Shorts from my Day

I walked into work this morning, and found I’d stumbled into the middle of same debate that The Minion and I had yesterday. This time it was The Minion vs. The Mouth. In the face of all that transpired yesterday, I found this amusing. And, in the face of what transpired yesterday, I proved I that I am capable of learning. I kept my mouth shut and immediately set to work at my desk, booting up my computer and perusing my in-bin.

I’m down to four sunflowers, two of which look decidedly unhealthy. Most of the sunflowers that were mulched inexplicably went limp and died during the course of the week. Two of the sunflowers in the mulched area survive still, but have gone a bit limp. If they make it into tomorrow I’ll transplant them. It’s earlier than I’d hoped to move them; they’re both still only about three inches tall. But it appears it’s the only chance they’ve got. There is something in the mulch that decidedly disagrees with them, and with the primroses (all of whom are dead or dying). The Canterbury Bells look none the worse for wear though, thank heavens. I need to get another picture up of those – most of the buds have bloomed and the effect is rather spectacular.

It’s predicted that this summer vacation travel will go up 3% from last year. And vacation spending will go up 4%. I have no idea why travel is expected to go up, but increased spending should surprise no one, considering the increase in fuel prices.

On a related note, my radio station has apparently added a gasoline report to their line-up, telling people where the cheapest spots to get gasoline are. There was also a report on about a dozen people picketing a gasoline station in the Big City, with signs asking people in passing cars to honk if they were upset with the high prices of gasoline. You could hear a lot of honking going on in the background as the Johnny-on-the-Spot newscaster made his report.

Me? I’m not upset in the least. Maybe now people will start to conserve gas. Perhaps this will be the impetus needed to keep people from buying SUV’s and think twice about those twelve-mile-per gallon Hum2’s. Maybe this will make people think more in terms of conservation of a non-renewable resource.

I found at Boston.com the following current information:

The average price of gasoline in Britain was $5.38 a gallon, a bargain compared with the Netherlands, where it was $5.69 a gallon. In Germany it was $5.01, while the French got away with paying $4.78.

The impact is that the Europeans tend to drive more environmentally-conscience cars, and that European cities are far more bicycle friendly. I’m all for that.