Narrowly Avoided $4.00 Per Gallon . . .

As everyone has become extremely aware, especially as of recent, gas prices are on the rise.  This, of course, is a bad thing for our economy.  But, when searching for a silver lining . . . it has stemmed a lot of green technology development and finally spurred a change in habits amongst Americans.  More people are utilizing mass transit, carpooling, etc.

Now, even though I carpool to work everyday . . . all of my cars suck down premium fuel.

Fortunately, one of the cheapest filling stations in the metroplex is right by my house.  The Kroger at Old Denton & Hebron, when coupled with coupons they hand out and preferred customer discounts, has fair gas prices (well, as fair as gas prices can be).  However, on Wednesday . . . when filling up, the sticker price of premium was $4.059 per gallon.  Wow!  That's not much more than it was a few days earlier, but it was psychologically significant to see a pricetag over $4.00 per gallon.

But, I dodged a bullet (psychologically, anyways).  My wife had spent over $100 on groceries during the month, thus earning us a $0.10 per gallon discount . . . so my price for that fillup was $3.959 per gallon. :) Without that grocery run, I would've paid the $4.00+ per gallon.

I realize this was not a super exciting story, but this is my blog . . . and it's for my random thoughts I'd like to share. :)

My House Has Become a Wildlife Preserve . . .

So, not sure when or how . . . but my house has become a wildlife preserve.  Yesterday, on the way to work . . . my wife and I were greeted by the following:

Then, when letting my dog out back . . . I was watched closely by a potential parent, ensuring I wasn't going to bother the nest:

And, even all of this was fine . . . but the worst is all the bunny rabbits.  The adult rabbits aren't even scared of us anymore.  We get home and go up close to 'em, and they slowly walk away . . . and sometimes just carry on eating our flowers and grass.  The baby ones still get scared and bolt.  However, all the rabbits run with fear when Toby runs out into the yard.  But seriously, no matter when you look . . . there are at least 3 to 5 rabbits in my yard.  It's a bit crazy.

All these little critters keep Toby quite excited as he peers behind the blinds through the windows during the day . . .

Marketing Worked . . .

Well, I thought I'd take a moment to share another random happening on this lovely, but cloudy, Thursday.

Today was May 15th, and McDonald's was running a special . . . free Southern Chicken Sandwiches until 7 pm when you purchase a medium drink or larger.  At 6:40 pm, when we randomly decided we didn't want to eat at home . . . we stormed out to beat the 7 pm deadline.

4 Diet Cokes (came with the territory) and 4 Sandwiches later (no fries or anything else), Novie and I had only spent $6.66 after taxes (the sandwiches retail for $2.75 ea., too).  And, marketing worked . . . we are now aware of the Southern Style Chicken sandwich, which is remarkably like the Chik-Fil-A Chicken Sandwich (double pickles we hand pick off and all).  It was a bit juicier, but not quite the same.

Oh, and a sidebar, there was a BEAUTIFUL Maserati Quattroporte in the parking lot next to me . . . man, I love those!

Anywho, random happenings . . . and that's what blogs are for. :)

The Horror of Singapore Airlines, Flight #SQ2 . . .

Well, I am staying true to the resurgence of my blog with yet another post!  <Pats Self on Back.>

The purpose of this post is to tell you about the scariest flight ever.  I am not scared of flying, nor have I ever been.  I've been through stormy flights, extreme turbulence, scary maintenance comments by the pilot, and more . . . but this flight had be petrified, convinced it was more likely we would crash than not.

This was for the second leg of a log international flight . . . this leg was from Singapore to Hong Kong.

Minor Blip:  Our flight was on the ground for about 20 minutes after our scheduled takeoff time before the pilot came on and politely told us that they were having trouble getting Engine #1 started, and they were going to try to have an engineer come out and attempt a manual start so we could get on our way.  Seeing the ground crew in Asia out there screwing with the engine was not reassuring, but I guess we got it going and took off.  I slightly missed the FAA and was envious of all those grounded MD-80's back home.

The Fear:
     As we got closer to Hong Kong, we started to have extreme turbulence.  And, I don't mean just "bumpy."  I mean, the plane making altitude drops and going side to side aggressively type of turbulence.  Other than the spilled food & drink, the suspension of food service, etc. . . . I was able to just keep watching my movie and deal.
     Then, you can't help but to notice the huge, picturesque lightning out the window . . . which illuminated the dense preciptation (which appears horizontal at air travel speeds).  The turbulence got worse and people were dead silent, except for kids screaming things like "Tummy Hurts" as your stomach drops like it does on the scary part of a rollercoaster.
     My wife and I are separated by an aisle, but at a glance . . . everyone around me was gripping their seat so tight, the person next to them's hands (even people who didn't seem to know each other), and the scary part . . . ?
     The scary part was seeing people all around me praying.  When everyone around you is on a flight that is shaking around so much you think you're falling out of the sky is praying . . . man, that's not a good sign, and this scared the hell out of me.
     During all this, the pilot informed us that we were circling nearby to avoid a typhoon that grounded all flights in and out of Hong Kong's airport.  But, he finally told us that we had to land . . . they didn't seem to sugar coat anything for us. =P
     We begin our descent . . . and we still can't see anything but lightning, sideways rain, and people praying or trying to hold in vomit.
     All of a sudden . . . we can see the airport out the window, but here's where things got *really* scary.  It was visible and obvious now that the plane was tipping left and right . . . violently.  The wing would be level one moment, and then appear to almost slam the ground the next.  I can only imagine what this looked like outside; surprised I didn't find this on YouTube.  The pilot, trying to manage this and extreme winds . . . touches down, but perhaps with the combination of wind and rough landing angle . . . we're turning at really high speed.  And then we turn the opposite way and equally high speed jerking us violently the other way . . . also causing food service trays to break off their latches and luggage to fall from the overhead bins.

But, alas . . . we were on the ground and now at stable speed.  I started clapping, and a few others joined in nervously and then rapidly stopped.  People still continued to pray, but I was relieved at this point.

My wife and I resisted the desire to vomit, and we then had to get on the SAME PLANE for a 12 hour leg from Hong Kong to San Francisco.  This flight had literally 10 hours of turbulence (no exaggeration) . . . which caused passengers to throw up, for which the smell made others throw up.  We'd smell throw up, then look at the clock and realize we had 10 more hours to go.  It was horrible.  And, since I can only assume there was not a 6,500+ mile long storm . . . I bet something was wrong with the plane that caused all that turbulence.  We still had to hop on an AA flight from San Francisco back to Dallas, but I was happy to have the safety & support of the FAA and U.S. Airlines behind me after all that. :)

Needless to say, when I got back at 6 am on Sunday . . . we slept 'til 11 pm.  So much for avoiding jetlag. =P