This post prompted by a certain entertaining commenter who thinks Oregon is a little "eccentric". I intend to prove him right.
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It is well known that it is illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon. That's what dropouts are for. Well, our lovable state government recent passed a bill making it illegal to top off your tank. Not that we were ever allowed to, but now you can't even ask the dropout to do it for you. The penalty for tank-topping is a $5000 fine. No, I'm serious. The reasoning is that you might top your tank and then go park your car before you've used much of the fuel, and the gas could warm up and expand. Then some of that expanded gas might actually dribble out from under your gas cap and kill a bug on the ground or something. Horror! They say that there's no enforcement included in the bill - it's supposed to be merely symbolic. But we're in the midst of major budget problems, so I can just see this becoming a new revenue stream. Governor Kulongoski will sneak out in his big gov't SUV and ask the dropout at the gas station to top it off. The dropout will politely decline, so the guvnah will offer the dropout $10 and since the dropout needs a new controller for his XBox, he'll agree. Then the guv will write the dropout a ticket for $5000 and clap and laugh like a maniac. The dropout will fall for the ruse 'cuz the govnah spends so much time under a rock that few people recognize him. Quite cunning, our governor.
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Not only that, but Oregon was recently crowing about the huge number of jobs the stimulus has created. Keep in mind, that in the latest coaches' poll, Michigan was number 1 and Oregon was number 2 in unemployment. Dig a little bit and one finds that the jobs created lasted an average of 35 HOURS. Yep, you get hired by the state for a temp job pulling old tires out of the creek ("crick" to most of the locals) for less than a week, and that counts as job creation. Woohoo!
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No, I don't have links for the above. Links are for lazy people. Go Bing your Google and see if I'm lying. You'll find that I'm not.
We do get sunlight for a select few days each year. Today is one of them. High around 103, about 90 inside where I work.
ReplyDeleteOK, I don't work so much as sit in front of a computer and gain weight. But it's still pretty darned toasty.
Yeah...the physician I work with in my business works from home in Seattle, while I work in the office in some undisclosed godforsaken and dangerous city in the south. He asked me yesterday how I handle the heat all summer. I told him I huddle in the basement around a fan and drink very cold gin and tonics all day long.
ReplyDeleteWe lost 20 to 30 percent of our gas mileage by requiring us to purchase gas that contains ethanol.
ReplyDeleteThat is, we are now consuming more gas (as gas) per mile and alcohol than we did before this energy saving mandate was put into place.
What's a little spill when we are unnecessarily consuming more millions of gallons of gas in order to save the planet? Yet, it's more important to do the right thing rather than thinking about common sense things.
I'll let the man who pumps my gas know about this new mandate. (Let's see if he can remember.)
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