SoonerLS

I paid $3.12 for 87 E10 on Monday, but the prices locally are some of the highest in the state. (The one that gets me is Ponca City, which has similarly high prices despite having the largest refinery in the state.) I drove out to Stilwell (down by the Arkansas line) on Sunday to watch my nephew play soccer, and I saw a Phillips 66 that was only near an intersection of two two-lane state highways that was at $2.99 for 87 E10. The place that alternates between the lowest prices in the metro and “Snoop Dog on Willie Nelson’s tour bus” was at $3.04 (with discounts) on Saturday, but I didn’t have time to stop then…

On my morning commute, my exit is a lane that turns into an off ramp, so it's usually moving at highways speeds until it actually diverges from the highway itself. It never ceases to amaze me how many people will come screaming up in the lane next to it, then expect me to slow down so they can get in front of me, when there was literally a quarter mile of empty lane behind me THAT THEY JUST WENT SCREAMING PAST. Year, sorry buddy, but poor planning on your part does not constitute emergency on my part.

Years ago, when Progressive still had the BOF Explorers with PROGRESSIVE written across the side, my old boss was coming out of the bank when he saw a wreck like that. He said the Progressive truck was stopped, the last vehicle in line at a red light, when this woman just plows right into it from behind. Her car submarined under the rear of the Explorer, lifting its rear tires completely off the ground, and drove it into the rear end of the car in front of it. The guy driving the car in front gets out, but from his vantage point, he can't see the car that caused the whole mess. He starts going on about the wreck loudly enough that my boss can clearly hear him from the entrance of the bank, then he sees the Progressive name on the Explorer and says, "well, at least you've got insurance!"

That's why I usually keep the fogs lit on my truck, but it's amazing how many people can't figure it out and flash me anyway. It's worse when I'm towing heavy; I have a Roadmaster Active Suspension setup on my rear suspension, and that helps keep the rear from squatting as much as the stock springs, but she still squats some when the trailer is heavy.

Around here, you can't go on green or you're going to intersect with someone who once saw a left turn signal be green. And it's not like the light was yellow while they were entering the intersection to make that left turn--the light had been red long enough for the oncoming traffic's light to be solidly green. God forbid that you try to stop on a stale yellow or even a fresh red, because you might end up with an extra vehicle as a passenger... I grew up in a college town, so I thought I'd seen some shady driving; turns out those college kids weren't a stitch on these loons.

I have many stories that confirm why I don't trust turn signals, but my favorite was when I saw a half-ton truck hauling a 16' utility trailer signal for a left turn, move into the left turn lane, then cut across two lanes of traffic, making a right turn. I'm pretty sure the folks who were coming down that highway off ramp were surprised to see him coming up it...

What’s that old saying? “Never confuse motion with progress.”

Although we're not technically energy independent, we are a net exporter, at least as of the last numbers published.

The hydrogen tanks are, as I understand it, usually made of composites (IIRC, there are/were some fuel cell vehicles which use(d) exchangeable cells to speed up refueling), so I wouldn’t expect them to be particularly heavy. Lithium-based batteries sized for vehicles are usually quite heavy, so I’d expect a fuel cell vehicle to have a significant weight advantage.

Based on the number of "M" BMWs is see, and how few of them are coupes, or even conventional sedans, I'd guess that the luxury/performance coupe is going to be a vanishingly small market. And that's a shame.

Bartlesville isn't even in the same ZIP code as nowhere--that's out in west Texas, somewhere between Seymour and Ralls. I'm pretty sure the directions to get there are "go to the end of the Earth and hang a left."

Does it help that they died in the same plane crash, and one of them was the pilot?

Well, come on down. We gots roads (some of 'em are even paved) and gas stations and a city with two airports named after guys who died in a plane crash. We're even getting the Intarwebz next week.

Yep. Even when my work phone was an iPhone, my personal phones were Windows phones. They were sooo much better than iPhone or Android that it wasn't even funny.

The last numbers I heard put the iPhone at about 60% of the US cell phone market. That’s a pretty good chunk of the market, but I don’t think I’d call it dominant.