Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Burning Oil


Sally and I began our Anchorage adventure with breakfast at the Snow City Cafe, a wonderful little eatery downtown. With items like reindeer sausage and salmon benedict you know you're in Alaska. One feature of the restaurant was the pecan sticky bun, which we split between us. It looked great! But there was a slight problem.


I took a piece from the edge, while Sally cut her first bite closer to the center and put it in her mouth, only to realize (too late) that temperature of the caramel sauce was somewhere between magma and plasma. She blistered the roof of her mouth and had trouble eating for a couple days. We think that after the roll was baked the hot sauce was poured over it.

I couldn't help but think of the analogy with another type of burning oil. It sure is nice to have petroleum to fuel economic growth, the freedom to drive our vehicles whenever and wherever we choose, or to fly to Anchorage. But spills in the Prince William Sound, the Gulf of Mexico and in Montana are part of the blistering price we pay for the privilege.

Now we're in the process of locating another pipeline through the nation's heartland, right over the Ogallala Aquifer. New access to oil! Sweet!

I'm really afraid we'll end up getting burned again.

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