OMG...I was just going to post about this! I just went past the gas station closest to us..a fe wblocks away and it has gone up to 4.26 per gallon! For the cheap stuff! It has always been around 3.98 for the last few weeks. the other corner had it for 4.09. DS just called and said the one by his house actually came down a penny from yesterday, it's now 3.97! This guy will most likely have long lines all week end with lower prices. Smart thing to do..he'll sell more in the long run! I also heard that prices will go up again on Monday...probably because they know people that are out of town will need gas to get home and have to pay it!! This makes me sick! Luckily DH works within 15 minutes from home and we spend only $20.00 a week on gas right now. This is the first I've seen over 4.00 so far....it didn't look nice at all!

My current vehicle is the first one to have the holder in the door. Was pretty obvious to me when I first opened it as it its purpose. It also has the plastic strap but letting it hang can also let gas get on the paint. Not a lot so it's not a critical thing to do but it will keep the cap out of the way of the nozzle. To say that a properly inserted nozzle cannot come out is wrong. I was in the gasoline business a lot of years and pressure can force the nozzle to shake and jump. One time filling my car I saw it jumping and working its way out. I ran to and got my hand about a foot away from it and the nozzle shot out, I caught it but it was still dispensing fuel at full force pushing my hand back and it shot gas right into my face. Also, most of today's pumps don't have the traditional shutoff switch/lever for you to pump gas. They're moving to electronic. When you remove the nozzle it trips the switch and when you put the nozzle back into the holder it shuts the pump down so you can't do the little lift the hose and drain the couple tablespoons of gas from the nozzle and hose thinking you're getting way more gas. Most people argue that the ban in NJ was from corruption. Supposedly the initiators claimed it was safer to not allow people to dispense their own gasoline. (In many cases that is true from what I've seen.) I never liked it because I saw too many attempts to rip people off by the dispensers of gas back when full or mini serve were offered. Occasionally, but rarely, will Sam's Club pump gas for you. They have an attendant on duty and us cripples can make them pump it for us (as at most any station - that's law, certain rules apply) but mostly when they'll pump it, it's optional and a promotion type thing. They're usually pushing their credit card and things. I never take advantage of having someone pump gas for me. I don't mind filling the tank unless it's extremely cold or extremely hot and I try not to fill with gas when it's too hot anyway. One little tidbit which many people don't know, if a tank overflows, the shutoff doesn't shutoff or whatever, it's the responsibility (in this state) of the person dispensing the gas. Usually stations will take care of the cleanup and if necessary notification of the EPA but they can charge the customer for it if it's excessive. At least the idiots driving off with the nozzle in the tank has died down. That used to be real common. Oh, and something I didn't know until just a few years ago: The exit number signs on freeway/interstates will tell you if it's left, right or middle exit by the location on the sign on the related sign. If it is on the left side, it's left exit, right side it's right exit, etc. Example of a left exit:

Several years ago, I had an hour's commute to work every day and listened to NPR a lot as a result. They had a guy on there pitching his book about why the nation and politics had become so divisive. This is somewhat related to the negativity concern. It is a well known factor in both predicting and managing human behavior, that humans are hard wired to react to immediate dangers. It's a lot more difficult to motivate us, or even get our attention on complicated, proactive things. Acute danger and negativity enlists our most basic motivational forces to act, and this is well known and used by the marketing and advertisement forces all throughout our society. The fact that there is a need for raising more and more money in politics means that there will be more and more negativity in media. We get it because it works, because it sells. We get it on TV because it gets ratings, i.e., it sells. Cute puppies sell too, as does sex. Basic human survival, danger, intrigue, sex, protect young, eat drink and be merry. So that's what we get. But unlike all other animals, we are sapient, we are wise enough to know what is going on and we have a lot of ability to understand the world beyond just those basic things. The only difference I see is media is increasingly intrusive and brings quite an air of concern about distant realities to our lives. People are spending an awful lot of time in virtual worlds now. It's odd to me how people can be so upset and concerned about the acute damage that these hurricanes are doing (not that there's anything wrong with that) and yet the same people could care less about implementing/paying for long term projects that would prevent future hurricanes from taking such a devastating toll. Not that we can prevent hurricanes, but there are ways to mitigate their damage. But it's something far off that may or may not happen in their lifetime so human nature is to gamble with the odds on something that is not acute. And yet when something acute does happen, then we spring into action. Same with health care, we seem to care about some poor cute kid's life, but not about making health care available to all, particularly on the preventative level. It's frustrating to me, and yet I know that it is just human nature. The cute kid with cancer trumps the boring policy discussion on how to provide more health care for poor people in this country. The cute polar bear cub vs jobs to feed your family ends up being the sum total of a very complex issue of how to deal with climate change. And Kim Jong Un and DT are tailor made for each other's publicity machines and power gaining strategy, so that's what we get. If we didn't feel like our very lives were at stake, we might be entertained by them on the wrestling channel. Freud even went so far as to think self-destructive behavior in humans was somehow instinctual, seeing as how we were often so seemingly illogically attracted to negative energies.

After you've used the paper towel on the handle to open the door of the public washroom and find no garbage container nearby into which to dispose of it, yeonassky, you say that you carry a plastic bag to put the towel into till you find a garbage container. If it's a usual kind that you've washed after having used for another purpose, then you're not using one more new piece of plastic to turn into junk. But if you use a new one, if you get milk in bags, would you consider washing an empty one into which to put the possibly contaminated paper towel, in order to avoid turning one more piece of fresh plastic into junk after just one use? At age beyond 80, I have no grandkids to help clean up the mess that we 7 billion inhabitants, which about 400 years ago were only about 1 billion, are making of the world. And plastic has been around for, what, about 60 years, more or less? ole joyful