Flooding & Gas Prices

The Midwest is having a 500-year flood event. They had a 100-year flood event in 1993, and this is way worse. I'm glad we had to occasion to drive through the Midwest (Des Moines, Omaha, etc) so I have mental pictures to attach to these stories. Makes it more real somehow. I-90 is closed in places. Amtrak isn't running. They are in serious, serious trouble.

Just read this on CNN.com: "Midwest Floods May Send Gas Up 15%" due to rising corn futures (the Midwest grows our corn, which makes ethanol, which is a federally mandated gasoline additive). Apparently, as the flooding has increased, so have the cost of corn futures. What I find interesting about this is that no one, as of yet, has said a damn thing about the impact of rising corn futures on food prices. We're so worried about our precious cars that we're missing the idea that corn prices were already high, and food prices are just going to climb higher because of this.

Just wait. In a day or two, this will sink in, and you'll be hearing all sorts of projections regarding the rising cost of food.

In the mean time, New England continues to have a relatively dry spring. We had four days in the high 90s around here - broke 100 a few times. And very little rain. I was so worried about the plants that we had planted at the CSA during the heat wave that I went over to water them on a non-work day in 95 degree heat. I couldn't focus on my own work knowing that those yet-to-be established plants were baking in the sun.

In fact, I heard the tale end of an interview on the local NPR station yesterday - while Massachusetts officials are assuring us that we have plenty of drinking water, they are urging us to conserve, conserve, conserve... go tell that to my neighbor on the conservation commission who insists on watering her lawn in the middle of the day on a 90+ day.

New Englanders aren't dumb. But they don't know a damn thing about water conservation, and I fear by the time they figure out, we'll all be screwed.

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On a more uplifting note, we gave blood again today. Have you given blood recently? We got free cookies & brownies. I filled my back in 3 minutes and 48 seconds. Took my spouse 7 minutes+... Therefore, I win!