Christmas is coming. The temp outside (at 5 pm, about sunset)

is 68° and gas is going for $0.959/gallon. Really nice outside,

especially compared with last year. On the dark side, it looks

like we will lose the headquarters of Phillips Petroleum as they

merge with Conoco, who moved from nearby Ponca City to Houston a

few years ago. Seems some stock analyst convinced the CEO that

stock is $1 to $3 lower per share because of Phillips being

headquartered here (since its founding in 1917). They have also

cited the lack of international flights from here, however you can

drive to Tulsa and fly to Houston about as quick as you can get from

most parts of Houston to the Intercontinental airport. Atlanta or

Miami would take longer but connections to international flights

are probably better than Houston. Phillips now has 2400 employees

here, down from the 8-9000 at their peak, in a town of 35000. They

claim that they will still have about 2000 here after the moving of

corporate hq, but there are a lot of houses in the 400K-1M range that

are occupied by the 400 folks who will leave. Should be even better

real estate bargains than I got when I came home in 1998. Sure glad

I'm not sweating a job. I'm where I want to be.

Volvos run well in this climate and with today's weather it is

great to work on them too. So, you ask, why am I sitting here

typing at the computer when I could be out in the garage???

Good question!

I'm just hoping that HE doesn't take all this nice weather back out

of our hide in the next couple of months, although He would be

completely within His rights to do so! Meanwhile, y'all come and

buy some cheap gas!