Panic In The Streets Of Miami

I'm the DJ I'm the DJ I'm the DJ, I,m the DEEEE-JAAAAY..

OK I could not resist. In case you think I totally lost it, I stole this blog post title from The Smiths sort-of smash hit Panic. Only their panic was in the streets of London.

So whats the panic all about? Why gasoline! People are actually getting into knock-down, drag-out, full body contact, mini wars over gas. I saw lines that were at least 4 or 5 hours long.

Of course, The Lazy One is way too lazy to be in one of these lines. As amazing as it seems, I fill my tank before a storm hits. It is not like there is no warning. I also keep my boat fuel tank full. So I had 18.5 gallons in my little truck and another 40 gallons in my boat. I was like OPEC.

Being a nice guy, I sold 20 gallons out of my boat to some friends. I only charged them the every day low price of $5 per gallon.

Naaaaa I am just kidding. I did not do that. I only charged what I paid for the fuel, which worked out to like $2.80 or something. They forked over $30 for 10 gallons. The point was not to make any money, it was to collect enought to replace what was pumped out when things are back to normal.

But gas is not a problem any more. At last count, 150 gas stations are back online. Dade County has a deal with 4 gas stations to sell gas to county employees only during a set amount of hours. Also, I can buy gas from the airport. So I am set. If my friends need more gas, they can pump it out of my boat and either pay for it whenever, or bring back an equal amount of fuel when they can. I am not into hoarding. I have enough for me, so my excess reserve can go to others.

And I should point this out - county employees do not get free gas, we have to pay for it. And these stations are open to county employees only during a limited amount of hours. Also, abuse of this system is HIGHLY unethical and therefore it could get you fired. Also, with three times more stations open today than yesterday, lines should be three times shorter. I think that fuel lines will only last a few more days.

But back to the main point. Why were people lined uo for water and ice hours after the storm? Why did they need to line up for gas so quickly? How about all those assholes on TV saying that people "should have been ready" or our GOOBERner saying that "people should have 4 days of supplies on hand"?

How about this for an answer. They might not have the ability to stock up. Food and gas is not exactly cheap. Many people live on low wage service jobs. Katrina, which just hit recently, might have diminished people's supplies.

There are people that shop every 2 or 3 days, because this is all they can afford to do. They can not afford to buy a weeks worth of food and just sit on it.

But Lazy One, can't they just buy one or two cans of food each week and set it aside for a storm?

Yes they can. But what if more than one storm hits? Storm 1 (Katrina in this case) causes them to raid their storm supplies. Power is out for three or four days. They use up their emergency supplies. Then, just over a month later, storm 2 (Wilma) hits. Now what? They might not have any supplies. And not because they are stupid, but because they are bound by economical factors.

It irritates me to no end to hear the fools on TV pontificating about what people should do, and how nobody is to blame except them, when the cold, cruel, hard fact is that FOOD IS NOT CHEAP! People might not be able to prepare for two storms in one season. People might not be able to replace their supplies in only a few weeks. People DO live paycheck to paycheck.

And to compound matters, people who had to replace a fridge full of food that that had to struggle to buy in the first place now have to throw all that food out, AGAIN, and buy more when the power is back on.

Water is the only thing that people have no excuse for not having. You can save plastic milk jugs, plastic soda jugs, and so on - then fill them with tap water before a storm. Put them in the freezer and you have large chunks of ice that you can put in a cooler. Anyone can store at least 50 gallons of water. If you buy but one gallon of milk a week, in one year you can have 52 jugs and therefore 52 gallons of potable water.

This blog post is sponsored by Titanic Brewery. Support your local brewery! The beer kicks ass, and my DSL is on the fritz. Titanic has free DSL with any beer purchase. I bought enough beer for a few people to sneak in to check their e-mail.