October 2008
You are currently browsing the articles from In The Vortex written in the month of October 2008.
As I am sure is no secret to you readers by now, gas prices have been in a near freefall since late summer, with oil having dropped per barrel nearly 50%!
This is of course great news for the average folks like me, who it really puts a sting in the bank account when you have to fill up from near empty and it costs nearly $90! No longer though, gas is now at the nearby convenience store down to $2.35 as of this writing, and that fillup I will need soon will only be about $45.
This is of course great news for getting out and shooting some winter weather soon, or even some late fall lightning. I have been closely watching the daily oil barrel prices, and how they react to various news. Today they are currently at $63.41 as I write this, bouncing around all day between $64 and $61. I still feel like they are going to edge down through the end of the year into the $50s range. My personal opinion after watching this for a few months is that prices were way higher than the market could sustain, inflated by speculative investors. I think that has happened in a lot of markets, and just as all things do, they eventually balance themselves out, and that’s what is going on now.
Pump prices are still catching up to this, and I truly think we will see sub-$2/gal gas by the end of the year. It’s already showed up in a place or two around the country, and areas around Oklahoma City are close to that now.
I actually think this will be good for the upcoming holiday shopping numbers. Mostly because a large chunk of our population will now have quite a bit more money to spend on Christmas that was going to get us back and forth to work. Judging by Halloween sales, which have evidently not be curtailed by the daily economy doom and gloom news, I think the Christmas spending is a given. Halloween spending really isn’t a must, but it’s hard to skip out on Christmas. Not to mention just not having that $4/gal gas staring us in the face every day just puts you in a better spending mood.
Gas will of course go up some in the spring, as it always does when they switch over to the more expensive summer blends. But I think will still be under $2.50 come prime storm chasing time, and that is great news for next season.
Now if only mother nature doesn’t decide we need a big death ridge in the middle of the country in May!
Written by David Drummond on October 28th, 2008 with 5 comments.
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It was a quiet night. While the wind had blown ferociously all day long, it had since subsided and things were calm. Maybe too calm. The stars shown brightly but not bright enough to keep The Killer at bay. No, this time the deed was going to be done.
It was about midnight. All normal folks have since drifted off in their cozy beds for dreams of far off lands and wild adventures. And was now the time The Killer could do its best work! The Killer has been threatening to do its work for a couple of weeks now, but this time it knew it was going to succeed in the dastardly doings, sneaking from town to town, killing freely while everyone slept and few knew about its work, and even they were powerless to stop it, despite their earlier warnings The Killer would be on the loose tonight.
As the wee hours wore on, The Killer slowly slipped southeastward, taking everything in its deadly grip as it went. Nothing would be spared it thought! Suddenly, a glint of light began to peak in the eastern horizon and The Killer knew its time was up. It would soon have to retreat into hiding. But tomorrow night… Yes, tomorrow night. Things will again be perfect and The Killer can once again roam the area and finish the grand work it had begun this night.
Yes, last night was the first killing freeze this fall for the South Plains area. At least parts of it. Mostly the northwest half of the South Plains and most of the Texas Panhandle. It was early for some folks, as much as two weeks early. Just about on time for others. Temps as low as 26F were recorded by the West Texas mesonet last night.
It had begun to look like a second spring, with the recent abundance of rain about a week ago and the more recent warm days. Everything had really greened up and had a growth spurt. It all looks dull today. The rest of the leaves on the annual trees should go ahead and fall off, and the grasses will be turning yellow now. I guess the good side is one more mowing and I can put it away for the winter.
It’s not over yet. While the days look to be darn right outstanding for the next week, it’s going to be hiney freezing chilly at night. It may turn out to be even colder tonight than last, and freeze warnings are in effect tonight for the entire area.
Yes indeed. Winter is just around the corner.
Written by David Drummond on October 23rd, 2008 with 3 comments.
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Such a pleasant day today. Lately it’s been in the upper 80s to around 90 here, a bit warm for this time of year. Today was a pleasant return to Autumn weather, with a stormy day in progress and temps in the low 60s! We are under a severe thunderstorm watch, but I really didn’t even consider chasing because it’s just really not the chasable type storms. Who knows, after dark might provide some lightning photography opportunities.
With such a lazy day on tap, I find myself just that… being lazy! As usually I have a to-do list a mile long, and I’ve been good about working on it lately, but I just can’t seem to throw myself in to anything today.
The end result is that I sit around staring out the window at the rain and reflecting on things in my life at this moment, projects I am working on, that sort of stuff.
I have been contemplating since Hurricane Ike about a complete face lift of the website and blog. Most especially the blog. The template I am using here is just bland to me, plus I want something a bit wider and more designed for 1024 resolution than 800. 800 resolution is dying, no sense keeping that torch burning.
I’ve been having difficulty finding a template I like, that easily accomodates the adsense, as well as compliments my main website template. Part of that is knowing I want to change the main website up.
As most of you know, I now use Joomla on my main website. I’ve been thinking about migrating to the newer 1.5 version, but that is going to be a bit of a task. I think I will start that undertaking this coming week as I have time around my regular every-two-weeks project I do. It’s not going to be an easy task, but I would like to make the move and the change in look.
I used to do black/dark backgrounds on my chasing website a lot, mostly because I feel the white/light backgrounds detract from storm images. However, I decided on the last change to the look of the site to go with a white background for some reason. With this new look, it will be going back to the dark backgrounds again.
I guess the only decision left to make on it is to decide whether or not I should start 3 or 4 threads on StormTrack with the press releases of my progress on the changes to my website, like some chasers do. 
Written by David Drummond on October 5th, 2008 with 5 comments.
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