Gas money

Was doing my tyre pressure at the local service station (Gas price down 4 cents at 144.9) when I was approached by a young woman. A student by the look, in her early 20's, and casual but smartly dressed by Canadian standards, who was begging for gas money "Excuse me, you got a twoonie?" (Canadian slang for a two buck piece) she asked. I was unable to help because I'd spent my last cash on a hot dog at lunchtime. Poor girl must have been desperate to ask.

The way the prices are behaving (Quick to go up, slow to come down) predisposes me to think that someone, somewhere up the gasoline supply chain is making money hand over fist. The damage and disruption caused by Hurricane (Tropical storm) Ike is less than expected and prices in Texas, where all the disruption was, only went up four cents per litre in some places.

The thought occurs that one tropical storm should not cause this big a price rise in so short a time. Has some company taken too big a financial hit with the stock market crash and is recouping their losses via higher gas prices? Wouldn't surprise me. Last I looked, the current price of crude was around the $90-93 mark per barrel. It's coming down for crying out loud. The refineries will be back up and running full steam by now, so what is going on?

Never mind, I'm busy MSS editing tomorrow, and I've got some phone calls to make and letters to write. I've really no need to go out at all. Will talk to Wife in the morning. That will calm me down.