick town in Idaho. Living in Idaho was kind of like living in Bedrock with the Flintstones. I take that back, even the Flintstones had phones even if they were made of rocks and shells. There were places in Idaho that did not get telephone service until this century. We did however get television. Not cable mind you, that would have to wait until my senior year of high school before that arrived. No, television in our day consisted of 3 channels: NBC, ABC, and CBS. Wow, I sound so old when I say that. My kids would say I wasn't really living at that point; it was more just a matter of survival. They may be right. Whenever I go back to visit my parents I feel as though I stepped into a time machine and am teleported back into the dark ages. I half expect to turn the corner and see them burning a witch at the stake or something.