Working Four Days a Week

With the price of oil so low (as evidenced by low gasoline prices), the oil and gas industry is really slowing down. There's not a lot of work at the moment for Engineering Consulting firms like mine. So I volunteered to go down to 80% time (32 hours a week). I miss out on some pay, but keep all the other benefits, and I get an additional day off per week.

This whole plan happened in less than a week, but Brianna and I are actually pretty pleased about it. Lincoln is smiling and giggling these days, and just about ready to roll over, so it's a great time to get to spend more hours with him.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is my first day off. Brianna is working from home tomorrow, so Link and I can't get up to anything too crazy (aslo: my toe still hurts), but I do have a list of things lined up to tackle already. Should be an interesting day!

Gas Prices

I'm tempted to bury a big tank in the back yard and stock up on gasoline while it's cheap. But I suspect prices will stay well under $3/gallon throughout 2015. Too many oil-producing countries are desperate enough for cash that they have to sell at any price, rather than slow production.

I don't know what the long-term effects of this will be. It's like a free cost-of-living decrease for everyone with a car, but these low prices are probably going to retard growth of renewable energy sources, and will definitely stop investment by oil companies.

Maybe it's the perfect time to impose a high gasoline tax? People have gotten accustomed to $3+/gallon prices at this point, and lord knows our road and bridge infrastructure could use a cash infusion.


***Update, a week later***