Pilot's Log

I took Moonshine in for an oil change at the Dandridge Pennzoil today. I'm only a month or so away from putting 100,000 miles on her since I bought her. And, like the song goes, so much has happened and nothing has changed.

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In 1979 we moved from Pittsburgh to Florida. Took us two days. We slept in North Carolina just so we could do breakfast and souvenir shopping at South Of The Border, SC. Lynn had an adventure with her cat at a Rest Area.

We listened to a lot of disco. It hadn't died yet.

PS: Actually, I think it took us more than three days. 55 was the national speed limit then because of the Energy Crisis and fuel rationing. We stopped first in Baltimore at Dad's brother and his family there. Then NC/SC state line. Then I think we took one more stop in Georgia before heading down to Peachtree.

So my sister and brother-in-law aren't going to visit Rather Manor today...

Hmm.

No auto racing on TV. (The Cup race from Bristol was overnight--and too short by half an hour because of a dearth of what Bristol is famous for...nasty crashes and long caution periods.)

Moonshine wants me to get her some fuel. Guess I can't keep her waiting too long.

Moonshine needed a fill-up today so I went to one of the BP stations by the Interstate exit. When I got there, the attendant was throwing "out of order" bags on the pump nozzles...they had sold out of regular and mid-grade. (Earlier my father told me that something like that had happened at the BP in "downtown" Dandridge.)

[Yes, I know what you're saying. I was brand-loyal to BP from when they were Amoco, and kinda wish they still were Amoco. But that's part of this story.]

So I went to the Shell on the other side of the Interstate overpass and fueled there. I noticed on the pump they were offering a new credit card with the following plan: buy more than 45 gallons in a month, and Shell will discount your tab by 5¢ per gallon, up to 100 gallons per month. In my head I crunched the numbers...my car gets, conservatively, at least 33 miles to a gallon in normal use. To qualify for the monthly discount, I'd have to drive over 1500 miles in a month to get...$2.25 in discount savings. And the maximum discount per month is only $5--only enough to pay for TWO gallons at today's prices.

My folks may be in the market to "renegotiate" our gas cards, but the above plan is gas worth passing. (Pun intended.)

Important points:
*Cars to be traded in have to be 1985 model or newer and get less than 18 miles to a gallon of fuel. The customer must have owned the vehicle for at least a year and have the paperwork to prove it (title, registration, insurance). The customer can only get the rebate once even if he trades more than one vehicle
*Only a limited number of new car dealers will be authorized to participate
*The new vehicle must have a sticker price of less than $45,000. The customer can't get a pre-owned vehicle, it must be from dealer stock or from the factory
*The amount of the rebate depends on the difference in mileage between the new vehicle and the vehicle being replaced. Trucks are held to a different standard than cars. The minimum rebate is $3500 and the maximum is $4500
*As the vehicle being traded in will be scrapped, the dealer is only obliged to pay salvage value, not "Blue Book"
*The customer can opt to lease the new vehicle instead of buying it
*The program will last till the end of October or when funding runs out
*If the new vehicle is a Hybrid, there are bonus incentives offered by the government!

All this information courtesy the official site: www.cars.gov

*) My sister's husband is set against her buying another VW. She test-drove a Kia yesterday. Dunno if she likes it enough to buy it.

*) While looking for other things, I came upon the Ford Super Pursuit, which is an Australian vehicle that is a Mustang front end combined with a pickup bed. They don't sell those in America because the Department of Transportation's laws regarding Light Trucks have been written by twerps. There has always been demand for these sorts of machines here, but the law has pushed the compact pickup truck instead for the job since the 1970s.

*) BP has a scratch-off sweepstakes going on now, but it doesn't have a Second Chance like previous ones. We won Second Chance drawings a couple times. Instead, BP says, "if you don't win, go to our website to download free Hannah Montana digital content." Which begs the question, who, older than 18 years of age and buying BP gasoline, would WANT Hannah Montana digital content?

*) I've needed to write a scene for a comic book for weeks now and haven't felt in the mood for it.

*) I rolled dice last night to set the budget for my Florida trip. It came to $372. I'm sure that sounds like very little to some of you, but for me that is a fortune.

My parents noticed a problem with the water line coming into Rather Manor, so they called the Utilities Co-Op to explain the problem and ask for help...and after they hung up our phone lines lost the dial tone. So as I couldn't access the 'Net here I decided I had to go to the Dandridge library and use their computers. And as Moonshine's tank was depleted from Saturday's Asheville trip and Monday's Gatlinburg trip, a refuel at the Dandridge BP was necessary too.

So I put $40 worth in Moonshine, scoot a dozen blocks away to the library, and check my e-mail and do a couple more things. And find that the library computers have Youtube locked out for DHS reasons, and refuse to get the latest Adobe Flash/Shockwave so logging on to Meez is impossible as well.

Once my 'Net business is done, I get back towards Rather Manor, drive past the Dandridge BP--and see that they've dropped their gas prices THIRTY CENTS per gallon! If I had waited just 30 minutes, I could have paid the cheaper price and put perhaps another two-thirds of a gallon into Moonshine.

ME: I'm torqued!

MOONSHINE: How do you think I feel?

So when I get back to the house, the Co-Op boys have already finished their repairs, the phone lines are back working and I'm wondering whether my trip was really necessary. Phooey.

In this case, the Sukhoj Su-25 Scorpion ground-attack jet:

( Documentary Video Behind Cut )

Back when Georgia was part of the Soviet Union, they made these planes for Frontal Aviation (their equivalent of the USAF's Air Combat Command). But even though they still have the factory, they only have (according to the video!) only SEVEN in their entire Air Force now. And that is their ONLY combat capable jet. Most of their aircraft are unarmed transport helicopters...they may still have a few gunships left, but it's doubtful. Either way, they're very much outclassed in the air compared to the Russian Federation's military. I would expect that Russia could completely overwhelm the other sides of Georgia's military too. Unless Georgia somehow gets sufficient outside help, it wouldn't surprise me if this time three weeks from now, the nation is wiped off the map.

By the way, this is really a war for control of oil. Western oil companies have been building pipelines through Georgia to Turkey the last few years in order to get petroleum from the 'Stan nations further east to Western Europe. If Russia takes Georgia, they can take over all those pipelines and do what they want to with them.

The closest American military forces are in Iraq and Turkey. While a relief effort could be mounted quickly, it would have to mean lessening the effort in that "War on Terror" thing...and the route would have to go through Kurdistan, which would pose its own problems. And with the Iranian northwest border right there, we'd have to figure the Iranians would be watching every move. And things could go wrong there.

I'd hate to be our Secretary of Defense. Georgia is our treaty ally. The oil at stake can't be ignored, especially by our oil baron Administration. It's one thing to fight a war for oil against a joke of a dictator. It's one thing else to fight a war for oil against faceless fanatic goon squads who blow themselves up in the hopes they'll take a few footsoldiers and bystanders with them. But it's a much bigger thing to fight a war for oil against Russia. Perhaps this particular August is the one I should have been dreading. Perhaps this is the hurricane the pressure ridge was warning me about.

Are you ready for the storm?

FP

A Barrel of oil is 31.5 Gallons (4032 ounces, or 56 six-packs). Don't ask me who decided this matter.

$73/Barrel equals $2.32/Gallon of Crude. Refine it, add sales taxes and maybe a nickle or two of profits to the individual gas station, and there you have it.

Told you it was useless.

FP