Which Reminds Me

In high school, Joan sat directly in front of me in the alphabetical order of things. I vaguely recall overhearing her tell someone that her parents worked in oil and gas or something of that nature. I also remember that another classmate, Margot, mentioned that her father worked for Shell oil. Hmmm... Interesting how all these oil and gas people are buzzing about acting as if they know something that I don't know. Oil is the least of my concerns. Anyway, I don't have any job contracts for them in that line of business. Needless to say because everyone already knows, the U.S. Department of Oil Reserves has decreed an embargo on the drilling of new oil walls for the foreseeable future. Yes, I suppose that about a hundred years from now we will all be glad that we did not consume all our oil supplies early in the game just to gratify a handful of simple-minded gamesters, and besides it might take a while for alternative fuel research to catch up with practical realities of daily living. But of course that doesn't help us in the here and now. To you we are just a liability, all those maintenance costs, not really an asset. So we are caught in between the now and the not yet, to quote a song, and sometimes it seems like forever and ever. Of course, I might not live long enough to see the end of that story, but I am not alone. Only one life to live....