Went down to the canal today, noticed that the oil tankers seem to come less and less. When they do they are sitting way higher in the water than usual. I know a guy who works at the power plant and he says they have been burning mostly natural gas, witch is a change for them. They usually burn oil. My “guy on the inside” says that its only a matter of time before gas gets too expensive. I guess Venezuela knew what they were doing when they “nationalized” there natural gas supplies earlier this year. Of cource the OPEC nations saw this coming. The plant can’t burn coal, so who knows what the cape will do when they run out of natural gas.

The power supply on Cape Cod is never good even at the best of times, but we have never experienced something like this. We have been informed that there will be mandatory brown-outs every day from noon until 1pm. I wonder what will happen when the winter comes. For now its not so bad, spring is here, and I am not sure if its just in my head but the air seems to be a little cleaner since they stopped burning so much oil down at the plant.

It’s getting harder and harder to fill up my gas tank on the meager salary I make. With gas pushing $5 here it costs me almost $80 dollars to fill up my tank. I drive a 2001 Honda accord so its not like it’s a gas guzzler. I have always loved ridding my bike, and now I see a lot more people following me down the bike trail. Seems I am not the only one having a hard time filling up the tank. What has really hurt the most is the lack of fresh produce at the store. Or I should say the lack of any produce I can afford at the store. 5 dollars an orange, no thanks. I guess this is what we get for not growing any local produce.

If there was a plus side to all of this it is the that people are starting to talk more about conservation. I hear less and less people speaking out against the proposed Cape Wind project, seems they are much more in favor of renewable energy now that it is costing them $125 to fill up the Hummer every week. Guess the view doesn’t matter if you can’t afford to drive to your summer home.

I wonder if the high price of gas will keep the summer tourists away this year. Another hidden benefit to the oil shortage? Who knows. Anyway that’s the report from the Cape. I will be sure to keep you all up to date.

**Wondering what this is all about, its my entry for World Without Oil, an online “game” where people talk about the “oil shortage of 2007.” Its a way for people to discuss what will happen some day, the end of oil. Why should we wait till it happens to talk about. The game works something like this. First you sign up. Then you

1: CREATE SOMETHING

We want your personal story of a world without oil. Use online text, photos, videos, audio or art to tell the world what it’s like for you and your family, co-workers and friends to be immersed in such a sudden, forced upheaval. What is hard for you? How are you coping? Give us some evidence of your life inside the oil shock.

From everyday details to major life drama, your unique experience is an important part of the big picture. So tell us about the changes you’re seeing in your family life, your social life, your work life, or your love life. Show us the strange things happening on your block, or in your school, or in your office, or in your neighborhood, as everyone tries to cope with the energy shortage and its unforeseen ripple effects.

You might want to describe how the crisis is impacting your basic routines, for better or for worse: where you go, who you see, what you eat, wear, and play. Or maybe you want to share original ideas for cutting back on energy consumption, or tips for dealing with the crisis. Maybe you just want to vent about the changes taking place. Be creative!

Whatever you’re thinking, feeling or experiencing in a world without oil — share it. (But remember we are a kid-friendly site!)

2: TELL THE WORLD

People all across the country are working together to understand and document this crisis. Help others find your story by tagging your story “worldwithoutoil.” (What’s a tag?)

A tag is a keyword or key phrase that you attach to online stories, to make it easier for other people to find. Many websites help you use tags to classify your story. For example, if you make a video about the new “car pool with a stranger” stops in Los Angeles, you might upload it to YouTube and tag it “Los Angeles”, “carpool”, and of course “worldwithoutoil”. If you want to see other videos like yours, you could search for the tags “carpool” and “worldwithoutoil” on YouTube. For our site, you can use the “tag cloud” at the bottom of the page (or as Gracesmom calls it, the “word mess”).

If you don’t know how to add a tag to a blog post or website, just make sure to type the phrase “worldwithoutoil” somewhere in the body of your text. It will then show up in a Web search for “worldwithoutoil” by Google and other search engines (doesn’t happen immediately, however). If you link “worldwithoutoil” to the URL http://www.worldwithoutoil.org, that helps it show up faster!

3: TELL US

We want to show off the most interesting, dramatic, and original World Without Oil stories. So use the form above to point us to the URL of your story. We’ll look it over and add a link to it, so that everyone coming to World Without Oil can easily see your story. And maybe we’ll give it one of our coveted Your Story awards! How cool is that?

You share your blog entries, audio stories, images, etc with the world. The site has some compelling reading, with people building off of others stories continuing the tale. What really made me happy was the fact that so many of the stories seem to include a hopeful message. It makes you feel like people might even be able to get along in this crazy world. Want in on the fun, start here.