Tag Archives: Toyota

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Show us the money, governor

Give credit it is due to Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

He lured a massive corporate operation from California to Plano, a Dallas suburb. Perry also danged about $40 million in front of Toyota to make the move halfway across the country.

That’s 40 million public dollars, yours and mine.

However, the governor is acting as if the public doesn’t deserve to know the details of the transaction.

http://www.texasobserver.org/rick-perry-seeks-keep-details-toyota-incentives-secret/

He’s keeping the financial incentives secret.

Wait a minute, governor. That’s our money, isn’t it? I know you’re a man of means, but you didn’t write a personal check to the Toyota honchos, did you?

The governor’s office has gotten Freedom of Information requests from the Texas Observer and the Houston Chronicle. The idea is that since it’s public dough, the governor owes it to, um, the public to explain the incentive package that went to Toyota in the public’s name.

Perry’s office has declined the request, saying that revealing the details would reveal to competing states Texas’s economic strategy and enable them to sweeten deals that might lure prospective companies away from here.

The Observer’s Forrest Wilder reports: “Perry’s attorneys argue that releasing any information before the deal is finalized ‘would seriously disadvantage Texas by allowing other states to directly approach this entity with competing incentives.’”

Still, the governor isn’t messing with his own money. It’s ours and the governor should tell us what he’s doing with our money.

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New normal in gas prices no longer so new

The “new normal” in gasoline prices used to be cause for laughter around our house.

I remember when Mom or Dad would pull up to the service station pump and tell the attendant — yes, they still have attendants in my home state of Oregon — to put a “dollar’s worth of regular” into the tank. That would be about four gallons. Off we went and tooled around for the rest of the day, maybe a bit into the next one.

Those days are gone.

Now comes news that gas prices are declining. They’re at the lowest level since 2010. They’re heading downward into the new year.

Gas prices at lowest level since 2010

It’s not that we should be surprised that gasoline still costs about $3 a gallon in Amarillo, which is a bit lower than the rest of the state. My wife and I just returned from the Metroplex and were surprised to learn that drivers there are paying about 20 cents more per gallon than we are.

We’re all going to welcome the prospect of paying less for gas in the new year — and hopefully beyond.

Automakers are building more fuel-efficient cars, people are buying them (we’re driving a Toyota hybrid and loving the 45 miles per gallon were getting with that little buggy) and domestic energy producers are pulling a lot of oil out of the ground in newly discovered well fields way up yonder near the Canadian border.

I still have to chuckle at the notion that gasoline that dips below 3 bucks a gallon is now considered “cheap.”

My memory of the old days remains too fresh.

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Why is the land line so hard to cut?

Someone needs to answer a question that is bugging me silly.

Why is it so hard to pull the plug on a telephone land line when I really and truly don’t need it?

My wife and I recently purchased two “smart phones,” you know, the kind that do almost everything for you. It’d probably sing us to sleep at night if we had the right “app.” We’re trying to learn how these gadgets work. We’re figuring them out a little at a time as we go through our lives. Our sons are fluent in cell phone speak. One of them, who works as a computer tech, promises to give us a complete tutorial next time we see him; that “next time” is coming up very soon.

I have programmed my phone number into the 2010 Toyota Prius we recently purchased and have gotten the hang of answering the thing when it rings while I’m at the wheel. It’s rather fun, actually, to talk and drive at the same time without fumbling with the damn device.

But this land line issue is driving me batty.

We’ve had the same phone number for the nearly 19 years we’ve lived in Amarillo. We acquired it when we moved into our one-bedroom apartment in early 1995. We built our house in late 1996 and transferred the number over to the new digs as we settled in — three days before Christmas. It’s published in the phone book. Anyone who wants to call us can look up the number in the book — if they still have one — and dial it on their phone, land line or cellular. We had the same phone number in Beaumont as well in the three dwellings we occupied during our 11 years on the Gulf Coast.

I hate admitting this, but I have developed some kind of emotional attachment to having the land line available. It’s inexplicable, yes? It’s also nonsensical. I get all that. However, I cannot yet pull the plug.

Is there something wrong with me?

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Moving more deeply into 21st century

I am proud to announce that as of today I have taken yet another baby step farther into the 21st century.

My wife and I purchased a hybrid automobile, one of those vehicles that runs on electricity and gasoline. We intend to get incredible fuel mileage from this little 2010 Toyota Prius. We’ll need to save our pennies, given that our beastly 3/4-ton Dodge Ram pickup — which we have nicknamed Big Jake — will be consuming plenty of fuel as we haul our fifth wheel travel vehicle hither and yon.

But that’s not the best part of my 21st-century journey. Oh, no. The cool thing I did today was get my cell phone programmed into this little buggy so that I can answer the damn thing while I’m driving my car.

It’s pretty simple. Phone rings, I hit the little button on the steering wheel with the picture of the phone receiver off the phone; then I talk. When the conversation is over, I hit the button below the first one and hang up; that button has a picture of a phone with the receiver sitting on it. No sweat, no strain.

Plus, I won’t be breaking the law if I try to fumble for my cell phone while driving the car. You see, Amarillo joined other cities in banning the use of hand held cell phones and other telecommunications gadgets while you’re driving a motor vehicle. I don’t know precisely how the Amarillo Police Department is enforcing this new rule, as I haven’t seen a cop pull a motorist over who’s been gabbing or texting while driving.

Whatever. No one will catch me breaking the law.

I’m proud of myself for continuing this journey into contemporary society. If they install technology, though, that allows drivers to text while driving, I’m afraid my head will explode.