Cheap gas again.

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
No, I didn't buy futures because that would require that I made the purchase based on an expectation that the prices would be going up -- in fact I fully expected them to keep trending downward.

I purchased when I did because I had $1/gal in rewards that was going to be expiring in a few days and I had to bring the Beast down into town to pick up the drums that I had purchased and had just arrived. So combining that trip with what otherwise would have been a separate fuel tripped saved about 2.5 gallons of fuel or about $5. Saving $1/gal on 25 of the 75 gallons I purchased that day saved another $25. So that 25 gallons ended up costing about $120, or about $1.60/gal. Had I taken the Beast out last week to the station that had the $1.429/gallon and gotten 75 gallons of fuel it would have cost me $107 for the fuel plus another $11 for the fuel consumed by the Beast because the station with that price were 60 miles round tip. So the effective loss on this futures contract, even if we had looked at it from that vein, was a whopping $2 (or 2.7 cents per gallon).

Just be sure to use proper bonding/grounding as you transfer the fuel. The chemical industry has come a long way in this area - the oil companies think a sticker on the side of a pump solves everything - it doesn't, be careful.

Plastic drums or isolated steel drums and non-polar/non-conductive fluids, free-falling liquids, pick-up truck beds with drums sitting on bed liners, mats or other insulation and collecting vapors all lead to a fire caused by static discharge. People think plastic containers help, they don't. They make things worse. Look up "bonding and grounding" "flammable liquids". Even if you are sure of how it works, take a minute to review.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
32,871
Just be sure to use proper bonding/grounding as you transfer the fuel. The chemical industry has come a long way in this area - the oil companies think a sticker on the side of a pump solves everything - it doesn't, be careful.

Plastic drums or isolated steel drums and non-polar/non-conductive fluids, free-falling liquids, pick-up truck beds with drums sitting on bed liners, mats or other insulation and collecting vapors all lead to a fire caused by static discharge. People think plastic containers help, they don't. They make things worse. Look up "bonding and grounding" "flammable liquids". Even if you are sure of how it works, take a minute to review.
Having been a pilot and involved in fueling operations, I'm well aware of these risks. So I take a tow chain and drop one end into the barrel through one of the bung holes. I then drape it down into the bed of the truck and from there out onto the ground. Then I take a set of jumper cables and connect one clamp to the chain and another to fuel nozzle (which goes into the other bung hole) with the other ends of each clamped to the ground strap on the lift gate.
 

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,330
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0W42ME

The "landman" goes down.

At a press briefing in Oklahoma City, Captain Paco Balderrama said McClendon was traveling at “well above” the 40 mile per hour speed limit before he "pretty much drove straight into the wall." He was not wearing a seat belt.

“There was plenty of opportunity for him to correct or get back on the roadway and that didn't occur," Balderrama said.

Industry executives and state officials remembered McClendon as a "visionary" who ushered in a new era of U.S. energy abundance by pursuing the hydraulic fracturing technology that would unlock decades' worth of domestic natural gas and oil resources.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/christo...deny-federal-conspiracy-charges/#26801c7d4de8
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
I see at least three possible paths that were the root cause of this crash.
- police eventually find his cell phone with a half-written text message. Something like, "I will be there in a half ho"
- a competitor or partner didn't want McClendon to tell the story and made sure it wouldn't get out. Although there was a witness, the car could have been tampered with our the full story is not out yet.
- McClendon just didn't want to deal with the this (and possibly other) problems any more.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
32,871
I see at least three possible paths that were the root cause of this crash.
- police eventually find his cell phone with a half-written text message. Something like, "I will be there in a half ho"
- a competitor or partner didn't want McClendon to tell the story and made sure it wouldn't get out. Although there was a witness, the car could have been tampered with our the full story is not out yet.
- McClendon just didn't want to deal with the this (and possibly other) problems any more.
I would think that having a heart attack or other medical problem might possibly rank somewhere on that list, too.
 

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
6,305
That book must have really moved you. You've referenced it several times. Did you read it long ago, recently, or see the recent movie?
It's my favorite book. Over a thousand pages of small print, and I've read it probably 20 times. Started reading it again a week ago. I keep it on my kindel app.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
It's my favorite book. Over a thousand pages of small print, and I've read it probably 20 times. Started reading it again a week ago. I keep it on my kindel app.
Interesting. There is a very short list of things I am willing to do more than once. Reading that book is not on my list.

By the way, Kindle lets you adjust font size.

EDIT: also, it is the only novel that I have two copies of. The first was borrowed by a friend and he returned it. Then, a few months later he bought a new copy for me because he thought he lost it and felt bad and, well, now I have two. And, yes. The first edition was very small print and the newer version was also very small print. What's the story with that small print. Seems like a bible... Oh, wait, maybe another analogy is in order.
 

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
6,305
Interesting. There is a very short list of things I am willing to do more than once. Reading that book is not on my list.

By the way, Kindle lets you adjust font size.

EDIT: also, it is the only novel that I have two copies of. The first was borrowed by a friend and he returned it. Then, a few months later he bought a new copy for me because he thought he lost it and felt bad and, well, now I have two.
I read Atlas Shrugged like others read their bible.
 

Thread Starter

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,330
I see at least three possible paths that were the root cause of this crash.
- police eventually find his cell phone with a half-written text message. Something like, "I will be there in a half ho"
- a competitor or partner didn't want McClendon to tell the story and made sure it wouldn't get out. Although there was a witness, the car could have been tampered with our the full story is not out yet.
- McClendon just didn't want to deal with the this (and possibly other) problems any more.
Don't forget cloned 'body double'.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
32,871
It already is in a lot of places, including up in Denver (the lowest locally here is $1.29).

Four or five years ago I stated in a thread on this forum, when gas was going up and hitting the $4 mark for the first time in a lot of places, that I fully expected gas prices to get back below $2 a gallon, probably several time, and that I would not be surprised to see it get below $1 at some point. It was a comment on the extreme volatility in gas prices and their historical inability to even keep up with inflation.

I was roundly chastised for being so foolish as to make such a ridiculous claim and that the days of sub-$3 gasoline were over forever. The prices have fallen below $2 a gallon a few times since then and are now below $1 in many places.
 

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
6,305
I was roundly chastised for being so foolish as to make such a ridiculous claim and that the days of sub-$3 gasoline were over forever.
I'm old enough to know that gas/oil price volatility pretty much guarantees extreme pricing on both ends of the scale over long periods of time. I hope I wasn't the one doing the ridiculing! Do you have a link to the thread?

With that said, those living on the left coast are pretty much conditioned to expect ~$3 gas, even now.

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WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
32,871
I'm old enough to know that gas/oil price volatility pretty much guarantees extreme pricing on both ends of the scale over long periods of time. I hope I wasn't the one doing the ridiculing! Do you have a link to the thread?
Here are few of them -- there are many others.

https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/...w-hybrid-vehicles-should-be.87445/post-630493

https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/...w-hybrid-vehicles-should-be.87445/post-630702

https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/cheap-gas-again.104230/post-790019

In reviewing them, I realize that I am misrembering something from my youth. Currently I thought that I was paying $1.389/gal when I got my license, but in one of those posts I mentioned that gas prices (near me) just broke the $1/gal mark at that point and that I was hard pressed to find it under $1.35/gal when I graduated. That makes me think the $1.389/gal is not from when I got my license, but from when I moved away from home and started college and so was now paying for my own gas. My dad paid for my gas in high school because I didn't have a job because of the need to be home to take care of my mom, so I didn't really pay too much attention to them (typical when the person incurring the expense is not the one paying for it).
 

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
6,305
Here are few of them -- there are many others.

https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/...w-hybrid-vehicles-should-be.87445/post-630493

https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/...w-hybrid-vehicles-should-be.87445/post-630702

https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/cheap-gas-again.104230/post-790019

In reviewing them, I realize that I am misrembering something from my youth. Currently I thought that I was paying $1.389/gal when I got my license, but in one of those posts I mentioned that gas prices (near me) just broke the $1/gal mark at that point and that I was hard pressed to find it under $1.35/gal when I graduated. That makes me think the $1.389/gal is not from when I got my license, but from when I moved away from home and started college and so was now paying for my own gas. My dad paid for my gas in high school because I didn't have a job because of the need to be home to take care of my mom, so I didn't really pay too much attention to them (typical when the person incurring the expense is not the one paying for it).
In 2005, I purchased a 2003 Ford T-Bird. The V8 requires Hi-Test, otherwise it knocks like hell. My first tank of gas cost $2.259 -- a fortune at the time.

I traded the T-Bird in for a Minivan when I got my wife pregnant. A 2-seater was rather inconvenient for a family of 3.

Fast forward fifteen years:

Over the past year, I've been yearning for my car back. Last week, I took advantage of the surplus of used cars and bought a perfect-condition 2003 T-Bird matching the one I drove previously (only 57K miles!).

I just put my first tank of Hi-Test in today: $2.159. (Edit: ~= $1.60 in 2005 dollars).

This car burns lots of fuel, but think of all the money I'm saving!!!

20200414_163855.jpg

PS -> A previous owner must have stuck those "50th Anniversary" placards on the side. This is not a 50th Anniversary model: that was 2005.
 
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