The gas prices have been a boom for boat usage in South Florida

In past years I have boated with friends from Marco Island to Naples eating lunch in Naples hopping back on the boat and going to a Marina in Isle of Capri. In past years there were hardly any boats on the water. This year it was a fricking zoo. So many big boats which I have not seen for years, and boats were everywhere. When I see dual 250 cc outboards sucking gas like there was no end.....and see them lined up 3 wide going in both directions......the cheap gas prices are firing up the economy in South Florida as 41 is a moving traffic jam all week long. The economy will continue to improve for quite a while......the GDP is beginning to hop, and do not be surprised if the fed raises rates a bit to cool things down.

yeah and don't be surprised when the wildcatters in this country shut down operations and OPEC can come back stronger than ever...

I just switched my driving from a 45 mpg car to a 20 mpg all gas powered minivan. AND I bought the minivan with the most powerful six-cylinder engine of all the makes.
But at the same time, I also switched from whataburgers to canned peas and apple sauce, so I still haven't lost all my liberal tendencies.

Also, the realtors at the poker tables are saying that south florida is not doing great, but is surprisingly steady. There are still foreclosures and short sales but these are rapidly becoming the exception and not the rule as they work their way through the system. Waterfront properties are becoming the hot ticket again, and on the boat ride this afternoon, I am seeing tear downs of existing houses and new construction again. The panhandle is usually a couple of years behind the price appreciation in south Florida on the beach, but they argue down here that they never have hurricanes on the southwest corner of Florida, and looking at some of the older areas and the old cinderblock buildings at grade.....it has been a very long time since they have seen a storm surge. There has to be near a trillion in real estate investment sitting less than eight feet above high tide. I would be very cautious putting a hundred dollar investment on sandbars, let alone hundreds of thousands of dollars, but honestly the beaches in South Florida suck compared to the panhandle.......so there will always be people who will forget the risk and fall in love with the most beautiful beaches in America.

Not too worried about speed traps driving a Prius, but the gas prices make the Prius absolutely comical when filling it up.  Folks are putting money in their pockets every week and the economy is definitely heating up.....I would normally thank a person for this great boom, but I posted this in the general discussion.

TEOTWAWKI wrote:yeah and don't be surprised when the wildcatters in this country shut down operations and OPEC can come back stronger than ever...

The lower worldwide demand coupled with the growing oil supply coming from new sources caused a decline in the oil price.
And there's no doubt the Saudis capitalized on that and decided to push the price lower than is profitable for those new sources of supply. And so far the Saudis have been able to get OPEC to go along with it.

But I don't think it's just a coincidence that it's killing Russia's economy either. The Saudis aint happy with Putin and the rooskies. And obviously they knew full well how this would punish them too.

http://rt.com/news/saudi-russia-arms-putin-239/

But there's another factor. The American Government has been in bed with the Saudis for a long long time. And I don't mean any particular American President or political party, I mean just the Government in general. The relationship is so solid that it crosses political lines.
So with that in mind, whatcha think about this conspiracy theory?
The Saudis AND Obama have a shared interest in wanting to exact revenge on Putin.
Maybe the Saudis and Obama got in cahoots behind the scenes on this one.
And you may ask "would Obama be willing to let the shale oil producers in the west suffer as a result?"
Hell yes, Obama is an alternative energy guy who has been pretty clear that he has no use for the fossil fuels industry.

That conspiracy theory fails the logic test though.
Since Obama is an alternative energy guy who hates fossil fuels, why would he want to be a party to something which causes us to buy gas guzzlers again. Would make no sense.

Bob wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:yeah and don't be surprised when the wildcatters in this country shut down operations and OPEC can come back stronger than ever...

The lower worldwide demand coupled with the growing oil supply coming from new sources caused a decline in the oil price.
And there's no doubt the Saudis capitalized on that and decided to push the price lower than is profitable for those new sources of supply.  And so far the Saudis have been able to get OPEC to go along with it.

But I don't think it's just a coincidence that it's killing Russia's economy either.  The Saudis aint happy with Putin and the rooskies.  And obviously they knew full well how this would punish them too.

http://rt.com/news/saudi-russia-arms-putin-239/

But there's another factor.  The American Government has been in bed with the Saudis for a long long time.  And I don't mean any particular American President or political party,   I mean just the Government in general.  The relationship is so solid that it crosses political lines.
So with that in mind,  whatcha think about this conspiracy theory?
The Saudis AND Obama have a shared interest in wanting to exact revenge on Putin.  
Maybe the Saudis and Obama got in cahoots behind the scenes on this one.  
And you may ask "would Obama be willing to let the shale oil producers in the west suffer as a result?"
Hell yes,  Obama is an alternative energy guy who has been pretty clear that he has no use for the fossil fuels industry.  

You conspiracy theory types are all alike, EVERYTHING is a conspiracy....Obama is our president. OUR PRESIDENT !  You are calling every loyal American citizen that voted for Dear Obama an idiot or a traitor...watch it or Alex Jones will have you on his show....

Bob wrote:That conspiracy theory fails the logic test though.
Since Obama is an alternative energy guy who hates fossil fuels,  why would he want to be a party to something which causes us to buy gas guzzlers again.  Would make no sense.

Now you change your position...next you will be telling me WTC7 was imploded....

I harken back to again emphasize something I told you in the last 9/11 thread.

Remember,  I said I fully believe in conspiracies and said they happen all the time and even admitted to being involved in some myself.

BUT,  only the plausible ones.  The ones which do pass the logic test.  The ones which clearly define the motive for all parties involved.  The ones which don't get started because a college film student sets out to make a fictional movie about 9/11,  but then after talking to James Gandolfini in Gandolfini's bar,  decides to convert his fictional movie to a documentary and the rest was history.  I know,  I was there for it from the beginning.

I never thought of it till now,  but the whole 9/11 Truther thing is a lot like the Church of Scientology.  
The origin of both was a conversation in a barroom.

Makes me wonder what kind of conversations Peter,  Paul,  Mark, Luke,  John and Moses were having too.
What with all the floods,  tyranny, wars, famines,  slavery,  torture, droughts,  deserts and other shit surrounding them,  I woulda dreamed up a god and heaven too.

Sal wrote:Forget about it.

Bob switched to a minivan.

All that property will be underwater in 20 years.

I thought about 20 years out after the purchase would I still be glad of it.
Hell yea.  A 2012 minivan with 10,330 miles on it for 15 grand.  That's exactly half the amount the poor sucker who bought it new had to pay.
But it looks and performs like it was new and it comes with the remainder of a 10yr/100k mi warranty on the powertrain.  A 6/yr 50k bumper to bumper warranty.  And when the 10 year factory powertrain warranty runs out,  I was supplied with an additional lifetime warranty on the powertrain.
Hell I wish I was 20 years old so I could theoretically make it my first and last vehicle.  lol
Plus,  it is so much more comfortable than my truck or my Prius and I'm old and now into comfort.  
Plus,  the one vehicle for me does the double duty of owning a car and a truck.  I can easily get anything as large as a side-by-side refrigerator in it and I never have to haul anything bigger.
Screw the gas mileage.  I saw it at $1.83 in Mobile on Saturday.  Won't be long before they're sending out attendants again to pump the gas for us and clean the windshield and check the oil like back in the day.

I park my one ton chevy dump truck most of the time, but this spring I am going to run it around the clock running gravel. Last year I was getting 8mpg and would run 16 miles from a gravel pit to the islands. This was almost $8 fuel cost and I am limited to about six thousand pounds of gravel per trip. I was getting the gravel for about $5 a ton, so my costs were about $38 a load. I do not assign a cost to my wife or I for our time and the last three years we have ran little gravel to repair roads. This spring I plan to run non stop and catch up on the maintenance and our costs will be down almost 12%, so we will be running non stop. Diesel has not dropped the same percentage, but we need to run equipment to build and repair the roads. I will never drive a hauler full time. I love my Prius and it is the most comfortable car I have ever driven. I am big and the car with the seat back and inclined fits me like a glove. The dump truck suspension requires a kidney transplant after running ten loads a day. In a six day week these savings will almost be $300. Thank you President Obama.

I kept my Prius and traded in my truck,  seaoat.
The truck went because it had developed a bearing squeal when the engine was cold.  And then stopped when the engine warmed up. Probably an alternator or water pump but it all cost a fortune to replace now and I'm not up to doing the work myself anymore. And it could be something worse which would empty my wallet.


My Prius didn't have a good ride because something had deteriorated in the suspension.  I discovered that when I drove two different Priuses belonging to friends and their's had a much smoother ride.
Probably the struts but they are REALLY expensive to replace and I've never gotten very much ride benefit from replacing suspension parts in the past.
Plus it's nearing 100k miles and I just don't like having to drive vehicles with over 100k anymore.   I want warranty now that repairs are so expensive.
I'll keep the Prius long enough to see if the gas price goes back up.  If it does I'll try to get the bumpy ride fixed and will drive it more than the van.   But if the gas stays low for long I'll sell the Prius and then buy another gas sipper when the gas does go back up.