The Crisis that no one wants to talk about

I must say the rising price of gas is consuming me. Not only because it is hitting my wallet but because I hear people complain about gas prices but then change the subject to something else. Or just say, "well hopefully the price will come down soon". That is one of the problems with Americans. For years we have lulled ourselves to sleep thinking there is an endless supply of oil and our lives will just go on the way they always have. In doing a little online research about oil I came upon some interesting things from reliable sources.
Ever heard of Boone Pickens? He is a Texas oil billionaire who is now out of oil. Why? The answer in his words "what I do believe in is we are out of cheap oil. We are out of the, you know, the bubbling crude where, you know, Jed goes out and he's shooting some varmint and all of a sudden up comes bubbling crude? That's done. That's over. The cheap oil is gone. There's plenty of oil left but it's deep sea oil, it's difficult to get or it's heavy crude. So it costs a lot more to pull out. So the days of cheap gas are over."

An excerpt of Glenn Beck's (Headline News) Boone Pickens interview:
"So Boone, $150 a barrel by the end of this year, when does this break the back of the economy? And he looked at me dead serious and with all soberness and said, we're there. He said, we're at an emergency. He said, just, nobody will talk about it. Nobody will recognize it. Nobody will say it. We're at a full-fledged energy emergency right now. He said, we need an Eisenhower highway project. We need somebody with vision. I said, so wait a minute. Why is it that the people that we have in power aren't going there? He said, I have no idea."

I don't want to sound like "Chicken Little", but of all people Boone Pickens knows energy and oil. Someone needs to be talking about this crisis. Americans need to wake up. This is not going away. I just wonder how high gas will have to go before our citizens and our government wakes up. Gas prices effect the price of everything. Plus, there will come a time (probably very soon) when it not only makes prices go up but trucks stop running to bring food and other products to us.

It happened to me today: I was going to get the propane tank for my grill filled. The station was out of propane because the truck that brings it to the station had to cut the amount of trips it makes per month in half because of high fuel prices.

Change your ways and just stay home

You can't turn on the TV without seeing something about rising gas prices. If you watch enough of the economists and "experts" on the subject it seems everyone has a different opinion as to why oil prices are at an all time high. Some say the oil is running out. Some say it is the oil companies. Some say it is OPEC (I don't even know what that stands for? In my mind OPEC=rich Arabs). Some say it has to do with supply and demand. Some say at this time it has nothing to do with supply and demand. Who knows? I do not know enough about economics to even make an educated argument about what the problem is. It is a no-brainer that we need to aggressively research alternative fuels and quit "tree-hugging" and drill for oil that we have in the US. However, even if we find alternative fuels, it will take years for manufacturing of these fuels to catch up with demand. The same goes with drilling for oil in the US. I heard somewhere if we tapped the oil that is available in Alaska it would still take 5 years for the oil to get to consumers.
So what do we do right now?
We change our ways and stay home as much as possible. We go to work, the grocery store, church, and straight back home. Spend more time with your family. We change the mindset of thinking we have to go somewhere to entertain ourselves. Watch DVDs that you get from one of those online video rental places where they deliver them to you. Play Monopoly. Exercise. Have a family bible study. Etc.
Memorial Day weekend is coming up and I've heard so many of my friends say they are going on a trip. Do you really have to? Is it really going to hurt you just to stay home?
This may make me into a bad guy but I'm going to say it anyway. If you own an SUV to carry around one child in, if you are going on a vacation this Memorial Day, if you are not consolidating your trips (ie. buy groceries on the way home from work), you have no right at all to complain about gas prices because you are contributing to high gas prices yourself. I have been guilty of all of these things in the past, but me and my wife have made a decision to just stay home. If you want to pay less for gas you will too.

Out of the mouths of babes and convicted felons

A couple of little funny tidbits that I heard in the last several weeks. Both were from the road.

1. We were leaving a church not long ago after singing at a homecoming when my 12 year old son, Ben said he was going to invent a new Baptist flag. I asked him what the flag would have on it. He responded very seriously, "A giant fried chicken leg"
(Homecoming: a service celebrating the anniversary of the establishment of a church where there is great preaching and singing. Afterwards you go and eat yourselves into oblivion due to the great cooks they have in most churches).

2. We were singing at an unusual church not long ago. The church was started by a pastor with great insight and courage. It consists of mostly recovering drug addicts, single parents, paroled convicted felons, etc. We attended a Sunday School class before the service. The pastor lead the class and started with scripture and then turned it over to those attending for comment. One black man wanted to talk about the upcoming presidential election. He started out by saying he was a convicted felon so he had lost his right to vote forever. He added that this didn't bother him too much this year because there was no one to vote for. He also added, "Me being a black man, I would love to see a black man become president. But, if I could vote, I would not vote for Obama Bin Laden"

The Davis Trio

The Davis Trio is the southern gospel group I sing with. It consists of me, my brother (personal spell checker and tenor), and my dad. Me and my brother are the leaders of the group and we let my dad think he is (I can only say that because he is computer illiterate, Bless his heart). We do approx. 70 concerts per year, have 4 CDs out, and will start recording our latest tomorrow. We are weekend warriors. We work full-time jobs through the week and sing 1-3 times per weekend. Gospel music is our calling. God has really used us as His instrument over the years. He has blessed us in so many ways.
Check out our group and soon to be re-constructed website at
The Davis Trio. com

Over time, when I run out of things to write about, this will probably turn into a total Davis Trio blog about our life on the road every weekend.

Lay-offs and Lessons

At this time in America I am probably not the only one in this boat. Approximately 1-1/2 years ago, after putting in 21 years at a dead-end job, I decided it was time for a career change. My pay was frozen for 5 years and things for me and my family were not getting better financially they were getting worse. My job was Assistant Security Director at a major hospital. Even though it wasn't on my job description, I was given responsibility over the CCTV system, the infant monitoring system, and the access control system along with my other responsibilities of supervision of 30+ employees, payroll, accounts payable, etc. etc. I didn't complain too much about the added responsibility at the time because I was gaining experience in another field and saw it as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. After acquiring some experience I landed a job with a commercial CCTV, Access control installation company as an Installation Tech. I was making $5 more per hour and enjoyed my job. However, it was short-lived. After the first of the year, I guess because of the economy, jobs became scarce and I was laid off. I was told by the owner of the company that I was the most honorable employee he had ever had in 15 years of business, but he needed to keep the most experienced employees (there were only two left!). That is the end of the "Lay-off" part.
Here is the "Lesson" part. After losing my job I seriously thought about going on unemployment and holding out for the economy to get better. The thing is though, I hold the benefits for my family. There are no benefits when you are on unemployment and who knows when the economy is going to get better. I never lost contact with the guys at the hospital where I put in 21 years and when talking to them I was told there was a position open on 3rd shift. Long story long I took the job, the $5+ an hour cut, and the benefits. Now instead of 2nd in command, I am in command of nothing, but I have a job. That is more than many people can say in this country. The "Lesson" is simply don't burn bridges. Someday you may have to turn around and cross back over again.

Therapy

I guess everyone who starts a blog wonders if anyone will read it. Maybe I will just be typing away for nothing? Really though, it's not just about whether people read it or not (although that would be nice to have feedback about what you are writing about). I believe a lot of the desire to blog comes from a therapeutic standpoint. I will be the first to tell you that my (hopefully) day to day blogging will be me complaining about things and trying to get my point across. I guess you could call it venting online. Writing has always been a release for me. Just consider this my first release (no pun intended).