Gas is Expensive - What Else is New?

It used to be that you could count on your local filling station to raise their prices on Friday to catch all of the weekend travelers. Then, Thursday became the chosen day to raise prices. Next, it was Wednesday. I really believe they skipped Tuesday and now the price of gas goes up on Mondays. I don't know when they lower their prices. I am sure a lot of you don't believe they ever do.

The average price of regular unleaded gas across Michigan is $2.60 this week. You get the standard responses to why gas has gone up - switching from winter grade fuel to summer grade, supply and demand, or the war and unrest in Iraq, Iran, and Nigeria.

The real reason is most likely due to oil futures being driven up by speculators hoping to cash in on any increases in the price of a barrel of oil. Big surprise here. We pay more for gas because some folks want to make more money.

Standard operating procedure for individuals and companies wanting to make profits.

Michigan needs to keep pushing itself to the forefront of alternative energy research and development. If we invest in this industry now we can position Michigan to reap the dividends as alternative energy takes off. We all know Michigan can not hope for a future in the automobile industry.

Lets use these high gas prices to encourage development of renewable energy sources such as biodiesel, ethanol, and hydrogen fuel cells.

Read the Free Press article Gas is a bargain for now

Update: I don't know if this is the result of someone taking out their anger from the high gas prices or not, but the Free Press has this breaking news brief - Overnight theft leaves gas station without nozzles. If it was out of anger, the individuals involved targetted the wrong party. The gas companies (like Shell, Exxon Mobile, etc.) are the ones charging the high wholesale prices to gas station owners. The station owners then have to raise their prices to cover their costs.

Metro Detroit Traffic Blog

Matt Helms of the Detroit Free Press has a Traffic Blog with all of the details and headaches of metro Detroit's traffic snarls and construction. I checked it out this morning and he had blow-by-blow reports of the traffic backups on I-696, Northwestern Hwy, and Telegraph due to the huge I-696 and Northwestern Highway construction projects. So, if you travel anywhere in the metro Detroit area it would be wise to check out this blog before you head out. It looks like Matt might be posting updates for the morning commute. I am not sure if this will be an everyday thing or if he will have road updates for the evening commute as well.

I do know that he is on metro Detroit's roads all the time checking out road conditions and traffic. Definitely, a valuable resource if you are one of the thousands of commuters or residents of Detroit.

Travel by Bus From Detroit to Chicago for $1

Later this month, by using megabus.com you will have the chance to purchase a bus ticket for as little as $1 each way from Detroit to Chicago. There is always a catch to all unbelievable deals. Only a handful of these cheap seats will be available on each bus and you will have to purchase them online far in advance of when you will be traveling. I performed a few quick searches for fares from Detroit to Chicago on www.megabus.com. I searched fares for Monday through Friday as well as weekends just to see the availability of the $1 fare. Interestingly enough, I found quite a few of the $1 tickets (even on the weekends) and no ticket was over $15 for one way.

Read the article in the Detroit News

Don't Forget to Adjust Your Clocks

Yes, it is time once again to wake up to darkness and have an extra hour of light in the evening. You will need to set your clocks forward an hour before you go to bed Saturday night unless you want to stay up and change them at 2a.m. when the time change officially takes place. Just when it was getting nice and light out at 6 a.m. - rats! Remember that next year the time change will begin the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November. This is due to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which is supposed to help us save energy. I don't see how this is true since you will just have to have your lights on longer in the morning and less in the evening. Oh well, trying to make sense of it makes my head hurt too much on a Friday afternoon.

List of Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes

Since tomorrow is April Fool's Day (beware of the pranks) I thought I would share a link to a website containing the top April Fool's Day hoaxes/pranks of all time. At Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes you can peruse the hoaxes and chuckle at how gullible some people can be. A brief history of April Fool's day Around 1582 the Gregorian Calendar was introduced and the New Year was to begin on January 1. In the past, the celebration of the new year was celebrated for eight days beginning March 25. Well, the first year of the new calendar found some people not realizing there was a calendar change and some people were just obstinate and wanted to keep celebrating the new year through April 1.

So, those folks were referred to as April Fools and it slowly evolved into a tradition of playing pranks on unsuspecting people.

Information on the history of April Fool's Day courtesy of www.wilstar.com

U.P. Paper Stops the Presses

Bill Westerman, Ironwood Daily Globe press foreman, never had the chance to shout, "Stop the presses!" The motor that runs the presses started up on its own Wednesday and then quit as quickly as it began. The Daily Globe had to use the presses in Ashland to produce Wednesday's paper since their press could not be fixed in that short of a time period. The Ironwood Daily Globe website.