This is my employer’s fancy new plaza. I think they did a good job. The old landscaping had all sorts of nooks and and shadowy crannies that were okay during the day but kind of creepy when I walked across the plaza to the parking garage across the way. The new plaza is lots more open and very well lighted.

The building across the way is the old headquarters building for Cities Service Company. At one time it was one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. The industry downturn in the early 1980’s and then Boone Pickens drove them into arms of Armand Hammer’s Occidental Oil and Gas company. The refineries and gasoline retail arm ended up as Citgo, now owned by the government of Venezuela. The employees ended up scattered to the four corners of the world. As far as I know they all did okay. I call them the Cities Service mafia. They sure bond together.

Their story is echoed in lots of other companies and people, including my career. Such is capitalism and creative destruction and all the other buzz words. And all sorts of other industries have been through similar things. I am not sure whether it is good or bad but fully understand the short term pain and misery it can cause. It does seem that the managed economies of the world have the effect of spreading misery.

Check the widgets on my sidebar for the prices. It is good news to many and not so good news to others.I am starting to hear again the old saw about how the energy companies control the price of oil and natural gas and products such as gasoline.  All I have to say is that if that is true then:

We are doing a piss poor job of it.

In fact it has been kind of like a roller coaster. Sometimes I feel like the blonde girl in the video below:

I don’t like roller coasters, do you?