Gas
1. I have been asking my boss if I can work from home multiple days per week to "conserve gas". She has been so kind as to allow me without any fuss. This week I am only driving in to work twice (50mi round trip, btw).
2. I only plan to fill up when I actually need gas. If the rest of the fuckhead Atlantans out there would do the same and had done the same from the beginning, we wouldn't be having this problem (or it wouldn't be so damn severe).
3. If your options are [sit in line] or [have no gas], please just opt for the latter if at all possible. We'll get this "shortage" ended much faster this way.
4. I have a 50mi round trip commute. I cannot walk to work, I cannot bike, and I cannot take the MARTA. The closest MARTA bus stop is probably 3-5mi away, and they don'tshouldn't [have to] allow bikes on MARTA. At some point in my commute I *will need to drive* so there is no way I can completely avoid using car+gas to get to work.
Now what I *could* do, and *may* do, to conserve gas even further on the days in which I *have* go in is to only drive to the MARTA train station and take the train the rest of the way to work, instead of driving all the way in to work. I am very skeptical of how well this will work but it's worth a try at least once (if the buses would be more frequent and reliable, I would've been taking MARTA for a while now).
Corollary: it is my belief based on how I've seen people drive that riding a bike in the ATL as a commute mechanism for any distance on a main roadway is an abject death warrant. Do. Not. Want.
5. Egotistical buttheads (who obviously don't live in the ATL and have never visited the place), who think it is reasonable that everyone should live within walking distance of their jobs, are idiots who don't live in the real world. The time of 30+ year tenure at a given job is over. And because of that, you can't predict how long you'll be at any one job or where you'll be going after it. Especially with the economy in the state that it's in. You cannot plan your permanent residence location around your job; it just doesn't work like that anymore.
6. If they jack the prices of gas up so that only the rich people can afford to buy it, then the result will be that city's economy will collapse. Rich people tend to have "overhead" jobs that don't actually need to be done, where as poor people or blue collar workers or whatEVER you want to call them tend to do the jobs that keep a society running. Anyone who suggests $7/gal of gas as a "reasonable" solution to the shortages is signing a death warrant for the city. (walking into Target this weekend was quite telling)
7. Of the gas stations near us, only the SHELL gas stations seem to be getting gas in regularly. Yesterday we saw a BP with gas (and lines around the fucking block), but that was an unusual case. I think I've seen a QT get some "regular" grade gas in occasionally, but premium is pretty hard to find.
-+-
I am going up to dad's house this weekend; he says they have had gas this whole time, so assuming I actually only DO have to go into work two days this week, I should be able to just barely make it up to bumblefuckville on what's left in my tank and should be able to fill up up there. That will buy me another two weeks of 2-3 day work weeks at work.
PVoW is less than 1/4 tank now and needs to be filled up. Maybe we can make it up to Helen two weekends from now on what we have left in the tank and fill up up there, if they have gas.
On the one hand, it'd be nice to be able to get gas from these places that are nearby that aren't having a shortage so that our local area has time to re-correct itself.
But these fucking douchebags around here totally don't deserve it; they've earned this very surreal hell that they've created for themselves by acting like the panicky idiots that they apparently are. Why is everyone so stupid? Why must I live in a world of ignorant fools and be subject to the problems that they cause?
2. I only plan to fill up when I actually need gas. If the rest of the fuckhead Atlantans out there would do the same and had done the same from the beginning, we wouldn't be having this problem (or it wouldn't be so damn severe).
3. If your options are [sit in line] or [have no gas], please just opt for the latter if at all possible. We'll get this "shortage" ended much faster this way.
4. I have a 50mi round trip commute. I cannot walk to work, I cannot bike, and I cannot take the MARTA. The closest MARTA bus stop is probably 3-5mi away, and they don'tshouldn't [have to] allow bikes on MARTA. At some point in my commute I *will need to drive* so there is no way I can completely avoid using car+gas to get to work.
Now what I *could* do, and *may* do, to conserve gas even further on the days in which I *have* go in is to only drive to the MARTA train station and take the train the rest of the way to work, instead of driving all the way in to work. I am very skeptical of how well this will work but it's worth a try at least once (if the buses would be more frequent and reliable, I would've been taking MARTA for a while now).
Corollary: it is my belief based on how I've seen people drive that riding a bike in the ATL as a commute mechanism for any distance on a main roadway is an abject death warrant. Do. Not. Want.
5. Egotistical buttheads (who obviously don't live in the ATL and have never visited the place), who think it is reasonable that everyone should live within walking distance of their jobs, are idiots who don't live in the real world. The time of 30+ year tenure at a given job is over. And because of that, you can't predict how long you'll be at any one job or where you'll be going after it. Especially with the economy in the state that it's in. You cannot plan your permanent residence location around your job; it just doesn't work like that anymore.
6. If they jack the prices of gas up so that only the rich people can afford to buy it, then the result will be that city's economy will collapse. Rich people tend to have "overhead" jobs that don't actually need to be done, where as poor people or blue collar workers or whatEVER you want to call them tend to do the jobs that keep a society running. Anyone who suggests $7/gal of gas as a "reasonable" solution to the shortages is signing a death warrant for the city. (walking into Target this weekend was quite telling)
7. Of the gas stations near us, only the SHELL gas stations seem to be getting gas in regularly. Yesterday we saw a BP with gas (and lines around the fucking block), but that was an unusual case. I think I've seen a QT get some "regular" grade gas in occasionally, but premium is pretty hard to find.
-+-
I am going up to dad's house this weekend; he says they have had gas this whole time, so assuming I actually only DO have to go into work two days this week, I should be able to just barely make it up to bumblefuckville on what's left in my tank and should be able to fill up up there. That will buy me another two weeks of 2-3 day work weeks at work.
PVoW is less than 1/4 tank now and needs to be filled up. Maybe we can make it up to Helen two weekends from now on what we have left in the tank and fill up up there, if they have gas.
On the one hand, it'd be nice to be able to get gas from these places that are nearby that aren't having a shortage so that our local area has time to re-correct itself.
But these fucking douchebags around here totally don't deserve it; they've earned this very surreal hell that they've created for themselves by acting like the panicky idiots that they apparently are. Why is everyone so stupid? Why must I live in a world of ignorant fools and be subject to the problems that they cause?