Gas Shortage in North Carolina and USA

There is a gas shortage at the moment in certain parts of the nation. It has just now hit home in North Carolina in the last couple of days. For the last week or two, some gas stations have been out of gas temporarily, but the majority of stations were still supplied. Now and for the past two days, most stations are out of gas.

Some area schools have closed due to the shortage and some people have been calling in to work to let their bosses know they can't get to work. I saw a tanker delivering diesel fuel to a station yesterday. The driver was wearing a sandwich sign that read, "Sorry diesel fuel only" so he wouldn't be inundated by gas-seekers.

I still have 1/2 a tank of gas. Although I had an opportunity to fill up yesterday, I didn't. I don't want to add to the hysteria, and I want people who truly need the gas to have some. If people would not panic and would buy only what they need for now, there would be no problem. We have been told that by Mon. or Tues., supplies should be back to normal.

Shortages are much more dire an hour's drive from here in North Carolina's largest city, Charlotte. People have been lining up overnight at gas stations, hoping for a tanker of gas to arrive. Some wait as long as 24 hours straight. I know a guy who drives a gas tanker. He delivered gas to Charlotte yesterday. He left his tanker in Charlotte and drove home in his car. He could find no gas between Charlotte and here and nearly ran out of gas.

This is the first time in my life that I've experienced anything like this. Although the situation could be much worse, it gives one a taste of the instabiltiy many nations experience on a daily basis. I don't know what the situation is like currently, but for some time in Iraq, gas has been extremely scarce. Add to that the frequent electricity outages that render people dependent on gas-powered electric generators, and you have a royal mess. Instead of panicking and whining, we should be looking around and seeing this is not the end of the world, only a hiccup.

Side note: Gas here is $3.99 per gallon ($1.06/Liter), as this sign illustrates:

Yep, I'm a Widget Whore

I found some really cool widgets at wowzio.com. You'll notice two of their widgets here. One automatically compiles and displays all of the pics on your blog as a slideshow, complete with the title and link to the post from which the picture originated. This is a good way to get people interested in the content of your blog.

The other widget I have from Wowzio on this blog is the visitor feed. It shows the location of your visitors as well as what they are reading.I also grabbed their tag cloud widget for another blog I write. I think it is really fun to see what I blog about most.To use these particular widgets, I believe you must have your blog burnt to a feed using a service such as feedburner.

I was going through the widget list that blogger.com offers. Most of their content is 3'rd party written and I have found some really nice widgets there. I use their world clock widget to keep track of the time in Poland and France, where my boyfriend lives part time. I also use the "cheeky quote" widget to generate a new "cheeky quote" every 30 minutes. You can also do a search engine search for the term "blog widget" and come up with thousands upon thousands of results.

Blogspot Newbie tip: If you have a blogspot blog, you can add a widget by:

1. going to blogger.com and clicking the "layout" link.
2. One third of the way down the page, you will find the "add a gadget" link. Click on it.
3. If you want to add a widget from the list at blogger.com, click on one of the categories to the left. You will find thousands of different widgets to choose from.
4. When you find one that suits you, click the "+" beside it. Then click "add." It's as simple as that!
5. You may also want to add a widget from other websites, such as blogcatalog. To do this, simply copy the html code they give you, and follow the above steps, but the gadget you want to choose is under the "basic" category and is called "html/java script" Click the "+" beside it and simply paste your html code in the box there and click "add."
6. 
   As much as I love widgets, unlike pairs of shoes and slices of cheese cake, you CAN have too many. No one wants to read a slow-ass blog.
   Posted by Robin at 7:09:00 PM

My Weekend

I went kayaking this weekend in Tennessee. It is already getting chilly here at night, so that will probably be my last kayaking trip this year. *pout*

I also managed to lock my keys in my car. I opened it by myself. I couldn't believe the wire hanger trick actually worked! I have only called a locksmith to open my car once in my life, and he broke the mechanism on my door. The same thing happened to my sister once as well, so I will never call a locksmith again.

My injured knees/legs/feet have gradually been getting better. It's only been 9 days, but it seems like forever. I am eager to run again. I started out cycling a little, then I walked 1/2 a mile, and then a mile. I am going to try running 1/2 a mile today and see if I feel ok. I have a race on Nov. 8'th I would really love to train for, but I'm not going to push it. My ex boyfriend, who is an ultra marathon runner, will be competing in the same race, and I'd rather he not see me finish after all the old ladies. I've been getting so pissed off when I drive and see people running and I can't. Seriously, people, knock it off.

Also, this weekend, I found out my friend Mandy (we used to be close, but not so much lately) is desperately trying to get the attention of my ex husband. My ex and I had a good laugh over that. Whatever happened to the rule you don't date your friend's ex? Two of my ex's friends have asked me out, but I declined. The thought of a friend dating my ex is just icky, kind of like if my sister were dating him. He has a girlfriend who seems really nice, so I have no problem with his dating, just don't date my friends!

My Visit to the Doctor

As described in my last post, I injured knees/legs while hiking last weekend and carrying my 65 lb son on my back. I finally went to the doctor yesterday. Yesterday, my knees were still bothering me pretty badly. One kept burning in an overuse kind of way.

What the Doctor Said

He said a lot of knee injuries are caused by leg inflexibility. He then lifted my leg and was able to almost put it behind my head, so that was a definite "no" on inflexibility. Finally, he told me I have kneecap pain. No shit! I should have gone to med school because I already knew that. Actually, I'm just glad he didn't think it was a stress fracture. He said to take 3 ibuprophen 3 times daily and take it easy for 2 weeks. He recommended I add cycling (excercise bike) to my training regimen. Yay! A doctor's excuse to buy more toys. Actually, I have been meaning to buy an exercise bike anyway. Also, he said my fever like symptom was probably caused by dehydration, which makes sense since I accidentally left my most prized possession, my water bottle, at our camp site.

I feel a lot better today. My knees have given me very little trouble-could be all the meds I'm taking. My feet are still swollen. This injury means I probably won't be performing in my next belly dance hafla, but I do have 2 5k races in Nov. that I hope I will be able to run in.

I'm a Genius!

I went camping in the moutains this weekend with my 2 kids, my sisters, my nephew, and my mom. At my suggestion, we all took a .9 mile trail (1.8 mi roundtrip) to a beautiful little trout lake. I knew I would need to carry my 4 year old daughter for part of the way, which is not too bad since she is only 35 lbs.

Well, as any parent who has more than one child knows, you are always trying to make your kids understand that you love them equally. My 6 year old son had asked me a couple of times to carry him, and I told him he was way too heavy (65 lbs). I started feeling bad about not carrying him, so I hoisted him on my back and carried him for a while. This trail was quite hilly in parts.

I should have known better than to do that. About 3 hours after walking the trail, my knees started hurting and one started swelling, and I started feeling delirious, feverish. Uh-oh. I went to bed that night, and when I woke up, I felt fine. Then, the next day (yesterday), my right knee started burning, like I had far overused it. I could not even sleep because of it. Today, I am able to walk on it a little better, but it is still screwed up. As a bonus, my feet are swollen as well. I am going to the doctor this afternoon. I am guessing I have a knee injury/infection. Lovely.

How Nerdy are You?

I had nothing better to do, so I took a quiz to see how nerdy I am. I mean, how could I possibly go on with my life not knowing my nerdiness level? How did you rate?

Big Bang 2-The End of the World

This Wednesday (Sept 10), the most powerful particle collider ever built will be in operation. The 17 mile, multibillion dollar Large Hadron Collider will explore the tiniest subatomic particles-quarks and gluons.

The project hopes to recreate conditions that existed a split second after the big bang and learn more about antimatter, dark matter, and perhaps even hidden dimensions of space and time.
It will still be about a month before beams traveling in opposite directions are brought together in collisions that some skeptics fear could create micro "black holes" and endanger the planet. Skeptics have filed suit unsuccessfully to have the project shut down.
(Source: yahoo news)

My comments: I find this project really exciting. Do I think the world is going to come to an end? Absolutely not, but it is so futuristic and thrilling for scientists to even be worried about a man-made phenomenon destroying the universe. It will be exciting to see what wild, possibly extremely useful knowledge and advances come from learning more about the nature of matter.

Photo: A view of the PC Farm which will handle data from the Large Hadron Collider. It will process enough data every year to fill a stack of CDs 20 km tall.

My Daughter Mingo

Photo: Ed Ames (Mingo)
My mom's favorite tv show is the old Daniel Boone series from the 1960s. For some time now, she has been trying to get other people (including me) interested in it, with no luck. Imagine my mom's surprise when my 4 year old daughter (let's call her Lucy) falls in love with the show.

There is a Native American character in the series named Mingo. Lucy is fascinated with him and wants to be just like him. She keeps asking my mom and me to buy her a headdress, moccasins, clothing, and even a rifle(!) like Mingo's. My mom made her a headdress out of leather and feathers as well as leather arm bands. She cried this morning when I wouldn't let her wear them to preschool. Finally, Lucy had me braid her hair like Mingo. She also asked Mom to make her Indian clothes for a Halloween costume and Mom agreed. Lucy is rather dark skinned and will make a cute Mingo.

I plan to take her to a local amusement park soon which has reenactments with Native Americans. Lucy keeps calling my mom Daniel Boone. Her 6 year old brother is not amused. He says, "oh, Lucy! That's not Daniel Boone. That's Mawmaw!"

We also explained to Lucy that some of her family is Cherokee indian, including my late grandmother and some of her dad's family who are fire walkers. She immediately wanted to meet them.

I think her little obsession is so adorable. I would much rather her be obsessed with Mingo than Hannah Montana any day.

New Contact Info

I have set up an e-mail address where I can be contacted. Feel free to drop me a note for any reason.

curiouslife [at] ymail [dot] com

Also, I just set up a Face Book account. Thanks to David for inviting me. Feel free to add me if you have Face Book.

Jehovah's Witnesses Monkeys In Dresses

Photo: Paris Hilton was not pleased to see the paparazzi outside her home.

Did the title confuse you? It did? Awesome! This post is about a couple of interesting things I witnessed this weekend.

(1)-Tired of those pesky Jehovah's Witnesses beating on your door? Never fear! Just answer the door and do what one woman I saw this weekend did. I was out doing some running on Saturday and came across 3 Jehovah's witnesses teens in their traditional ties, white shirts, and black slacks. 2 of them were talking with a middle aged woman, while the third one was mowing her lawn with a push mower, his tie blowing in his face, while getting his white shirt all sweaty. It was an awesome sight. I only wish I'd had my camera with me. D'oh! So the next time I'm napping and I hear the door bell ring only to see Jehovah's witnesses congregating on my door step, here's what I'll do:

(Answer door)
(JW):"Blessed morning, mam. May we share the Word with you?"
(Me):"Depends."
(JW): "On what?"
(Me): "How good are you with a push mower?"

(2) I was out driving yesterday and did a double-take when I saw a man riding a bicycle down the road, and on the handlebars there was a monkey wearing a dress-no kidding. And, no, it wasn't a really ugly kid.