Last Tuesday I was in Chicago, and all was going well until a seemingly unlikely event started a chain reaction that would lay me up in bed for nearly three days… It rained.

Yep. It didn’t rain very hard, or very long, but it just so happened that I was walking about a mile or so through the city back to my hotel during the light rain. I could have caught a cab, but instead I ducked into a Walgreen’s and got a baseball hat and kept walking.

I know what you’re thinking. But no, I didn’t catch a cold!

I was taking my time, even stopping to snap photos of skyscrapers in the rain, when about halfway back to the hotel I started having difficulty catching my breath. Now I don’t have asthma, and I can generally out walk anyone I know, so it took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on. I was having an allergic reaction to something.
Read the rest of this entry »

Wow. I speculated about getting ready for $5 per gallon gas here in the US a few weeks ago, but when you read that the oil companies are breaking the record for most profit in a single quarter - ever! For any company! Ever! It kind of makes you pissed off.

The New York Times reported today that Exxon’s Second Quarter Earnings Set a Record:

HOUSTON — Exxon Mobil reported the best quarterly profit ever for a corporation on Thursday, beating its own record, but investors sold off shares as oil and natural gas prices resumed their recent decline.

Record earnings for Exxon, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, have become routine as the surge of oil prices in recent years has filled its coffers. The company’s income for the second quarter rose 14 percent, to $11.68 billion, compared to the same period a year ago. That beat the previous record of $11.66 billion set by Exxon in the last three months of 2007.

Exxon’s profits were nearly $90,000 a minute over the quarter, but it was less than Wall Street had expected. Exxon’s shares fell 4.6 percent, to close at $80.43. (The company calculates that it pays $274,000 a minute in taxes and spends $884,000 a minute to run the business.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Now that Gas is getting on up there approaching $5 a gallon, I think it’s time we all take some drastic measures to save money. Personally, I’ll be picking up a trunk midget any day now.

Well, you better get ready. Gas was near an all time inflation adjusted high back in April, but as of right now we’re already paying more than we’ve ever paid for a gallon of gas. According to the Wall Street Journal:

The skyrocketing price of oil, now up more than 44% so far this year, is battering the airline and auto industries and causing consumers to cut back on driving and nonessential spending.

That jolt is reinvigorating worries that crude prices could ratchet still higher, putting a severe squeeze on many economies around the world and deepening the growing tension between the world’s big oil exporters and consuming countries.

This chart illustrates the price of Gas in the US in both real dollars and inflation adjusted dollars. Either way we’re at the top of the scale right now.
Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t normally pass along things that circulate the Inter-Tubes via e-mail, but this is pretty interesting information - if it is all true. I have no idea where it originated, but a family member sent it to me. I’d be curious if anyone could actually vet this info and prove / disprove it’s validity.

I don’t know what you guys are paying for gasoline…. but here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money’s worth for every gallon.

Read the rest of this entry »

The October 23 issue of Business Week magazine had an interesting report about the impact of falling gas prices on the economy:
Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you not aware, there is a series of local sites which encourage users to track the price of gas in their area. The sites are run by GasBuddy and include cities all over the US and Canada.

A small sampling of cities include Dallas, TX, Houston, TX, San Jose, CA, Baltimore, MD, Charlotte, NC, Rochester, NY and just about every major metro area.
Read the rest of this entry »