Natural Gas Storage Drops To 11-Year Low; Cold Weather Continues; Natural Gas Prices Jump

Don said this was gonna happen -- he told me this yesterday: natural gas prices rise on concerns about dwindling supplies.

Natural-gas prices rose for a second day on concerns about producers' ability to replenish stockpiles that were depleted over the winter. Thursday's gains came after government data showed U.S. gas inventories dropped to an 11-year low last week. The decline also was unusually large for late March, when warmer temperatures typically reduce demand for the heating fuel. 

The operative word in the previous sentence? "Typically." I still need to wear a  heavy jacket when I ride into Starbucks. It should be shirt-sleeve weather by now in the Big D.

Don sent me this link to show me how big the natural gas draw was this past week.

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A Note to the Granddaughters

The 1948 Willys Jeep

I mentioned my 1948 Willys Jeep to Don the other day. That jeep we my first vehicle; my dad bought it for me when I was a junior in high school, about 16 years old, just after I got my driver's license. He mentioned that one could never get a jeep stuck and they were quite safe for a new driver because they could not go very fast:

I replied:

It's funny you should bring that up. That was how I spent much of my free time; trying to get the jeep stuck.

I would drive it perpendicular into the four-foot ditches off the side of the highway, winter or summer. The ditches were just as wide as the jeep was long. Once in the ditch, the front bumper was on the berm of the ditch on one side, and the back bumper was on the berm of the highway side of the ditch. I was eye-level with the top of the ditch.

I put the jeep in four-wheel drive and the front wheels would climb the wall and I would be out of the ditch. I was careful never to roll the jeep, partly for my well-being, but mostly I didn't want to hurt the first vehicle I ever had.

Yes, on the open highway, it might have gotten up to 50 miles per hour.

Had I been a mechanic, it would have been the simplest vehicle to maintain.

Years later, I came home from college, and my younger brother had lifted the engine out of the jeep using a block and pulley (block and tackle?) over a 2x4 beam in the garage; re-building the engine or some such thing. I don't recall if it ever ran after that.

You know, I never recall my dad or mom ever telling the kids to get their projects out of the garage. Wow, the things they "didn't do" were as important as the things they "did do." They put so few restrictions on us, it was amazing.