Nothing bugs me more than the price of gas at the pumps and hearing all of the ridiculous excuses as to why the price is so high. The bottom line when it comes to fuel is that we, the consumer, are continuing to gobble it up even at an inflated cost. It's a simple case of let's see how high we can go until people stop buying it. It's especially bad here in the Yorkton area, where we are forking over 136.9 cents per litre. It used to be that for every dollar in the price of crude oil, you could expect gas to be pretty close to the same in cents. Crude oil sits at $99.03 as I write this.
Yorkton's fuel prices are even worse when you consider what some people are paying in other cities across the country. Okotoks is at 118.3, Fredericton 120.9, Regina 125.9, and Winnipeg 127.9. I feel the only way to really make an impact to gas companies is for everyone to band together, pick one major supplier, and boycott their product. It's gas. We all use it. But, if we all decide we are going to skip one particular supplier, it could pressure that supplier to lower prices and start a bit of a gas war. I don't mind saying I support Co-op's card lock program as I save 3-cents immediately, plus whatever the dividend is at the end of the year.
Some are waiting for the federal government to take action and put a bit of control on fuel prices. I wouldn't hold my breath. The way gas is taxed, the government loves it when prices escalate. It's more money in the coffers.
I had to chance to see Free My Muse's youth production called Tarzan on Saturday night. As per usual, the theatre group didn't disappoint. I took our three kids and all of them sat quietly on the edge of their seats and didn't move for 75 minutes. We are very lucky to have a high caliber drama club in Yorkton.
If you are one of these people that are fed up with the money professional baseball players are making, you will not like to hear this: Bobby Bonilla is going to collect $1.2-million dollars from the New York Mets for each year until 2036. He hasn't played for them in about a dozen years! He agreed to a deferred contract and the Mets have to start paying this year.
The story out of Slave Lake, Alberta is a sensational one that is also full of tragedy. Basically, the entire community has been wiped out by a forest fire that, quickly, got out of control on Sunday. The mayor has estimated 30% of the entire town has gone up in flames.
I have become increasingly attracted to Twitter over the last few months and Darren Rovell of CNBC may be the best at Tweeting that I've stumbled across. He's a sports business reporter and his tidbits are full of thought provoking information. He also asks for his followers to submit news headlines for various sports topics. On Saturday when Jorge Posada had a bit of a meltdown and pulled himself from the New York Yankee line-up because his manager decided to bat him 9th, Rovell sought out headlines on the situation, with one of the best being 'Posada Non Grata'.
Calvin Daniels, Ron Irvine, and I host a weekly sports show on Access 7 called 'Locker Talk'. We should have spent more time on this last week, but Ron pointed out that the CFL may see a spike in the caliber of play this year as several college free agents are likely to come north as opposed to wait out the NFL lock out. Omar Kelly of the of the South Florida Sun-Sentininel is reporting that Miami Hurricane defensive end Courtney Harris has signed with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. This, by the way, also comes from Twitter.
Some rock songs to check out if you haven't already: The Trews-Hope & Ruin, Sixx A.M.-Lies Of The Beautiful People, Foo Fighters-White Limo, My Chemical Romance-Bulletproof Heart.
Nice person mentions this week to Tony Playter, Darren Rovell, Darlene McQuarrie, Tammy Ruf, and Brian Prieb.
