In Which I Avoid Living The News Story

You may have read about California's sky-high gas prices in recent days. Crescent City always has higher-than-state-average prices, but over the weekend at least one gas station in town posted a $4.89 price tag for regular unleaded. It was just a little bit crazy and I actually had to pay for a few gallons in Arcata at $4.79/gallon. Not fun.

So today, being that the truck and both gas cans were empty, I did what sensible people living on the border do: I drove half an hour to Brookings, OR, where I paid $3.96 for each of my 23 gallons. And like my days growing up on the New York/New Jersey border, in Oregon, it's illegal to pump your own gas. Double bonus: I saved almost 20 dollars (and, yes, I did use gas getting there, but there are three other staples that I buy for much less in Oregon than California; I've done the math and it is worth the drive) and I didn't have to pump the gas.

And that's how I avoided becoming part of the CA gas price woes today. Thrilling blog post, right? If you were in Crescent City, you could get your thrills from the non-stop thunder we're having. Most of you aren't, however, so you'll have to find your thrills elsewhere tonight.

Haiti

I'm sure everyone has already been reading about the devastating earthquake in Haiti yesterday. I'm feeling especially lucky that our earthquake over the weekend (we were away, so didn't experience it) was deeper, not as intense, and farther away from population centers than Haiti's.

A friend of mine is a Hatian-American anthropologist who has a lot of ties to Haiti. If you're looking for a way to help, he recommends donating to Partners In Health. They are a respected agency (were mentioned in one of the NYTimes articles on the earthquake today) and have been calling for assistance as their medical facilities are being overwhelmed.