Saturday, September 27, 2008

Scary oil situation

Last night I drove past six gas stations before I found one with any gas to sell... very scary. Odd how unorganized the fuel supply is more than a week after a couple of relatively minor hurricanes.

I am well insulated against such crises. I can ride my bike or walk to work if necessary. Most of the people in my office live 20 miles or more away. I wonder if they'd be able to work from home in times of crisis.

I considered buying a locking gas cap last night, too. Major civil disorder was on the horizon, with people starting to queue up at the pump. What if this were winter and there was no heating oil? My survivalist/permaculture inclinations are validated.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Frid,

It is the same in the Charlotte area. Like you, I consider myself to be fairly well-insulated. My husband can bike the 2 miles to the bus stop that carries him to the downtown area and I can walk or bike as well.

While we lives more than 20 miles away from his job, we made sure that we were close to the bus line.

While my husbands car doesn't have a locking gas cap, mine does. We were also tempted to go out and purchase same.

What if it were winter? Well, I feel that people would equate gasoline shortage to heating oil shortage and things would go from what is now bad, to worse.

Frederick Ingram said...

I like downtown Charlotte, lots of energy. Looked like a place a street-smart person could bike around.

I saw lots of bags on gas pumps again today, but there were no long lines, and people seemed to be filling up somehow. Some of these stations are down to one type of octane, accounting for some of the bags right there.

I consider the whole thing kind of a warning. BTW, one of the Rock Hill law firms has a shuttle bus bringing in lawyers from Columbia.