Okay, so here’s one I’ve never been able to understand and finally got around to pursuing.  If you drive (or at least if you’re the one filling the tank!), this topic is near and dear to you. Hopefully, this quick and dirty explanation will at least give you a framework for understanding what is happening — as for motives, well, I’ll reserve judgement on that front!

Over and over again, we see a news story indicating a rise in crude oil prices and it seems (heck, seems nothing, this happens!!) like your fill up station down the block jumps their prices.  This has always absolutely baffled me — and doubly so since we never see the reciprocal effect when the price of crude goes down (and least not in such a timely manner).

So, here’s the deal as I understand it (though I’ll readily confess that veering into economics territory is not exactly my strong suit…).  Franchised stations do their current pricing based on the futures market rather than physical inventory.  So in very layman terms, when crude goes up, sometime in the not too distant future, the stock physically on hand at the station will have cost more when delivered.  And you know, I suppose I could live with that if it went down as far and as fast when the futures market points that way. Guess that one will need to just stay on the wish list.

Here’s the analogy .. we know that grocery prices will go up as fuel costs go up.  Note .. “will” go up.  I still haven’t seen the folks down at the Piggly Wiggly repricing the lettuce an hour after that latest price on a barrel of crude is announced.

The fix? Well, not a fix, but here’s a tip that sometimes pays off.  The truly independent stations tend not to operate like this. The pump price is based on the price they paid on whatever is in their storage tanks.  While not a universal rule, probably worth knowing who the independent local folks are .. they might just have a real deal for you when the big guys are running up their prices.

Now we all just know seven is a lucky number (although it seems in China, the number is anything but). Something to do with it being the most common total you can get with a pair of dice or any other of dozens of quite plausible though likely not the real deal answers. Myself, I’m a 13 guy.. turned 13 on Friday the 13th. But seven .. hmmm.. doesn’t do much for me. But hey, everyone’s mileage can vary, eh?

So.. what of this thing called the Seven Year Itch … if seven is so lucky, how did it get mixed up with a violation of the bonds of marriage? Turns out, the origin is not about something that happens “after” seven years at, but rather an itchy skin condition that “lasted seven years”. Since the mid 1800s, at least in the US, the treatment of said condition is trivial, but the moniker lives on … funny things we do with words!

Well, except one.

Last week, I had the enormous joy of presenting the core bible lesson amongst a wonderful array of activities to 80 kids and a plethora of middle and high school age volunteers are our annual Vacation Bible School.  During the final day’s lesson on Pentecost, it occurred to me that there was question that I’d wondered about very often, but never really knew the answer.

Monday through Thursday we spent in the Gospels, calling this little band of followers “disciples”. Come Friday, suddenly we’re called these same guys “apostles”. So what gives.. are they disciples or apostles. The question occurred to be and I had to admit to myself that I didn’t actually know this very simple and fundamental thing.

One of my teen helpers can to the rescue and of course now that I had something of an answer, I had to dig a little. Turns out, the answer is as simple as the definitions of the words themselves.

So, for the three or four folks out there who don’t already know, heres the deal. Disciple is a word for “student”, while Apostle translates roughly to “one who is sent”.  Duh .. sometimes the things I don’t know really make me wonder!!  For those who number themselves among the body of Christianity, disciple before the Ascension, apostle after.  Couldn’t be simpler.  And I don’t even think I had to kick something out of my brain to make room for that!!