Petrol

Gas prices. In the past two weeks the price of gasoline in our area has gone up just over twenty cents. It wasn't but a few years ago when a rise of a few cents would foster letters to the editor espousing conspiracy theories, collusion, and how the government should investigate. But now twenty cents and noone bats an eye. The only articles in the paper are about how the nationwide average should be near four dollars a gallon by the end of the year. FOUR DOLLARS A GALLON. And yet people still keep driving those gas guzzling tanks. Granted my truck doesn't get the best mileage, but I don't drive more than 7500 miles a year. People have very short memories, or are too young to remember the gas shortages of the early seventies. Lines at gas stations that stretched out onto roads and highways. After that there was a brief call for automakers to make more fuel efficient vehicles, but soon they were back to the large oversized SUVs. Does anyone really need a Hummer? I long for the day when I first had my license and drove to the gas station to get two dollars worth of regular. It cost 26.9 cents. You could always scrounge around in your car for change to get a couple of gallons. Now gas is more than ten times that.

Different points of view

I am painting. No, not in oils or water colors on canvas. Rather latex on walls. Why am I painting? Because we got a new couch and love seat for the living room. Did we pick colors that went not only with the carpeting but also with the walls? Nope. So, now I have to paint the walls to compliment the furniture and carpet. Remove wallpaper border first, then prime, then paint. Yuck. And why did we get new furniture? Why? Because Pat no longer liked the flowered pattern on the couch and love seat. Nothing wrong with the furniture; she was just flowered out. I on the other hand could have lived with the living room the way it was for a few more years. Oh, who are we kidding. I could have lived with the present look until they either carry me out in a body bag or pack me up and take me to a nursing home. So, I guess there are two different points of view on this. Which one prevailed? Answer? I am painting.

The Passing of The Sign Man

It seems that a lot of my posts are about the passing of people who I remember from years gone by.  This can only mean that I am getting older.  With this post we remember Karl Earhardt.  Who is he, some might ask?  Anyone who followed the Mets in the sixties and seventies knows who he was, but those outside the metropolitan area probably never heard of him.  Here is a link to a NY Times article in 2006.  article

Mucus

Being in the sixth day of the common cold I felt compelled to make an observation. I find it astounding how much mucus the human body can produce while a cold runs it course.