Gasoline prices

Last night while I was shelving books at the public library, a patron who happens also to be a subscriber to The Ozarks Chronicle came down the row where I was working and shot the breeze briefly. He said he had taken his wife to a doctor somewhere between here and St. Louis and found that gasoline was selling for much cheaper. He said the same convenience store company that is selling gas for $3.19 in Rolla was selling it for $2.89 in that town.

Here's why: Rolla is a prosperous town halfway between St. Louis and Springfield. It is filled with doctors of medicine and doctors of philosophy making good salaries. Our leading employers are the university, the hospital and government bureau offices. Those folks make good money. The market will bear a higher price for gasoline. Those of us who are working stiffs or who are trying to build a new business (and I fall into both categories) have a lot rougher time of it, though.

Hello, tourist, welcome to the Ozarks!

The hills and streams will be full of visitors now that Memorial Day has arrived. It will be that way through Labor Day.

We're happy to host visitors, for they bring something we all like and need here in the Ozarks: Money.

Fortunately, they're usually quite nice; at least the ones I've run across. Not being in tourism-related business, I don't deal with tourists on a daily basis. Rolla isn't a tourist destination, so tourists normally stop here only to eat, gas up and use the restrooms. (I wonder how many gallons of sewage are dumped in Rolla each year by tourists.) When I see tourists, it's usually at the gas station or in a restaurant. I often hand them a sample copy of The Ozarks Chronicle, welcome them to the Ozarks and joke that "If you read that from kivver to kivver, it'll turn you into a hillbilly." They always laugh at my silly joke; I've never run across a rude tourist in the flesh.

Now, I've run across them, or rather, nearly been run over by them or run off the road by them while we've all been behind the wheels of our autos or trucks. I have to say that the rudest visiting drivers I've seen are from Illinois; they're quick to honk at you, pass you when you're already going 5 miles over the speed limit, fail to wait their turn at a four-way stop, etc. They're followed in rudeness by Texans, which is odd, because in their home state, Texans are civil and polite. Down there, slower vehicles will, most of the time, pull off on the shoulder and let you pass. Of course, more of the highways down there have paved shoulders that allow that.

Of course, visiting drivers are no worse and no ruder than our homegrown motorists. If you want to see some unsafe and rude driving, come to Rolla on any Friday or Saturday night (any night of the year) and travel Highway 63 and Kingshighway.

Well, let's welcome the tourists. Let's all be on our best behavior while they're visiting--and spending money in the Ozarks.

We got some rain!

I don't know how much rain we got this afternoon, but we got some--finally. It came down hard, too. Everybody's garden needed that drink. I'll check the rain gauge later.

Let's preserve the freedom won by soldiers' sacrifices

From the time the New World was settled, warriors have won freedoms that we cherish.

Now let's make sure the politicians don't take those freedoms away from us. They keep trying all the time. The Republicans try to limit freedom in the name of national security. The Democrats try to limit freedom in the name of environmental protection. It doesn't matter who is in control; they want to stay in control and they want to make their control stronger and more widespread over our lives.

Fight back by educating and informing yourself, speaking out and writing. Read. Read a lot. Especially read books. Rolla Public Library is full of good non-fiction books that shed a lot light on current events. The more you know, the less impressed you are by the pronouncements and actions of politicians.

Don't let the politicians make the sacrifices of soldiers meaningless.

Why don't we encourage wildflower growth in Missouri?

Here in the Ozarks we enjoy our colorful fall foliage. Cresting a hill in on a bright October day and seeing the splashes of color all the way to the horizon shows us another reason we like living here. I think tourists like to drive around our hills to look at the leaves, too.

Why can't our state, county and city governments figure out that we could have a drawing card for tourists in the spring and early summer with our native plants and wildflowers? Highway, road and street crews can't wait to get out and mow the roadsides or. even worse, spray herbicides along the roads.

I suppose it isn't entirely the fault of the governments. Property owners want the "weeds" mowed as quickly and as often as possible.

Encouraging wildflower and native plant growth would give the tourism division an additional selling point for Missouri, especially northern Missouri, which doesn't have the fall foliage we do in the Ozarks.

I'm obviously not a seer

Well, sir, my prediction on the winner of the American Idol was wrong. The singer defeated the beatbox; the girl beat the boy.

Thank goodness, it is over until next January when the funny audition shows begin again.

My wife loves to watch the American Idol, so I do, too, of course. I think the American Idol will be succeeded for the spring and summer with some kind of dancing show that she likes to watch, so I do, too, of course.

Two more wasted hours coming up

Tonight the American Idol program hasthe final competitive performances by the last two candidates. One is a girl who sings pop music beautifully; the other is a boy who sings well when he sings, but he's forevermore throwing in this stuff they call "beatbox" or somesuch. You can tell that I'm an old geezer, no doubt.

American Idol 2007 will probably be that "beatboxing" moron, because junior high girls across the land will be voting for him.

The best singer was the girl they kicked off last week. She was soulful and sincere. I don't like much of the vapid music they perform on the American Idol, but she delivered some great performances. The junior high girls across the land, though, didn't back her.

My favorite episodes of the American Idol are the first half dozen or so, the ones in which the competitors audition. These are hilarious programs. I laugh until I almost cry, because of the caterwauling. What's really funny is when the wannbe superstars get angry and stalk out, cussing, giving hand gestures and vowing that they'll be famous some day without the help of Simon, Paula or Randy (the judges).

There's some sadness, too. I remember a chubby girl from one of the first shows this season. She was excited to be trying out, and apparently was good enough to sing solos in her urban church. She wasn't good enough for the judges, though, and when she was turned down, she cried and said, "Why is always no, no, no, in my life? When is it ever going to be yes?" I felt mighty sorry for that child.

A Different Time

Way back yonder in time when I was a young Ozarks Boy instead of an aging, decrepit old geezerish Ozarks Boy, I rode my bicycle a lot. We lived out in the country, and I had to ride on gravel roads, so it was good that I didn't have one of those thin-tired, multi-geared bicycles. We called them English racers back in those days. Now kids have mountain bikes, street bikes, racing bikes and trick bikes to choose from if they want to ride bicycles.

Do they ride bicycles nowadays? It seems to me they don't. I'm out on the road a lot, selling ads for The Ozarks Chronicle, and I don't see many bicyclists. The ones I see are almost always older guys out pedaling for a long-distance, keeping a steady cadence as they ride uphill and down. I don't remember the last time I saw a kid out on bicycle, especially a heavy old one-speed bike with a brake that required back-pedaling, like my old bike.

I work part-time at the Rolla Public Library, three nights a week and every other weekend. The last two weekends I've worked have been gorgeous outside. For many families, they were perfect days to spend indoors at the Rolla Public Library. Yes, I wrote that correctly. I couldn't believe how many parents brought their kids to the library on those beautiful Saturdays and Sundays, mostly to check out videos and DVDs.

Taking children to the library is a wonderful thing, but I sure hope those parents made time during the day to get the kids out in the yard or in the park or in the river. I hope they didn't take the kids to the library to pick out movies and then go home to watch them all afternoon.

Beautiful Day

What a gorgeous day this has been: Moderate temperature, brilliant sunlight, pastel blue sky.
It has been marred only by the news that gasoline in Rolla again gone above $3.
Most of the day I've been in the office at the computer, but I took off around 2 and went to the bank, post office, the utility company and the cable company. Trained observer that I am, I didn't pay any attention to gasoline prices. It was in the bank I heard that gasoline was $3.19. One teller said it was $3.22 at one convenience store. Gasoline was $2.99 when I came to work this morning.

We started the month in Rolla with gasoline at $3.09, higher than anywhere else in the state, I believe. Just down the road in Waynesville, it was $2.89 the same day that it was $3.09 here. My wife's relatives in Texas report that gasoline was $2.79 in early May, the same day it was $2.89 in Waynesville and $3.09 here.

About the same time the Springfield paper's lead story was that gasoline in the Queen City of the Ozarks had gone to $3 for the first time in history, Rolla gasoline outlets lowered the prices h ere to $2.99.

I'd like for someone to explain gasoline pricing to me. Who decides the price? Why are all the prices at the "competing" outlets the same?

I remember gas wars when I was a kid way back yonder in time. Gasoline was 19.9 cents per gallon at one time; that's the lowest I remember. In the Seventies while I was at the university, I remember bolding declaring that when gasoline got above $1 a gallon I would quit driving. It did, and I didn't.

For the first time in my life I paid over $2 per gallon in May 2004 when my wife and I were on a trip up north to visit some folks in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I think I actually paid the $2-plus in Wisconsin. I said at the time, "I'll be glad to get back down South where prices are a little more in line with reality." Prices were under $2 when we got home, but now three years later look at them.

Well, it's still a beautiful day.