There are two things in my life at the present time that I have no control over, other than to complain and kick a few rocks in frustration. The first is the rain, we are into our fall season, however, only a few of our trees are showing any fall colors. In Anchor Point, we have not had a frost to date, which is unusual because this has always occurred in August. Instead, we have had rain, then some more rain and as of late a lot of rain. Being that it is 9/17/2008, I reviewed the data for this month to date. Out of the seventeen days of September, we have received precipitation thirteen days of this month. Frustrating to say the least when you you have a list of chores to accomplish prior to October 15th. I have no control over the weather, so I will sit by in the idle mode, awaiting for a day of semi-sunshine even a day of clouds would be nice change.

The second thing that I surely have no control, however, I do not intend to mend my ways. I will still drive and I will continue to purchase fossil fuels and hold no fantasy that any of the alternative fuels will occur in the near future. I figure, I will be driving on gasoline the remainder of my lifetime. I checked on the gas prices today, keeping in mind that the State of Alaska is no longer taxing gasoline as of September 1, 2008. The price of crude oil has dropped from a high of $137.11 a barrel on July 4, 2008 to $98.53 on September 12, 2008. A decrease of $38.58 in the span of slightly over two months.

Now, this is where the "fuzzy math" comes in which I have a hard time of getting a grasp on the problem. I have used Anchorage as a basis of my calculations since the cheapest gas prices can be found in this metropolitan area. Today, the lower prices in Anchorage ranged from $4.13 to $4.15 a gallon. The higher priced stations were charging from $4.25 to $4.33 per gallon. Locally, in Anchor Point we are getting gas at $4.49 a gallon.

One year ago today, the average low gas price in Anchorage was $2.83 per gallon. Using the lowest price ($4.13) available in comparing the past year, that is a increase of $1.30 per gallon. The concept of math disappears when you look at the crude prices. On September 12, 2008 the price of crude was $98.53 per barrel. On September 14, 2007 the price for a barrel of crude was $73.23 making a difference of $25.30 in this one year period. Oil prices went up $25.30 a barrel and gasoline increased $1.30 per gallon. In this case scenario, if the oil companies were making money in 2007 how much are they making this current year?

Don't even get me started on what the stock market is doing and how many major banks and financial institutions have been bailed out by the government over the past 48 hours. Seems we as tax payers can bail out the airlines, auto industry, housing lenders, Freddie Mac, Fannie May, and now the banks. The banks and major lending institutions are the ones that approved the big home loans with no documentation of income and inflated housing prices. Their fault, we as taxpayers should not have to bail them out. Does anyone recall about a year ago when Bank of America was actively advertising that they would make home loans to illegal aliens and they did not even have to show up with a social security number to secure a loan. Does anyone recall the adjustable home interest rate, get in at a low rate for a house you could not afford and then the interest rates start to increase on a daily basis. Who was there to bail out the homeowner, no one. The banks took back the property and sold the paper to the larger institutions.

O.K., there are three things in my life right now that frustrates me. I am going out on my deck, start a camp fire in my driveway, strip down to a loin cloth and do a "no-rain" dance.