Gas In Saskatoon, January 4, 2019.

It's almost too small of a price drop to report, but it is a price drop.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 97.1 cents a litre at most locations.  This time last year it was 112.9 cents a litre. 

Welcome To 2019.

But seriously, 2019?  How did it get so late?  It certainly isn't the 2019 those of us who remember the '70s were expecting.  Far too few people off planet for one thing. 

I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions.  But one thing I am hoping to do is do rather more posting here than 2018. 

Someone is firing off fireworks nearby as I write this.  Not the best night to be doing so, as the current temperature is -24 degrees Celsius.  Keep warm, wherever you are.

Gas In Saskatoon, December 27, 2018.

Our last entry of the year sees another price drop.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 97.9 cents a litre at most locations.  But enjoy it while it lasts.  Alberta may reduce its oil output to drive up prices, which will probably lead to an increase in gas price whether it actually has a direct effect or not.

I first started regularly reporting the price of gas in Saskatoon in September of 2008.  On September 12th of that month gas was 145.9 cents a litre.  At the time people were speculating how long it would be before we saw 2 buck a litre gas.  But that 145.9 cent mark has yet to be surpassed here.

Really Big Spender.

The day after Christmas is known as Boxing Day in Canada.  It's become one of the big shopping days of the year in most of the country, with everyone out to spend their Christmas present money on deeply discounted stuff.  I braved the chaos of my local mall as well.

But I didn't actually buy anything there.  Rather I spent some of my Christmas money later on.  A whole 3 bucks on a lottery ticket.  The only place I went to look for something to buy of any note was the east side of Saskatoon Long and McQuade, and even there I was checking out something for a few weeks down the road.  Unfortunately the bass I was going to look at was sold.

We Wish You A...

....(insert appropriate seasonal event related greeting here).  The only thing I'll be doing this December 25th is sitting around the house eating cookies, candies, turkey, and chocolate pie.

Gas In Saskatoon, December 21, 2018.

A little bit further down we go.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 99.9 cents a litre at most locations.  I wouldn't be surprised to see it go down a cent or two more before year's end.

Mocking The Clickbait 14: Do It The Old Way.

Photoshop Didn't Exist Back Then So Yes These Pictures Are Real.

(The lack of punctuation is theirs.)

You don't need Photoshop to alter photos.  People were doing retouching work on photos from pretty much the moment photography appeared in the 1830s.  Just another thing that existed long before you could find a computer everywhere.

Gas In Saskatoon, December 14, 2018.

I didn't think we'd get this low, but here were are.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 100.6 cents a litre at most locations.  If you're doing much travelling this holiday season these low prices are a nice present.

The Universe Is Out To Get Me.

Seriously, it seems like that at the moment.  Monday I had a cold begin that made sleeping kind of nasty, leading me to wake up at 4 AM to take a painkiller because part of my mouth hurt.  Tuesday around noon I was almost hit by a car.  And this morning I almost slipped and fell when I stepped onto a large piece of bubble wrap that must have fallen out of someone's garbage can.  Hopefully some new threat isn't waiting for me tomorrow.

Gas In Saskatoon, December 7. 2018.

We're almost at the one buck a litre mark.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 102.9 cents a litre at most stations. 

Energy Pop.

This morning I picked up a half empty energy drink can to throw in my recycling pile.  Looking at the ingredients, which included 54 grams of sugar, got me thinking about the idea of energy pop.  It's a bit surprising the big boys haven't marketed energy drink variations of their soft drinks.  You'd think we would have seen a Coke Energy or Pepsi Energy.  I would imagine their marketing departments have come up with enough data to indicate such a product wouldn't be worth the bother.  It's also possible there might be regulations in some markets that prevent such products.  And they may not want to cannibalise their own product lines.  For example Gatorade is currently owned by Pepsi.

Little Out.

I was looking at the Western Canada Lottery Corp. website this morning, curious about whether I would have won on a lottery ticket I didn't play.(I wouldn't have.)  Looking at other winning numbers I came across the winning numbers for last night's Pick 4 draw.  There was one winner, who won 400 bucks.  The obvious question is how many people played that lottery yesterday.  WCLC doesn't put out the number of sales per draw on their website, but at one dollar a draw all they had to sell was 400 tickets to cover that win, and I would think they sell considerably more tickets per draw than that.  Whoever won last night played what's called a 12 way box, which has two unique digits, and two digits that are the same, which last night was 4294.  The odds of winning with that configuration are 1:833.

Gas In Saskatoon, November 30, 2018.

The end of the month sees another drop.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 106.6 cents a litre at most stations.  Will it reach the buck a litre mark before year's end?  Stay tuned.

Gas In Saskatoon, November 24, 2018.

Yep, it's a day late, but nonetheless here it is.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 111.9 cents a litre at most locations.  If the current trend continues we may see it drop below 110 cents a litre by month's end.

Gas In Saskatoon, November 16, 2018.

A bit further down we go.  Gas in Saskatoon is currently 114.9 cents a litre at most stations.  But something tells me it won't drop much further.

Calgary Surprised Me.

Yesterday Calgary held a plebiscite on bidding for the 2026 Winter Olympics.  56 percent of Calgarians voted no.  I had expected to see the yes side win.  The plebiscite is non-binding, but the Alberta government said provincial funding was contingent on a yes vote,  which makes sense.  A provincial election is approaching, but if the government changes it's hard to imagine the supposedly fiscally conservative United Conservative Party going against the voters, and spending a big pile of money.

Gas In Saskatoon, November 9, 2018.

Prices are slowly creeping down.  Gas in Saskatoon is currently 116.8 cents a litre at most stations.  It will be interesting to see how close we get to the buck a litre mark before the price goes up again.

Bad Luck Bumper Sticker?

This morning I found myself walking towards a car with a bumper sticker that said "I'm so gay I can't drive straight."  When I walked alongside it I found that it had a large dent in the passenger side fender, and the hood was bent.  So I have to wonder if that bumper sticker was on the car before or after the accident.  If before it would seem to have been bad luck for the driver.

Here We Snow.

It didn't take long for November to look like winter.  It's snowing and blowing a lot today.  We might see 5 centimeters today.  But Saskatoon got lucky.  Some areas to the northeast of us are under snowfall warnings, and may receive up to 25 centimeters.

If you need an excuse to use public transit more weather like this is a good one.  Less cars on the road means less change for accidents, and you can leave the worry of driving to someone else.

Tang Ruined It.

Like a lot of '70s kids I drank Tang.  I can't remember when or why we stopped drinking the stuff in my house, but I haven't consumed any in decades.  But it ruined my taste for actual unsweetened orange juice.  The stuff just tastes too sour to me.  I'm sitting here drinking a little carton of orange juice for the first time in a long time, and I don't like it any better than the last time I had it.  And it's not like it needs added sugar, as the 200 ml size I'm drinking has 19 grams of sugar in it. 

Too bad, as more vitamin C in my diet wouldn't hurt.