It’s happened once again. I am completely addicted to watching news coverage of the post-hurricane flooding in the gulf. Last night I flipped feverishly between CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews, and several other stations, keeping up to date with the flooding, looting, and destruction of the south east. Watching the footage of New Orleans flooding was surreal, but the footage of looters filling up shopping carts with electronics and clothes in Wal-Mart and walking out past security guards was even more so. Instead of hiding their faces in shame, half the looters were waving at the cameras. “Look at me, I’m trash!” So sad. Don’t get me wrong, if my family was out of food and water, I’d be leading the charge into the local supermarket. But some of the people I saw were stealing television sets. These are not smart people. First of all, television sets are heavy. I don’t even like moving the one I own now. Second of all, most of these people don’t have homes any more. I don’t think you can get digital cable installed in a shopping cart, people. On top of that, they’re saying it’ll be weeks if not months before the city of New Orleans has electricity. Last night on CNN they showed footage of a 3-foot shark in downtown NOLA swimming around. How are you going to outrun a shark in waist high water while carrying a television? And even if you somehow manage to keep that TV dry for the next month or two, pushing it around in your shopping cart or carrying it around in the Super Dome, will it really be worth it? Right now, Wal-Mart has a 27″ television on sale for $198. I’ll pass on a free television that I have to carry around on my shoulders in the rain for the next month or two. So stupid.
Anyway. I’ve started riding the motorcycle to work this week. Paid $2.69/gallon for gas this morning, which was by far the cheapest I saw anywhere (got it at Morgan road truckstop Hell). 7-11 was $2.99/gallon when I drove by. I can remember the day I first saw gas for $2/gallon. We were on vacation in Chicago. I literally pulled the car over and took a picture of the sign because I was so surprised that gas had finally reached the $2 mark. I’m sure I’ll remember this morning as the day I first saw it for $3.