I took a rare ride up the highway at lunchtime. Motoring northward, I noticed that the price for regular gasoline had fallen below $3 per gallon. The lowest prices? $2.87 for regular, $3.05 for premium. This gave me a few hours of hope that we’ve seen the worst. But that hope was short-lived. Tonight, CNN reported that gas could top $5 per gallon should Hurricane Rita fully impact the Texas refineries. Holy cow. So why was I headed up the highway?

To get the skinny on fireplace inserts.

While paying those exorbitant prices for gasoline might seem bad right now, it’ll be heating oil that we’ll be griping about in a few months. The way I see it, the price of heating oil stands to be $3 or more per gallon this winter, at best. At a grand a pop, a full tank of heating oil will be a luxury.

I need an alternative source of heat for ranchero indebto. While our conventional fireplace adds ambiance to the living room, it’s an overall an energy-loser. Most of the heat just goes up the chimney. A highly-efficient catalytic fireplace insert has the potential to put a substantial dent in our winter heating costs. I learned a little bit more about fireplace inserts at the fireplace store, but was disappointed to see that there weren’t any models on display.

Seeing a fireplace insert in a printed color brochure (or on the Internet) is one thing. Seeing the actual fireplace insert — in its cast iron glory — in person, is something else, entirely. Needless to say, I’ll be visiting another fireplace store this week.

And here’s to hoping that Rita takes a big swing towards less populated areas and away from the refineries …

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