The Summer of 2008 will go down in my book as one for the records. The people, the weather and the price of gas all were meteoric in scope.
Let's start with gasoline. Pour it over the oil industry, light a match and start over. I thought antitrust laws were in place to avoid debacles like Standard Oil and the early railroad monopolies.
In early August I saw some financial analyst predicting that gas would get down to $3.50 gallon. I laughed...for about a week. But, damn, he was right. Now a drop of $.50 per should make people happy, and that was the plan, I suspect. But at the same time last year we were paying $2.50 a gallon. On the flip side I have seen lots of small fuel efficient cars around lately, including a couple of Smart Cars.
Let's start with gasoline. Pour it over the oil industry, light a match and start over. I thought antitrust laws were in place to avoid debacles like Standard Oil and the early railroad monopolies.
In early August I saw some financial analyst predicting that gas would get down to $3.50 gallon. I laughed...for about a week. But, damn, he was right. Now a drop of $.50 per should make people happy, and that was the plan, I suspect. But at the same time last year we were paying $2.50 a gallon. On the flip side I have seen lots of small fuel efficient cars around lately, including a couple of Smart Cars.
Enough of the gas sitchy-ashun, let's hit on the weather. Man, was there weather. Wonderfully warm, almost tropical breezes. And there seemed to be a breeze all through July and August. We had rain often, and heavy at times, but never one of those spells where you wonder if we're living in Venice. A tip of the hat to Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes for the Venice comment.
Although we had a few days of widespread flooding, at least no drought Of course in Fairhaven a "outdoor water usage ban" was in effect. That meant you could only water lawns and wash your car on your trash pickup day. A week later
As of this writing there had been no tropical storms, or worse, a hurricane. In July we had a historical weather event. A TORNADO touched down in New Hampshire. In August a water spout was seen in Padanaram Harbor in Dartmouth. One week later a microburst hit Acushnet. Very freaky.
But man, this is WEATHER!
It's been very interesting to watch. On the day of the microburst I was a friend's house, right on the beach on West Island and we could see the wall of water and 40 mph winds racing across Little Bay, frothing up the sea into white caps five miles away. Note to self, put rain poncho on inside the house, rather fighting with it in 40 mph winds. It was wayyy more difficult than donning a hospital johnnie.
On to friends. I have met more Island people this year than ever before, and I enjoyed meeting them all. Apologies to Sid, who's name is not Luke and Keith who is not Brian. Friends from my teen years on West Island, Stacy, Nancy, Linda, Glenn, Scott and the spark of an idea to reunite more of us stirred up great memories. I even saw a picture of myself before I earned my pot belly. Note that I said earned. You don't just get a pot belly, you have to earn it. I find it a useful for placing a drink on and it prevents stains from reaching your shoes, alth
ough you can rarely see you feet with it. 
Although we had a few days of widespread flooding, at least no drought Of course in Fairhaven a "outdoor water usage ban" was in effect. That meant you could only water lawns and wash your car on your trash pickup day. A week later
As of this writing there had been no tropical storms, or worse, a hurricane. In July we had a historical weather event. A TORNADO touched down in New Hampshire. In August a water spout was seen in Padanaram Harbor in Dartmouth. One week later a microburst hit Acushnet. Very freaky.
But man, this is WEATHER!
It's been very interesting to watch. On the day of the microburst I was a friend's house, right on the beach on West Island and we could see the wall of water and 40 mph winds racing across Little Bay, frothing up the sea into white caps five miles away. Note to self, put rain poncho on inside the house, rather fighting with it in 40 mph winds. It was wayyy more difficult than donning a hospital johnnie.
On to friends. I have met more Island people this year than ever before, and I enjoyed meeting them all. Apologies to Sid, who's name is not Luke and Keith who is not Brian. Friends from my teen years on West Island, Stacy, Nancy, Linda, Glenn, Scott and the spark of an idea to reunite more of us stirred up great memories. I even saw a picture of myself before I earned my pot belly. Note that I said earned. You don't just get a pot belly, you have to earn it. I find it a useful for placing a drink on and it prevents stains from reaching your shoes, alth
ough you can rarely see you feet with it. 
50s night
I happened onto the annual 50's night in New Bedford's downtown one Thursday night and was thrilled at my find.
Portions of Union St., Pleasant St. and normally a section of Acushnet Avenue are closed off to allow classic and muscle cars to be displayed. Because of the unpredictable weather this year, some of the near concourse car owners decided to keep them home. Driving a show quality car in the rain just doesn't fly. There were plenty of cars that were drivers there though, about 100. Along with the cars were of people strolling through the cordoned off streets among vendors of hamburgers, cacoila and linguica sandwiches, balloons and T-shirts.
One of the notable cars in attendance was a 1951 GMC ambulance with an original 50,000 miles and owned by the city of New Bedford. One of 3 ever made, the city police department got theirs in 1952. State of the art for the time there was one major oversight when the ambulance was ordered, the bumper height didn't match the dock height at Saint Luke's hospital. The truck was retired to the New Bedford Municipal Airport as a crash vehicle where it stayed until the 80's when it was retired to parades and car shows. It has it's original gurney, stretcher and extrication equipment which was basically wooden splints.
For more information on AHA! nights in downtown New Bedford check out the link.
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