Gas Shortages and the Credit Crisis, Cleaning up the lake

Gas Shortages and the Credit Crisis

I've been riding my motorcycle to work now for the last two weeks. This has stretched my gas budget quite a bit. The weather has been great. Since the hurricanes hit the East coast and the Gulf coast there have been reports of gas shortages. If you do a Google search at this time, you'll see pumps are running dry in Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, and parts of Tennessee. The issue seems to be that refineries were cutting production prior to the storm, so they could switch blends. This forced a shortage at the time the credit crisis is building to a head. Here in Central AR some stations only have regular, no premium or mid-grade.

The credit crisis has me wondering what the heck is going on. There needs to be some sort of solution. I hope we're not looking at the new milenniums version of the Great Depression. I realize with fossil fuels in short supply, and a need to move to new energy that a change is coming... but it's a very uncertain time, or seems that way.

Lake Cleanup

My team at work did some volunteer work at Lake Willastein in Maumelle today. I brought my Kayak and cleaned the shoreline and picked up stuff in the water. It was VERY nasty. It seems fishermen have no respect for the lake they enjoy fishing in. They dump beer bottles, beer cans, skoal cans, etc... in the lake. I found a gun case in the lake, and a bunch of other nasty stuff. Filled three 30 gallon bags with trash from the 1/2 of the lake I was able to clean in 3 hours. I saw a crane, a copperhead sunning itself on a board, turtles, ducks, etc. Several people thanked us for cleaning up. It's a great park. Some of the stuff in the lake were energy drinks, and health supplements. So joggers and runners and bicyclists also throw their stuff in the water. Pretty sad, they work so hard to keep their bodies fit but make the lake itself unfit. Hopefully people will not be such pigs, but cleanups like this will have to continue to just keep things decent.

BTW. This blog entry is written on my new Acer Aspire One netbook, with 1 gig of memory, and a 160 gig hard drive... from my couch. :-)

Update

A few weeks back I started riding to work again. I joined an adult kickball team, the Repeat Offenders, part of the Little Rock Kickball Association. I've gained about twenty pounds since I injured my back, some of it has been poor eating and the other limited mobility. My back had been feeling pretty good, and I was looking forward to Kickball, being able to ride my bike again, and all of that and then I injured my ankle. So over this weekend I've had it with a compression bandage on it, and the swelling is finally gone for the moment. It swelled up pretty bad yesterday when I mowed, and edged the yard but it's better today. I went grocery shopping, and will be planning my meals out now and working to drop the weight. If I am diligent, it'll take me 2 or 3 months to drop it, less if I can motivate myself to do some paddling at Lake Willastein. I want to get back to riding my bike, and riding my motorcycles. I think this week my ankle will be back up to the motorcycles. My dad is doing somewhat better, he's lost a lot of water on his legs thanks to the prescriptions the doctors have him on... and hopefully he'll continue to improve.

Tired, but can't sleep.

Haven't posted in a while. Quick summary of random thoughts:

• New patio furniture (on clearance!)
• Patio storage box (on clearance!) for the patio furniture cushions.
• Bought dogfood/Dog bones. Gotta submit this great photo for the Milkbones Model Dog contest I have!
• Had an excellent weekend.
• Miss our intern at work who was so awesome (Good luck Rebecca, you're gonna go places!).
• Dad got his A/C fixed, and they upped his meds dosage again.
• Need to clean the house (seriously).
• Need to mow (we had over 3 inches of rain last week).
• Been riding the bikes. Vulcan is fixed.
• Lastly... Going to bed.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I gotta go to bed, but I've been staying busy with friends, and tonight was the first night I've been able to actually clean house in a week it seems.

• The Vulcan goes to the dealership for servicing and to have that seal replaced. They said it might be two to three weeks before I get it back since it's the busy season.
• Dad goes to the hospital tomorrow, there is the real possibility they may hospitalize him. Thanks for all your prayers, I appreciate it.
• I tried tinting my own windows, hah. You warned me Rob that I should get extra tinting material, and I figured it out that I should have bought two rolls. Nevermind, the one I bought wasn't dark enough for my taste. So I'll be buying another couple rolls on the way home tomorrow and hopefully installing it tomorrow night!
• Got my truck serviced by a friend of my dad's, they did a great job. Oil and filter, and Lucas Oil engine treatment. (I provided the materials, normally do that myself), transmission fluid change (with Lucas Oil Transmission treatment added), checked the brake pads, belts, hoses, installed an anti-theft bracket on my tailgate I had bought (sweet), new fuel filter, and the truck drives really good. No hard shifts, etc... There were no metal shavings or anything in the transmission pan. We're thinking it may have shifted rough due to the fuel filter needing replacing. I'll be tracking the mileage to see if it improves.

Online Personals

I'm in the process of deleting my online personal ads. I've decided that I need some time to think, to contemplate the events of this week. I'm disabling my OkCupid.com account, it took me a while to set up and I went through the process of fixing it so it won't send me any matches anymore. My plentyoffish.com account, I'm deleting that tomorrow. I have only met a few good people on there, made a couple of friends in the past and had one slip away that I really wish I'd not.

My dad and I are going to dinner with my sister, and her family. Tomorrow I'm gonna mow the yard again, and plant the plants from eBurgess.com and do some work in my flowerbeds that needs to be done. My church is having it's opening celebration with our new building. I'm gonna try to make that. I've been doing laundry all day, and using my iRock to push music to the stereo in the living room from my office.

Books

I bought a small sketchbook with perforated pages, Watership Down (never read it), Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (My friend Ann recommended I read this), and The Field Guide to Cocktails. I won't be shopping at Amazon.com as much.

Music

I decided to add some music I've been listening to recently... Been listening to a lot of ELO, the playlist site I use doesn't have any RENCH dagnabit! :-) Music is VERY important to me, it tends to suit my mood, and reflect how I feel. Lyrics mean a lot to me, certain songs are a good sign of how I'm feeling at times.

Slow Friday night...

Been a rough week, and it's been a slow Friday night for a change.

This has been an oddball week. Seems like a few weeks back, but more like maybe a couple of months ago, I found an artist on Podsafe Audio named Rench, he's a country/folk singer. I added a song of his to my MySpace profile tonight. I go through stages where I lock my profile, and then open it up. Anyway, it's called Just Crazy. If you've never heard of this guy, and you like country, or at least rockabilly I'd recommend you check him out. The song sort of fits with the last few weeks, and how I am feeling. Ever have something stuck in your mind, and you can't shake it? Well, that's how I am right now.

I appreciate everyone's prayers... They mean a lot to me.

Update: Check out http://www.renchaudio.com, you can download a bunch of his tracks for free and his latest album for free. Awesome music, if you like it, buy it when you can!

Can Opener

I just realized I lost my can opener on Sunday and didn't realize it until tonight, opening a can of spinach isn't easy without one. I've got to go to the Dollar Tree soon I guess.

Home

I got home today. So here's a status update.

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• My dad's health is declining rapidly. His doctor put him on some new medication, and warned him if it didn't work they were going to have to hospitalize him soon. I'm afraid things are really going south with my dad. He told me the other day he has paid for his funeral plot, and paid for his tombstone already. He is going to the funeral home to make arrangements for his casket, vault, etc... He's paying for it, and everything associated with his funeral now so we won't have to worry about it. He seems in good spirits, which worries me. He usually is very grim when his health is a matter. I think he is hiding how serious things are and doesn't want to worry me or my sister. I am really afraid my father isn't long for this world.
  
  
• Confetti, it's been in my mind all this week. Monday I did a special thing with Confetti for a project at work. Then I stopped at Popeyes Chicken and picked up lunch on the way back from getting my hair cut today. I swear they added extra gray for no charge. The chicken came with Confetti sauce. Then I got back to work and had to call Confetti's Party Rentals to order their prize drum.
  
  
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Prayer

This is gonna be a quick entry! I have so many chores do to around the house, but if some of them don't get done today I'll do them tomorrow or the next. :-)

I've had a prayer answered, I injured my back almost two months ago it seems. I still feel a little tightness in my lower back, it's healing slowly. I'd been sleeping on the futon for two months until this weekend. My memory foam mattress topper (4" on Overstock.com for only $149.99 with two memory foam pillows) had come in, my dear friend Fred recommended it. He said his hip pain disappeared after he and his wife Charlie got one. Well, I decided to sleep on it since 24 hours had passed. I slept sooooo long, so sound... and the dreams, oh my lord, this is like sleeping on a cloud! My back loves it!

I've got to take the Vulcan in to a Kawasaki Dealer this week for servicing and having the rear drive shaft worked on for that seal which is leaking, but I've got faith, it might be expensive, but God will provide.

God bless!

Stephen

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Technology = Fail!

I might as well rant some more about technology issues.

• Thingamablog freaked out on me, I spent 10 minutes trying to publish a blog entry. Had to reboot my PC to get it to work today.
• Bulleting in Thingamablog is also acting wonky tonight!
• A friend's home PC blew up, and I had to walk them through on the phone how to fix their bios settings for it to work.
• Cell phone issues (already covered) - I have to point out though, that from my past knowledge of the cell industry Text Messaging is unreliable. A call is better really. Why? They use excess bandwidth and capacity to deliver text messages (cell providers). If the network is full, or there is a bottleneck the voice calls typically get routed and text messaging gets the short end of the stick.
• Pidgin, it's an Open Source IM client. Well, looks like Yahoo changed something, because it doesn't work with Yahoo IM anymore. I updated it, but no luck. So I downloaded YIM, and it was a good thing I did the expert install because it planned to SPAM my machine something fierce. Replace Google as my search choice, add toolbars to my browsers, that kind of stuff. I hope the Pidgin development team releases a patch soon.
• The Vulcan has some sort of SLOW leak at the rear drive shaft. So I gotta take it in and have it serviced I think, and have that fixed.
• The truck is due for a oil, V-belt, and transmission fluid change.
• Oh a bright note, I noticed my Chickens and Hens are actually spreading through their flowerbed. But then again, they don't run on electricity or gasoline do they?

Out of sorts, not myself, frustrated with technology

I had planned to go to bed early, but I can't. My stomach is upset, has been since last evening. Today I got up this morning on the wrong side of the bed, or the world. I'm not sure what, or why, but today wasn't my day. I was sick to my stomach when I woke up. I went to work, and had tons to do, but I felt out of sorts. My cell phone has been acting funky today, text messages would come in scrambled. They would go out scrambled. This evening it seems every text message I sent after 5:30 or so got delayed by almost 2 hours from what I can tell on the delivery status. So a bunch of my friends got inundated with text messages. Some of them wrote back wondering what was wrong, that I sent so many all at once. I'm ready for the day to end, I hope this week gets better. The weekend was so wonderful, a perfect wrap up to my vacation but the week seems to be so off I wish I could take another vacation.

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Fourth of July Reflections

I hung my flag in the window, the right way, with the stars on the left at the top for those viewing it.

I sit here, trying to pick a song to go on my MySpace page, and I think about the generations before me which served in the military. My grandmother's three brothers were all in the Navy during WWII, and my grandfather served in the Navy in WWII. My dad was in the Army. I've had coworkers and friends who were veterans of Desert Storm when I was in High School. I have known people who have served and those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

You do not have to agree with the war in order to respect or recognize the sacrifice that generations before us, our own generation, and that our children's children will make in the future to defend our country. Today is a day to think about and reflect on the past, and to pray for and support our servicemen and women. May God Bless them and their families as they do their duty, and may we give them the respect, the love, admiration, and welcome they deserve whenever they come home.

Fourth of July - I got nothin'

Well, I got up this morning and got ready for the day only to have my plans shot out from under me. I don't understand what/why but for whatever reason I guess I'm celebrating the Fourth today at home alone. I may go buy some Snakes and Sparklers and sit on the back patio with the dogs, all my friends are gone to the lake and it's too late to make new plans with anyone else. I don't know why people are so undependable and heartless. :-(

Independence Day 2008

Well, I cleaned the bird cages today... and hung up my flag for Independence Day.

The weather has already gotten hot, so I've been using my drip hose this week on my hostas and hedges to water them. There was rain today, but it didn't last very long and it didn't even register on the rain gauges I have.

I've been using a heating pad on my back this week along with an improvised cold pack (a 1 quart milk jug with a screw on lid, half filled with ice and water) to alternate hot and cold on my lower back.

I'm supposed to go look at scooters tomorrow with a friend, and spend the day hanging out. There's a fireworks display at Lake Willastein at 9:30 tomorrow night. Most everyone I know is spending the weekend out at the lake on their boats.

Weekend Retrospective

  Yesterday I mowed the backyard, used my string trimmer to trim around the house, fence, backyard, trailers, shed and plants. I also trimmed behind the privets, and mowed behind the fence. I took a photo as the hibiscuses/Rose of Sharon hedges are starting to bloom.

This morning I had intended to ride my motorcycle to Church, and meet a friend for coffee. Well, I was late getting ready because I'm having major back pain today and I wanted to wear contacts. Try putting your contacts in while your back is killing you! Augh. I rode over to Church, but I was fifteen minutes late, so I rode over to the new park on the river that is in Maumelle. I took a photo with my camera phone. It's really pretty. Then my coffee date got cancelled. The new helmet is vented better than any helmet I've ever seen. I had great airflow. I wore sunglasses with my contacts and the helmet. I ate lunch at Taco Bueno (hah), some families came in and every one of the kids was pointing at my bike (I rode the Buell).

Because of the back pain I went to Walmart later in the day and got my prescriptions filled. While waiting for them to be filled I bought some extra combs so I can keep one in the truck, and each of the bikes.. picked out a few t-shirts and some button up shirts for summer wear. I also got some stick on heat pads for back pain (wearing one now as I write this, the heat from it is VERY intense. I like!).

I checked out the automotive section. They have these beanie motorcycle helmets from Bell. They're called the Bandito. Wal-mart is selling a bunch of motorcycle stuff, including tire wet for motorcycles. It says it won't cause slip, etc... but then it cautions not to get on the tread, use on grips or seats. This is probably just the same stuff for a car, but packaged for a motorcycle. Not a good idea. They also had mothers motorcycle polish, and a bunch of accessories for bikes and ATV's.

Plants & Gas Prices

I have six Hibiscus/Rose of Sharon hedges. All of them survived their first summer last year. Two on the side of the house appear to be doing well, but one in the backyard has gone nuts. It's four or five times the size of the others, and is growing like crazy. I watered them all tonight with water from my rain barrels. I can't put more than a 1/4 of a bucket of water in a 5 gallon bucket because of my back, so it took a while to water them and the fruit trees. I mailed off my mailing label and a request for a new apple tree, new nectarine, and replacements for the other plants which have died. We'll see if eBurgess.com makes good on their warranty in 3 or 4 weeks.

Gas prices have stabilized at around $3.91 a gallon for regular. I haven't paid more than $3.69 for gas in several weeks but my back injury and having to drive the truck instead of riding will run through the last 5 gallons of fuel I have from the gas being below that price this week. I hope my back and the weather will allow me to ride the bikes soon. My new helmet should be on the way already, so maybe this will all coincide.