a tangled web we weave

Over the weekend, I downloaded a cool widget that searches for the lowest gasoline prices within an area that I designate. I chose 10 miles around my zip code. On Monday evening, the Hess Station on St. Andrews Road was winning at $2.22 per gallon. This morning on my way to work, I drove by and saw that it was $2.59. Tonight, on the way to the gym, lines at the gas stations that still had gas were backed out onto the street. My bike still had about two trips to work left in the tank, so I decided to chance waiting til later, and maybe finding some left over.
When I left the gym I rode around burning gas, looking for gas. I tried about 6 empty stations before I found one with a long line that still had gas at 11:15pm. I inched my way to the pump and payed $3.59 per gallon to fill up my tank. On the way home, I noticed the stations that had emptied earlier today, because the posted prices were so much lower than the ones who'd run out later this evening. Tonight, there is no more gas left in our area. There was no one out on the roads.
I thought about when our electricity went off yesterday afternoon and I heard a generator start up across the way in back of our house. A couple of hours of gasoline consumption for electricity in the middle of the afternoon. A trade off.
So while we're all griping about the price of the remaining drops of gasoline, and driving slowly only to where we absolutely have to go, folks are being forced out of flooded New Orleans. Many are leaving their lost family members floating in the poison water unfound in the flooded city. Families are ripped apart, earthly belongings stripped away, and I'm sorry I can't risk a bit of a joy ride under the crystal clear night sky.
This hurricane won't affect us at all. Maybe we'll get a bit of wind as it passes through western Tennessee. Maybe a thunderstorm or two.
But who'd have been thinking about how dependent we are on the Gulf of Mexico? Who'd have been thinking that a swift kick to Louisiana could start a wave that would cause us all to share the pain.
No, there is no way that a few days without gasoline could hurt as badly as loss of life and property, but it is a little something that will cause us to remember what has caused our little inconvenience, and therefore, those suffering a great disaster.
Tonight, I'm whispering requests for comfort for the folks in New Orleans.