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Have you been to the gas pump lately? If you have, you no doubt are still trying to recover from the shock. I understand we set a record for the fastest rise in cost for any one week in the history of gasoline. Those are records we could live without. Before you head into your favorite fueling location and assault the management for charging the high prices, you have to understand what causes them.

Now, I thought that I was a fairly intelligent person (I know there are those who would argue the point) but after listening to an oil industry spokesman’s explanation on the radio Monday, I have decided that I must live in a cave. The quick and dirty version of what that person was giving as the reasons for the near record (if not record) high prices were:

#1: the blackout on the East Coast, which caused refineries to close down; and,

#2: the broken pipeline in Arizona.

I understand that we may not have the surplus fuel supplies that we once had, but do they seriously believe that we will not question the fact that a 24-48 hour power outage would cause this terrible shortage nationwide?

As an uneducated observer, it sure appears that the blackout and line break serve as justification for taking a larger than normal season price spike. If perchance I’m wrong, should it take weeks to catch up to something that was caused in a day or two? I don’t know about you, but I sure believe the oil companies are using the Middle East situation, the blackout and the line break to force and keep prices up for awhile; knowing that after Labor Day the demands will decrease.

Being part of the free enterprise system, I have never had an aversion to someone making a fair profit on their product or services, but to go beyond that fair margin of profit under the pretense that we are just coming out of a crisis situation. It will be interesting to see how long the inflated prices remain and then to pick up on the oil companies’ logic of why they are going down, if they ever do.

Oh, by the way, because of all of the forest fires we anticipate a much higher rate for the Press at your next renewal. That’s not true, but it makes about as much sense as the oil industry’s explanation of today.

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So, how was your summer and where the heck did it go? Next Monday, Labor Day, marks the official end of summer and the following day classes start at the local schools. It must have something to do with age, but it seems like summer just zips past at blinding speed the older you get.

I know that we always remind drivers to be extra alert when school starts, but another heads-up can’t hurt. We all need to be on our toes, especially near schools and bus stop areas. We also need to remember that it is illegal to pass a school bus from any direction when it has the stop arm extended and flashing red lights. In the state of Minnesota, the law is that we must stop for pedestrians who are attempting to cross any street or road at an intersection, that is at any and all intersections, not just the marked crosswalks. Please drive with extra care and remind all of the students living in your home to be extra cautious as well. We’re not too old to remember what it’s like trying to obey the rules of the road while trying to show off your new car just a bit.

The local high school athletic competition has already begun and the football season gets started tonight (Thursday) for North Branch and Chisago Lakes. As we have done for well over 20 years, we will be printing our Fall Sports Preview that features athletes, schedules and coaches comments on the upcoming season. We plan to include the preview as part of your Sept. 11 Chisago County Press. We appreciate the help the coaches and schools give us by providing us with the information, and thanks to our loyal advertisers for their continued support.

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After being back from a family vacation, I find the hardest things to readopt to are not having my children, my mother and especially my four wonderful grandchildren around all day, every day, and the fact that I must wear long pants and shoes most of the time. I need to thank the people who work for me at the Press for taking care of everything while I was gone. When asked the other day if there was anything I didn’t like about vacation, my only reply was––it was too short.

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If Mother Nature had not decided to throw some extra logs on the fire Sunday, everything about this year’s Ki Chi Saga Days would have been nearly perfect. And, in spite of Sunday’s sizzling heat and humidity, a big crowd turned out for the parade and Old World Market. This is the first year that the celebration has been in August rather than in September and several people commented that the nicest thing was that there were no bees buzzing around the park. To all of those who in anyway helped, and especially to the Chisago City staff––thanks for your efforts, it was a great weekend.

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