There’s a difference between Stocking Up, Hoarding and Rubbing Up against Crazy.
At the time incandescent lights provided a a more “natural” lighting, a faster start up time and were cheaper than CFLs so it made a certain amount of sense to Stock Up to tide you over until things changed.
Hoarding IC bulbs with the expectation that it would never change wasn’t exactly the smartest decision but it’s understandable.
On the other hand paying $2 a bulb for $1 IC bulbs is just plain Rubbing Up Against Crazy when you know that what you want will be available for less.
Colonial had already announced that they had adequate supplies in their tanks and the outage would last for a maximum of 7 days so why would you want to pay a premium and stand in line unless you had an immediate need?
For the rest, God Bless those suckers, they’ve helped fund my retirement accounts and probably help send the station owners kids to college
The pipeline ransom hack is one we know about. Cyber experts say they’ve been ongoing for some time, almost always from Russia, where the govt looks the other way–in return for the hackers attacking things Putin wants them to. Knowledgeable people say attacks can’t be stopped technically (U.S. government agencies have been hacked, and our government hacks others—but these are not for “ransom”), and bitcoin makes getting ransom money reliable and untraceable. Consolidated surely paid the $5 million, it’s a tiny piece of their revenue, probably covered by insurance, and if it’s not, it’s tax deductible as a business expense–it actually costs them little or nothing, except for lost revenue while the pipeline was down–all the more reason to pay the ransom. For virtually any company.
Still if the supply tanks were full, there still were a lot of documented station that were out of gas that has not been explained. I understand a shortage of tanker drivers at least in the southwest but still find it hard to believe that people topping their tanks off cause the stations to go dry.
I usually don’t follow the crowd and you wouldn’t see me sitting in a gas line waiting my turn. I’ve seen too many swings of the pendulum in the last 60 years. Gotta admit though we tended to boost the traffic here a little, nuts or not. It was getting pretty dead.
I should add that the retired General (don’t remember is name) on TV said that these folks most certainly work for the government by day, but then are allowed to moonlight without being restricted. So not directly the government but they would have the ability to call an end to it. Who knows, maybe out spooks do the same?
I filled up on the day that I first heard about a possible gas shortage (Tuesday, I think). I was at 1/4 tank, so it was time. I’m in MS, and yes, people were flooding the gas stations. There is one station that I usually go to that doesn’t have an attendant on site. You have to use a credit card only, so that weeds out people who want to use cash, or buy coffee, or use the restroom. Most of the time, I’m the only one there, or maybe there’ll be one other person. Tuesday there wasn’t an empty pump when I pulled in and when I left a guy pulled in behind me with a 150 gallon tank on a trailer. People go nuts over anything these days. Information is way more readily available than it used to be. That is a good thing and also a bad thing. If/when something really serious happens, I’m afraid folks are going to panic and really freak out. I assume gas stations are back to normal now. I haven’t needed gas again and haven’t really paid attention to the pumps.
Generally the farm tanks are non-taxed fuel for farm vehicles. Usage is watched pretty close to discourage use in on-road vehicles. It is fairly easy to compute how many gallons should be used for field use etc. The ones I’ve seen are in the air and no need to pump. Gravity does the pumping for you.
The police vehicle maintenance and storage lot here has a few conventional gas pumps visible inside the fenced in area. Farmers here have their own storage tanks (free of road tax). I keep about 20 gallons for yard maintenance and emergencies. I would imagine that the municipal and school bus storage and maintenance facilities have on-site fuel supplies.
Everyone is reminding folks of what it was like back in the crazy 70’s. I really had forgotten until all these gas shortage stories and price increases. We had even/odd rules. So if your license plate was an even number you could get gas on an even numbered day. You couldn’t buy gas two days in a row with the same car. Made it hard with a 120 mile daily commute. For a long time I had two 10 gallon containers of gas in the garage to use to get to work if I had to. When we visited the in-laws 200 miles away, it could be a challenge.
I suppose maybe we have become a little soft in the times of plenty, but this is all so unnecessary. I don’t care what the product is but if you go into a store and the shelf is empty, people will stock up as soon as they can.
Many years ago, one of my colleagues was married to a guy who ran a small lab that tested diesel fuel for purity. They owned a diesel Mercedes sedan that always seemed to have some traces of red around the fuel filler.
I guess cops need probable cause before they can check your fuel, and like I’ve always said, “You can get away with making moonshine in your back yard, if you can keep your mouth shut.”
