Another crystal-clear morning this Sunday on California’s north coast and if the immediate past is any indication, this could turn to be another wonderful, ‘warm‘ day — ‘warm‘ being way-relative.
The mid-70s in temperature for us is a “heat wave.”

Sunshine and toasty for us, but not so for a giant chunk of the southern US — a humongous storm system is working its way from the Pacific to the Atlantic this weekend with rain, snow and swirling winds to hamper the Thanksgiving week for a lot of folks.
A tribute to weather via CNN meteorologist Melissa Le Fevre: “We are going to see delays. We’re just waiting to see if the impacts are going to be severe or just annoying.”
Either way…

Storms will also keep a lot of people off the highways.

(Illustration found here).

Just now out on my patio smoking a cigarette, the dawn is seeping white from the east — approaching across the dome of the sky with a sense of that mango-orange color soon to come. And the air clear as-a-bell, too, whatever than means, except here maybe here it’s the clear-precise noise of a fire truck siren off somewhere in the distance.

Anyway, quickly-enough of that shit!
Although big news story this morning is the Iran-nuclear deal, in real-space, real-time, a good-portion of Americans will be concerned about this coming Thursday. And like a lot of other American-historical hogwash, ‘Thanksgiving‘ is the old set tradition of ‘home for the holidays,’ despite the obvious bullshit, of not just one day, but a cluster of days, which actually won’t end until Jan. 1, 2014.

Anyway, again — most will be figuring out traveling-to-and-fro itineraries, and, for at least up here in these regions, and all over, the price at the gas pump is down yonder.
Yesterday, another $20 in the gas tank of my old Jeep Comanche, and at the local Union 76, the price was down to $3.75 a gallon for regular. Long time since it’s been that low. For a good while, I posted an oil/energy piece every time I put gas in the Jeep (and since I go practically nowhere, about every 10-days to two weeks), but have fallen out of the habit — the last post on the subject was in August, when the price-per-gallon up here was then $4.09 a gallon for regular.
According the Daily Fuel Gauge Report this morning, the national gas-pump average is $3.28 a gallon for regular — nearly 20 cents lower than a year ago.

Up here we’re higher than the national, of course, and still higher than even the Northern California average ($3.59-a-gallon), and well above the state average of $3.57. And there were reports some stations in the central San Joaquin Valley were selling regular gas last week for as low as $3.19 a gallon.
Pretty down there for California.
Last week, The Fiscal Times seemed to explain the situation, in part:

The drop in prices reflects a variety of factors including a seasonal slowdown in demand, a quieter-than-normal hurricane season in the Gulf, and increased domestic production.
The United States is expected to pass Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s top oil producer by 2015.
“Until a few years ago, the great problem in North America was the uncertainty of supply,” says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst with GasBuddy.com.
“Now the problem in North America is uncertainty of demand.”
Although the nominal price of gas has increased nearly six-fold since 1976, the real price has only increased about 43 percent, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Gas prices in five states have fallen below $3 per gallon, but that’s not a trend expected throughout the country.
Through January, prices will likely remain in the $3.05-$3.15 band, Kloza predicts.
He believes that low gas prices throughout this year will mean Americans will have directly spent a collective $12 billion less fueling their cars in 2013 than in 2012.
The average annual price for a gallon of gas is expected to average $3.50 per gallon in 2013, and to fall to $3.39 per gallon next year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
In 2012, gas prices averaged $3.63 per gallon.
While economists agree that the lower prices will likely remain in place through the end of the year, but they’re divided as to whether that trend will translate into a more consumer spending on the all-important holiday season.

Yes, indeed, the big hole in the whole.

Meanwhile, back that Iranian nuclear deal, supposedly oil prices won’t be that much effected by the action, especially in the short run, but since Iran lost $80 billion in oil embargoes, the big slush won’t occur until their oil goes back online worldwide.
From Bloomberg this morning: The agreement will probably have a “somewhat muted” effect on oil prices, according to analysts including Mark Keenan, cross-commodity research strategist at Societe Generale in Singapore. “We can, however, expect some price weakness as the market adjusts to the future prospect that Iranian exports will resume,” he said by e-mail.

Now back to trying to arrive at grandma’s house on time.