A Bearish Day

Today started out kinda crappy, but things have gotten a bit better as the day has gone on.

I knew yesterday evening that I'd be needing to refuel soon, so I began scouting fuel stations for the best prices. I saw a couple of stations that were offering diesel for $2.899 per gallon, but I didn't think that I wanted to pay that much. Sure, fuel is still cheap in the United States compared with many other places (and expensive compared to some oil-rich states that subsidise fuel sales), but I thought that I could find diesel for a nickel or a dime less elsewhere, so I drove on past the point of the fuel light coming on and finally HAD to refuel this morning.

I awoke this morning to a steady rain from one of the feeder bands of tropical storm Alberto and quickly resolved myself to refueling in the rain, but this was just a harbinger of the morning that I was about to have. I stopped in Kernersville at one of the places where I often refuel (an Exxon on NC-66 near I-40) and was immediately struck by two sights, the first being the price ($2.939 per gallon; sure, they claim that it's premium diesel, but there's no cetane rating visible) and the second being the hand-lettered sign that had appeared since my last stop here that read "Diesel please pre-pay inside." Grrr.

I pulled out the umbrella and trudged into the shop, waited for the clerk to stroll from the back of the store to help me, and told her that I wanted $20 diesel. Sure, my car could've held $40, but I was displeased with this store, so I'd decided to give them a minimal amount of my business (even forgetting for a moment that almost no diesel pump has a pay-at-the-pump card-swipe option). As she was processing my transaction, she pressed a button on an intercom and said, "your pump's on; you can start pumping". I looked outside and saw all of the pumps unoccupied except the diesel pump next to where I'd parked. "I thought that we had to pre-pay for diesel," I challenged her. "Oh, he's OK; I know him." Grrr.

I returned to my car, filled the tank half-way, and drove away. Back on I-40, the traffic was moving at the speed limit (as opposed to the normal 10-15 miles per hour above the limit) due to the rain. Of course, this was in the passing (left-most) lane, while the travel (centre) lane was relatively empty. I gritted my teeth and prepared to pass the slow-pokes on the right (which I am loathe to do, but sometimes one has to). As I pulled along-side the slow-pokes, they sped up slightly so that just before I had clearance to get back into the left lane, I came face-to-tail with a FedEx truck, so I had to slow back down and get back behind the slow-pokes. Grrr.

At this point, I began banging my steering wheel and muttering obscenities to myself. I determined that I would pass these nincompoops eventually, no matter what, but at that moment, something clicked in my head. I noticed that the rain hadn't slackened at all during my entire drive, there had been plentiful brakes-tapping for most of the way, and the road was crowded with rush-hour traffic. I decided that I'd better calm down and said a little prayer to make it stick. A few minutes later, I arrived safely in the parking garage at work. Yay!

On the way into my building, I struggled with my belongings and dumped a good bit of my coffee onto the paper bag containing my lunch and into my closed umbrella. Grrr.

So, I was in a foul mood when I arrived at work. Fortunately, my colleagues were in good spirits and we chatted amiably for a few minutes before I sat down and got to work. For several weeks, I've been working on a difficult project that's made me quite discouraged at times, so I've been having trouble staying motivated. I worked on and finished another smaller project that still required a bit of brain power, so I felt quite accomplished as the day wound down. Yay!

I didn't have any car-poolers this morning, so I drove alone. Knowing this, my sweetie, Chris, asked me if I'd like to have dinner together after work and we feasted on fried seafood at Libby Hill. Yay! Then we went back to his place and I helped him to set up his wireless network. Yay!

So, this bearish day that started out meriting several "grrrs" finally turned bullish. Yay! :J