What the Abilene Reporter-News liked and disliked: Who's not talking about gas?
LIKES
1. Spring breaking. OK, it got off to a chilly start Friday but it's here. If you have time off, enjoy it. If your gas tank has pre-Russian invasion fuel in it, enjoy it. If you have an electric car, enjoy it. More. If you can take a train to your destination, do it.
2. Couldn't say "Hiya!" to Tiya. A shout-out to Tiya Jackson. She's the woman, usually working alone, who serves customers at the Subway inside the First Financial Bank West Building. There was no Subway this workweek because she had to fill in at another location. Folks missed their subs and seeing Jackson, who has worked there for 13 years and 20 overall with the sandwich chain. We appreciated you before, but appreciate you even more now.
3. Doing the "Cheap Gas Shuffle." If you heard brakes screeching last Saturday in north Abilene, it was because motorists saw gas for $3.09 at the 7-Eleven at North 12th and Grape streets. Was the sign outdated? No, it wasn't. It was like finding a pot of black gold (Texas tea?) at the end of the rainbow, with prices already at $3.59 and rising that day. Saving 50 cents a gallon was terrific. As folks filled up, they called other folks and business was brisk. This weekend? The price is $3.99 at the same location.
4. Batter up! Baseball fans can celebrate, now that the lockout is over and a full 162-game season will be played. Spring training will begin Friday but be cut short. Interest in baseball is waning, it seems. Attendance last year was down 34% from 2019, before the pandemic messed with the 2020 season. Hard to justify paying Texas Rangers players more and more for tickets when the team is losing 100 games a year.
DISLIKES
1. Gas goes up. And up. And up. Just in time for spring break travel, gas prices shot up. According to the AAA, the prices last week rose an average of 62.8 cents across the U.S. Here, we saw gas sold last Saturday for $3.09, an anomaly for sure, and for $4.09 by Friday. That's a dollar difference. You bicycling to work yet?
2. No officer, and certainly no gentleman. If you had St. Patrick's Day plans to see the musical version of the hit 1982 movie "An Officer and a Gentleman," you'll have better luck finding a four-leaf clover. The second straight Broadway Series show was canceled because the venue and the tour could not agree on pandemic protocols. Perhaps there will be a show "Some Enchanted Evening" in the future. "South Pacific" is scheduled for April 7.
HMMM
1. Not the president. The Abilene ISD hired Jim Garfield as its next athletic director. If his name seems familiar, consider that our 20th president was James Garfield. He is one of four presidents who have been assassinated. And then there's Jim Davis, who does the "Garfield" comic strip. You know. the orange cat who is friends with Odie, the silly dog. So, it will be easy to remember our new AD's name.
2. Floored by floor mats. Sometimes, you have to wonder. We ordered 10 floor mats for our new office to protect the carpet and so we could roll our chairs without installing a motor. Five came. A sixth arrived, at the central fire station. A seventh arrived the next day, but not in a box like the other six. The other three were missing, until we learned they had been damaged in transit. How do you break a floor mat? Another strange story for the Supply Chain Issues archives.
3. Like a good neighbor, Packers were there. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers reportedly signed a four-year extension worth $200 million. At 38, that will take him closer to the Tom Brady era of his career (Brady retired at 44). With the money that Rodgers gets from State Farm, he could fix every bad street in Abilene and never notice. Heck, we have green street signs. We'd paint the lettering yellow ...
4. Rattled in England. Already have received the annual email from Robert Pillar from the UK, condemning the Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater. His 2021 email read: "Hi killers: Still murdering as much as ever, are we!" This year, his email comes before the event and reads: "This is to let everyone know we’ll be giving yet another exposé of what’s going on in your part of the world. If there’s anything anyone would like to tell us, please do get in touch. Here’s as ever wishing you all well. Cheers for now."
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: What the ARN liked and disliked: Who's not talking about gas?
