The temperature is rising and so is the price of gasoline

A brief prologue covers the events preceding the original Mad Max (no backstory was offered in that movie). After uprisings and an extended war due to energy shortages proved to destabilize the country, marauding biker gangs began to terrorize the townspeople in the Australian desert. The crumbling remnants of the government created a tiny, underfunded group of special highway patrol officers to attempt a restoration of order in the outback. By contrast, Mad Max 2 features a much more pronounced breakdown of civilization. In the prologue, a narrator informs us that the world has "crumbled and...the cities have exploded"; life has become a "whirlwind of looting and a firestorm of fear, in which 'men began to feed on men.'" -from Wikipedia about Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

I'm beginning to think we are just a few steps away from this becoming a reality. I mean really.

The price of gasoline is the highest it has ever been. I remember when I was a kid and gas stations would have price wars to see who could sell a gallon of gas for the lowest price. I remember competing stations getting it down to $00.28. And then I remember the day it went up to $00.33 and it never went down. It has only gone up.

I also remember the year of the fuel shortage. Long lines at the gas stations. Also, there was a system for how often you could get gas. You just couldn't pull up and get some. You were only allowed to get gas on certain days of the week unless your vehicle was for commercial purposes.

Then there was the fuel shortage along the Gulf Coast during the Hurricane Rita evacuation. I think that was the most frightened I have ever been about running out of gas. And not only gas but drinking water.

Everytime The Calvinator does something to upset me, I have to remember that he was a real trooper for staying in the car (well, he did try to jump out once) with me for 27 hours. I'm not sure who was more relieved when I accidentally found the vending machine outside of a closed convenience store in the middle of nowhere. It was ice cold and water never tasted better.

It was pure luck that I found gasoline when I did. Just about the time I would start to panic about the gauge getting low, I'd find a station that had fuel.

I've been taking people to the airport for their extended Memorial Day getaways. In the olden days I would never have accepted money for doing that. Now I'm accepting Euros (LOL) to put gas back into The Cal Mobile for the jaunts back and forth to the airport. Speaking of Euros...

The other night at Todd, Marc & Gordon's cocktail party, somebody dropped something into the pool. We couldn't figure out what it was but a person was being very dilligent about trying to retrieve it. Nobody in my circle of partygoers could figure it out so I started a rumor that it was a Euro. LOL I wanted to see if people would jump into the pool. (I crack myself up sometimes.)

OK. So why did I even discuss this? While I was watching the 10:00 evening news on Wednesday night, Neighbor Ryan Korsgard at KPRC Channel 2 did a story about how much it is costing the City of Houston to gas up vehicles and ambulances and fire trucks, etc. Then there was another story someone who stole about 500 gallons (edit: 1000 gallons) of diesel fuel.

Hey. I need to stop this rambling and get going. I think I just saw Mel Gibson walking through NoRO.