Help! There’s no gas!

Okay I’ll admit that when Ike reared his ugly face on the coast of Texas I wasn’t very concerned.  I felt bad for the families directly affected by the storm, and everyone who got displced by the storm, but I thought that it wouldn’t really affect me.  There were rumors flying around that there was going to be a gas shortage caused by potential damage to the refining facilities on the coast of Texas.  So of course everyone ran out to the gas station and filled up.  Due to the sudden increase in demand a few stations ran out of gas.  I still wasn’t worried though.  The same thing happpend 3 years ago when Katrina hit.  Gas prices went up then, but the “shortage” was short lived.  A few days later there was plenty of gas to be had.  I thought the same would be true this time around, but here we are almost 2 weeks after the hurricane hit and there is still a serious shortage of gas.  First of all I would like to say I was wrong!  This is quickly turning into a serious issue.  In the areas surrounding my work and home almost no gas stations have gas.  When a station does get some gas in a line forms that is over an hour long and the supply is quickly exhausted.  There have been reports of fights breaking out at the pumps, and the police have been recruited at some stations to direct traffic and keep the peace.  It is crazy!  I cannot confirm this, but I have heard that this hasn’t really been a problem in other parts of the country.  So this begs the question “what is causing all of this chaos?”  I have no idea, but I wish it would end.  It is very frustrating, but I must admit that a part of me is very fascinated by the whole situation too.  I know that sounds pretty twisted, but just think about it.  We are living history right now.  This is something people will talk about for years.  I remember learning in school about a gas shortage that happend sometime in the 1970′s.  I remember seeing pictures of gas stations with long lines of people waiting for gas.  Now I am witnessing that on my way home from work.  This is something I will probably tell my grandkids about.  Hopefully they will mostly be fascinated by the fact that cars used to run on gasoline!  Call me crazy, but we are in crazy times.  And the God of the universe has brought the United States of America, the greatest country in the world through tougher times than these.  Some cheap readily available gasoline would be nice though

Thanks Ike!

Hurricanes in a word BLOW!  Especially ones that head straight for oil refinaries.  But I really can’t blame the hurricane.  It is actually the media that BLOWS!  They decided to tell the world that gas could hit $5 per gallon if the refining facilities get damaged from hurricane Ike.  So what does everybody do?  They all head to the gas station!  What do the gas stations do?  They jack up their prices $.50 per gallon in a matter of a couple of hours.  Fortunately I filled up my tank yesterday.  Not because I thought this would happen, it was just because I needed gas.  So the same gas that is in the tank underground that I paid $3.50 a gallon for yesterday is magically $4.00 a gallon today.  So let’s review.  There is a chance that refining facilities could get damaged and cause a reduction in gas production.  This potential reduction could cause a shortage in gas.  So the price of gas gets jacked up because of a problem that hasn’t happened yet?  And it may not happen at all!?  I don’t understand how this is not price gouging!  The problem gets worse though.  I live in a small town, and my wife works in a bigger, but still pretty small town.  In both places there were several gas stations that ran out of gas!  I work in metro Atlanta.  The gas prices went up, but no major run on the stations to make them run out of gas.  The small town folks FREAKED OUT because of the lovely media.  I am sure a lot of people who made a run to the gas station didn’t even really need gas at the time.  I understand that legitimate things happen that cause the price of goods and services to flucuate, but let nature take it’s course!  If it is going to happen, there is nothing we can do about it, but let’s not make something out of nothing.  The poor folks on the coast of Texas have a lot to worry about right now, and I hope and pray they all come out of this okay.  But the rest of the world freaking out because there is a chance of a problem is ridiculous.  It’s kind of like buying all the milk and bread because there is a chance of a snow flurrie.  AARRGH!

I froze my credit today…

Yesterday in a word…sucked.  It started out fine.  I went to work just like always and I started in on my typical morning tasks.  And just like I always do when there was a little break in the action I took a look at my friends personal finance blog.  He had posted a reminder to check your credit report.  He suggests doing it quarterly by checking each one of the bureaus once a year.  Although there are only 3 bureaus so I guess you would actually check in thirdly, but that is beside the point.  Foolishly I had never checked my credit report before.  I have applied for credit for various reasons in my life and I have always had excellent credit scores.  I have never asked to see my report though because I always thought everything was fine.  But after reading the post on the blog I thought to myself “you should probably check your credit report.”  So I went online and pulled my report.  Much to my surprise there were some accounts that did not belong to me, and an address that had never belonged to me.  I didn’t panic to much at first because I thought it was probably just an error of some kind.  The accounts in question were all in good standing.  But the address that these accounts linked to was for lack of a better phrase ” a liittle to close to home.”  This led me to start doing a little digging.  I had to ask some very difficult questions and I got some very difficult answers.  I do not want to go into to much detail due to the sensitive nature of the situation, but I found out yesterday that my identity had been stolen over 8 years ago.  I was only 19 years old at the time and in college.   I never had any clue because the person who had opened credit cards in my name had always paid the bill on time.  The situation has been addressed, and the damage is only on an emotional level.  It was one of the worst days I have had in a long time.  But it definitely opened my eyes to the dangers of identity theft.  So last night my wife placed a security freeze on her credit with all three bureaus, and I did the same thing today.  If you don’t know anything about credit security freezes, but it makes it virtually impossible for anyone to apply for credit in your name.  When you freeze your credit each bureau issues you an individual PIN.  Without that PIN no one can run a credit check on you even if they have all the necessary information.  In my state the fee to place a security freeze on your credit is $3 per person per bureau.  Transunion is currently doing it for free if you do the process on line.  The fee to temporarily thaw a credit report in my state is also $3.  So this is really a no brainer.  If I ever do need to apply for credit I simply request a thaw using my PIN with the appropriate bureau.  Another benefit of frozen credit is I will no longer receive the preapproved credit card offers in the mail.  I am definitely not sad about that.  So, if you haven’t checked your credit report lately, do it right now!  I also highly suggest freezing your credit.  It is no more than $10 per person per bureau no matter what state you live in.  Some states are much cheaper.  This method is much more secure and a whole lot cheaper than any credit monitoring service.  Don’t take the chance.  All told I probably have a total of 20 minutes invested in checking and freezing all 3 of my credit reports.  I would never want anyone to deal with the emotions I have been feeling the past 2 days, and I got off with no real harm to my credit.  It could have been a lot worse.