I called my sister yesterday to tell her gas in Atlanta was over $4. "That's more then here!" she exclaimed, saying that gas in Palo Alto, California, where she lives, was roughly $3.60. Right now Atlanta’s gas prices are over the national average but that’s not the least of our worries. To quote Atlanta Chevron station manager, Mohammed Hussain, “We Ain’t Got No Gas Here!" And it certainly feels that way as you drive pass station after station with plastic bags over the gas nozzle of every single pump. Every day for the pass two weeks gas shortages in Atlanta have been the big story. Luckily for me there is a free shuttle service I use to get to work so while the stories in the news about hunting for gas seemed awful with the hour long waits, the fist fights that break out and angry drivers blaring there horns, I wasn’t really affected by it. The last time I had to get gas was right before Hurricane Ike hit land earlier this month. I filled my 23 gallon, gas guzzling truck at $3.55. Later that day, the price had gone up to $4.00 and the lines at the pump where 4 and 5 cars deep.
But this isn’t really my story here. My story is that last night I finally felt the pain and it was awful! I figured I’ll try to get gas late at night where I figured the lines would be shorter. Boy was I soooooooo wrong! And I say “sooooooooooo” wrong because it was THAT bad! The lines were no longer 5/6 car deep, the line went out the parking lot and down the street about three blocks and we were stopping and going so frequently that I don’t think we were moving at all-if that makes sense. I was with my friend that night and we sat in line for an hour. I went from, “Wow, this is crazy,” to kicking my shoes off and propping my feet on the dash board to rolling down my window to see if I could catch a glimpse of the gas station to finally yelling out the window every time a car tried to cut the line. We finally moved in sight of the gas station only to determine that it looked like we would be in line for another hour or two because the line didn’t go right into the station but looped around first before you could make it inside. My nerves started to get the best of me after not moving an inch in 15 minute period. As we moved toward an intersection, a car in front of us refused to move. “Look man, I know we aren’t supposed to block intersections but in a time like this, get the hell on!” I yelled. Not budging, my friend starts honking the horn and baring up on the small car. “Push that car into the intersection”, I said encouragingly. I knew I sounded crazy but somehow crazy seemed appropriate in this situation. We saw cars trying to circumvent the line by cutting through a nearby plaza which made us even more furious. “That’s so not fair!" I exclaimed. “That’s so rude if they are really cutting the line like that.” I think I was hoping they just realized they were in the wrong line and were trying to get pass this ridiculously long line to the gas station. I knew my wishful thinking was futile. Another car tries to edge in front of us from the intersection. “Hey, man,” I said with my window rolled down. “You can’t just be trying to cut the line like that, we all are sitting here trying to get gas. You just can’t do that.”
Ten minutes pass 9:00pm and 70 minutes in line, I said screw it let’s go. I can’t wait in this line anymore-my odometer hovering at less than a quarter of a tank. My friend gave me a look as if saying “You know we pull out there’s no turning back?” “Let’s do it,” I said as we pulled out of line probably at the disbelief of the 20-30 cars behind us. This morning I got gas around 5am at a lone gas pump among yellow bagged pumps. Later that morning around 10am I went out and saw a repeat of what I experienced last night and what we in Atlanta have been experiencing for over two weeks now. Things are not expected to get better for another week or two. Oil refineries were shut down for a period of time due to the hurricanes but while gas is still coming in the city masses of people in fear mode are rushing to the stations subsequently depleting a whole gas stations reserve in a couple of hours. When the housing bubble popped last year, we kept hearing that it was going to get worse before it got better. You don’t say.
