A homeowner in Waukesha for 20 years, Steve is president of the Waukesha Dog Parks Organization and enjoys motorcycling, fishing and staying on top of politics.
I am in my La Quinta motel room in Denver Colorado catching up on business email and voice mail. The company that I work for has several stores in the state and I'm doing air conditioning classes at most of them this week.
Monday was the fourth time that I've driven over the Rocky Mountains to Grand Junction. It was around 90 degrees at class time. I'm told that it was about that warm in Waukesha at the time too. The difference out here is that it is high desert area and it is DRY. Most houses out there have a gadget on top of the house called a Swamp Cooler. It's kind of like a huge humidifier that you have on your furnace but the dry air is cooled through the water panels and cools the house. Cheap to use but not effective in humid areas.
The next morning I checked out of my Holiday Inn hotel, not feeling any smarter, and drove back over the mountains. The rental car that I had, a Kia Spectra, didn't have cruise control, but was otherwise a nice car and has given me an average 36MPG so far. Nice, cause the gas isn't any cheaper out here. I stopped in Vail to stretch my legs and there was snow in the wayside. Quite a contrast from the day before.
Speaking of fuel economy, not far from Grand Junction are the huge oil shale fields extending up into Canada. There is more oil there than the Arabs have. It just is harder to get. I drove by signs from Haliburton looking for oil field workers and saw many wells being drilled. On the interstate I passed several trucks with Haliburton lettering. Think what you may, I appreciate that it takes big business to keep gasoline in the tanks at the gas stations. I went through the rationing and long lines back in the early 70's. I'd rather pay the higher prices.
One thing that sticks in my mind was an ad campaign from then Standard Oil. They said that if everybody used just one gallon less a week, there would be no shortage. In our case the reduced demand would reduce the price of gas. Think about that as you drive your SUV and I zip along in my Kia getting 36MPG.
