There’s an email rumor flying around Florida warning that gas stations are going to close at midnight and stay closed for 2-3 days.  According to this report that caused a run on gas stations, and authorities believe that it may be an exaggeration of official statements that said some of the state might experience gas shortages.

Given that it happened in Florida we should probably dismiss this as typical Floridian behavior, but today a friend told my wife that his wife was at a BP station filling up and the woman working the register was saying that they were raising their prices for the second time in 20 minutes.  On top of that she said that once they were out they wouldn’t be getting another shipment for a while.

It’s anecdotal, but word like that gets me thinking maybe I should top off just in case.  Of course I could also behave like a Floridian and put it in an email and, voila, we’ve got "Miami in Carolina."

There’s also an energy expert out there saying that prices could go up 65 cents a gallon as early as this weekend.  That’s one prediction I buy, you know, because it’s hard to underestimate the price-gouging ability of this industry.

Given the current gas climate here’s what I’m looking forward to:

• The look on the faces of the little 5 feet tall, 95 pound bottle-blond soccer moms and blinged-out mama’s boys who have cornered the Escalade market spending $75 at the pump for one fill up.
• The one free fill up a month promotions that GM will inevitably tack onto their "Employee Discount" program when they extend it, again, next week.
• Still spending less for a gallon of gas than I do for a gallon of milk.

Here’s what I’m not looking forward to:

• Listening to the insufferable little tree huggers drone on and on about their wonderful little hybrid.
• Listening to the insufferable big tree huggers drone on and on about their wonderful little hybrid, but I’ll be polite to them since they’re bigger than me.
• Possibly owning a hybrid.