Cognitive Dissonant

235 years ago a committee met in the attic above a newspaper press and determined to make an act of defiance. While it was not necessarily their intention, this act set in motion great change.

Suppose we took a stand now. Suppose all ships carrying foreign oil failed to make berth. Suppose the great machine that insures that oil keeps flowing failed, if only briefly.

Ah well, today such acts of defiance would be mistaken for terrorism… and they shoot you for that.

Were times really so much simpler?

I am starting to feel guilty for driving. You’ve got to understand, I love to drive. I am {this} close to following one of many tutorials found online to converting a motorcycle to electric. I think it will be a while before I can afford $100,000 for a Tesla Roadster.

I would like to see a revolution against petroleum in my lifetime, call me impatient.

“…Let us retreat while we can, not when we must…”
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, addressing the house of commons in a motion to withdraw troops from Boston, 1775.

Alright I admit it. I am a little more than three sheets to the wind.
The associates took me out for a goodbye party. I was given 3 shots, all I know is the last one was wild turkey. I had a few corona, but only one appeared on my tab.

This is a good bunch of kids. They were genuinely sorry to see me leave. That does make me think my time in EP may not have been entirely wasted.

I will be packing not one, but two bottles of a particular tequila that was recommended to me long, long ago. It seems that this brand of tequila can only be found on the other side of the border. Nonetheless they found it for me.

With a brief interruption of a couple days at my old store, I will be on vacation for almost two weeks. I can’t believe it’s over. I finally get to go home.

1 day 15 hours and 20 minutes…

Why I am optimistic about the future of alternative fuel vehicles.

1)Car manufactures want to keep making cars. Cars can be built to run on Hydrogen, ethanol, or electricity just to name a few. They may not have any interest in saving the world but they can be relied upon to try to stay in business.

2)Car manufacturers want to make cars people will buy. Gasoline is rapidly approaching $4 in areas where it hasn’t all ready exceeded it. Average incomes have not risen at the same rate. People are not going to buy cars they can’t afford to keep fueled. They may buy cars they can’t afford, but the inability to put gas in the tank presents a more immediate obstacle.

3)Americans, probably people in general, prefer Choice. There is/ will be Hydrogen, Ethanol, Electric, Hybrid, natural gas… etc. There are at minimum 10 “hybrid” vehicles to choose from. If you have the means, there is even the Tesla Roadster. Its real. It works. It’s really, really expensive.

4)The People demand it. We have seen this coming for a while now. Everyday more and more people want to do something about it. We’ve caught our selves up in a bloody war for Oil. Americans are tired of the price. The media is granting more and more time to positive exposition of alternative fuels and hybrid vehicles. The Federal government has on occasion supported the purchase of hybrid.

5)It makes good business sense. There is no future in petroleum. My degree is in the Arts and I know this. It is a safe bet investors and heads of business know this too. There are countless research projects in various stages of development looking to the future with the desire to break us from our dependence on petroleum.

It won’t be easy. It is the future, however.

…anyway.

No conference call today, tomorrow’s was canceled. Canceled, probably because it couldn’t be scheduled conveniently for anyone.

In spite of this, I am fairly certain I get to go home… for good… next week! I’m due four days off. I am trying get another seven off for vacation. Here’s hoping!

This morning I woke up at 9:45 and remembered that it was Thursday. That meant tomorrow would be Friday. My plane leaves on Friday. 7:40am. I should have confirmed my flight 2 hours ago.

Sorry. My mental faculties are extremely limited when I’ve just woken up, but that really is how it went. It seemed to take alot longer though…

Tomorrow will start my, hopefully, last trip to El Paso. I can already tell it is going to be a rough transition back to living and working in the same city. I’ve gotten used to having 4 days off sequentially. ‘Course that is only after 10 days straight at work…

After confirming my flight, I decided to check out a blog that hadn’t been updated, as far as I know, since last May. I received an email at 12am last night announcing that there had been updates.

Now, this is my own fault, and I get that, but I have my phone picking up all email from one of my accounts. And on this night in particular I had forgotten to reset the phone to its “this had better be really freaking important!” mode. So at 11:58am I shot out of bed to my phone beeping ecstatically, ” Somebody loves us, somebody loves us… or its more spam from Hanes.com.”

So this morning after determining that my assigned standing position was A31, I pull up this blog.

A bit of back story for you…
This is the girl I took to my High School Prom… (yes I was always that awkward)
This is a girl with whom I failed, utterly, neigh Spectacularly, to get off with (read: to court) to woo. Hell, I think I even scared her a bit.

Anyway, time did as it does and eons later here I am. I only actually blew her off once, and that is because she wanted to meet me, with her now ex-husband. Look, I am a social klutz under the best of circumstances, so… no. I could have made it work, I could have traded shifts with someone. Since then I have been working in hell, or working in El Paso. But being who she is, the offer still stands.

In reading her blog, I remembered why an emotionally inept 18yr old boy was so fascinated. Yes she was beautiful, obviously. What sticks in my mind the most is her smile and her laughter. I am happy to see that she has resumed doing both and with gusto.

Hopefully when my commuting days are over, I can take her up on the offer.

You Are a Pinky

You are fiercely independent, and possibly downright weird. A great communicator, you can get along with almost anyone. You are kind and sympathetic. You support all your friends - and love them for who they are. You get along well with: The Ring Finger Stay away from: The Thumb

I don’t know how I feel about that. I would have thought I was an index finger or a thumb. Better go work on my Dr. Evil impression.