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Archive for September, 2012

I applied for my TWIC card renewal last week to take advantage of the “extended expiration date” price hoping that the bloody thing will die a quiet  and ignoble death before I have to renew it AGAIN.  Overall a very simple procedure.  I didn’t have to drive anywhere and I paid with my credit card.

I’m happy to report I have already received  my notice that the card is ready, AND in less than a week.  I pick it up in a couple of days.  Nice.

Call the TWIC Center at 1‐866‐347‐8942, Mon–Fri, 8AM to 10PM Eastern, hang on the phone for what feels like a week and a half and you’ll finally get hold of a really nice person who will actually do something for you!

I’m including the notice that was originally on the TWIC site (of course their site’s link is broken so I found it elsewhere).  You’re welcome.   TWIC Expiration Policy Bulletin 06-14-2012 530pm hg (2)

 

As a followup to this little note;  After being notified by email that my new EED TWIC was ready to be picked up, I made my appointment in Elizabeth, N.J. on the TSA website.  I showed up early, provided a fresh index fingerprint and pin, and I was out of the building in less than 15 minutes.  Just like that, $60.00 and three more years added to my first expiration date.

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So far, September has been kinda quiet.  Except of course for the howling we can hear from folks trying to fill up their cars for an early leaf peeping tour at over $4.50 a gallon for gas (Still happy about that Land Rover’s mileage?).  There’s a good reason why the prices are spiking right now.  The suppliers are slowing their refining capacity for gasoline and ramping up their heating oil production to meet this winter’s anticipated demand.  It’s their annual changeover kids!

Of course what that means to you and me is that we wait for gasoline to be made, sometimes for days.  We end up sitting waiting for the product to become available.  High demand, low supply….see what’s happening here?  It’s not that they don’t have the means to make it, it’s that they aren’t making enough of it.  Tugs and barges are lined up like Carter era motorists waiting for their turn at the pump.  It’s not some evil plot, the changeover happens every year about this time.  The difference is this year the prices are so freakin’ high YOU noticed.

So hang in there kids, the prices will come down.  Not as much as you’d like, but they will come down.  So, in order to ease the blow I’ve posted some photos of my local hangout here in Bay Ridge Anchorage.  I know, not much comfort there but I didn’t tell you to buy that 12mpg SUV did I?

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