$3.95!

...is our store's price for a gallon of Regular gas as of Friday afternoon. Our price has gone up 40 CENTS IN 10 DAYS! Our high-octane Supreme gas is now at $4.19 per gallon.
The last time we went through this (2008), the employees took bets on which gas station in town would be the first to raise their price over $4 per gallon for Regular. This time around, I think it might be US....

This has not been a good week in my neck of the woods. In the local area over the last three days we've had one state trooper shot to death by a guy who later killed himself; in the same area as that incident but a day later, a car full of people was speeding down the highway too fast, left the road and ended up in the bay -- one of the passengers drowned; and in Bremerton, just 5 miles up the road from us, earlier this week a third-grader accidentally shot one of his classmates with a loaded gun he said he brought to school from his mother's house.
It's been nothing but fun here in Fun City, the Gun Capital of the Known World.
I blame some of this stuff on the pace of life here. I've never been ANYWHERE else where the pace seems SO FAST 24/7, where almost EVERYBODY ALWAYS seems to be in a hurry. And I've lived in California a couple of times.
If I could make people slow down a step or two, I would. But they won't.
It's like people want this to be Seattle -- it's not. We're not even a suburb. But people keep racing around like there's no tomorrow, EVERY DAY. Something about living here seems to MAKE PEOPLE CRAZY. People who aren't FROM HERE see it -- this stuff ain't normal. But folks who were born and raised here think this IS Reality. They're wrong.
Now more than ever I am hyper-sensitive about Not Pissing People Off. I don't want them coming back with a gun just because we had a little disagreement.
I've been telling customers on their way out of the store to "Be careful out there" for a long time now. Only now I mean it. For God's sake, take it easy and keep your head down.
Meanwhile, I'm hoping a happy worker, a kind word, a friendly voice, lots of bad jokes, or some good tunes on the store stereo will turn aside all wrath.
Because that's about all I've got to rely on.
That and The Panic Button. And a couple of baseball bats hidden behind the counter.
Check out my other blog, TAD's Back-Up Plan, to see how the right music keeps me happy and be-bopping through the evenings, and hopefully keeps the customers happy too.
More soon....