Off topic, but ever noticed...

[Ty Marcucci]

About twice a day to six times a week, Mary and I drive past some new construction,  to wit: a new gas station.  Each time we notice progress, but no one working. Six or so men, orange shirts, hard hats, just standing there. Yet progress is made. We are convinced they see us coming and some one shouts, "here comes Ty and Mary, stand still". Then as we drive off, they go back to work. Same thing on any ten mile stretch of road construction we seem to go through on our way to El Dorado or Baton Rouge.. No one any where, except for the drugged out looking guy or gal, stringy hair, two day whiskers, holding that stop/slow sign.  Or is it just us???

[944_Jim]

Too funny! I've been watching as new gas stations pop up in our tiny town. We have more gas stations than churches...and that is saying something in our Bible Belt town (population for the whole county almost 58k, 23k in the city).
I just have to wonder how much profit is in gas as some states (Cali...cough, cough) are getting ready to push IC (engines) out of their environment. Is somebody lying to us?

[Dave Hull]

For those folks who are frustrated with continual road repairs I say--"better some delays than no repairs and giant potholes."  And if there are five guys in a crew and only two are using the shovels while three are standing there watching I always ask myself if I could shovel gravel continuously for an 8 hour shift." No. No one can. So a 40% duty cycle starts to look a lot more reasonable.

Better make sure you can fund road repairs with something other than gas taxes before you abolish IC engines in vehicles. Otherwise you end up in the same place as the solar home stampede--where the argument goes something like this: "The solar cells on MY house are sufficient to MY needs--in fact I feed the grid, so why should I pay anything for grid/infrastructure?" Until something goes wrong...and they demand service from the utilities because it is unfair to force people to go without electricity....

I believe the current gasoline taxes in California are around $.54 per gallon. Back around 2018 I saw an article that a typical gas station made about $.02 per gallon on fuel sales in California, if that answers a portion of your questions.

[Dan Berry]

A work crew pulled up to a job site.
Supervisor looked around and said  "Well, shewt. There's six of you and we only have five shovels. "
He points and says " Smith! You just stand around and do nothing for a while."

Smith looks around and says " Like hell. Union contract says I get a shovel to lean on."

[Dave Harmon]

A work crew pulled up to a job site.
Supervisor looked around and said  "Well, shewt. There's six of you and we only have five shovels. "
He points and says " Smith! You just stand around and do nothing for a while."

Smith looks around and says " Like hell. Union contract says I get a shovel to lean on."

That's right Dan......
Not long ago I went past a certain intersection and there was 5 guys doing something down in a huge hole.
There was another guy holding a flag and leaning on a shovel...
Several months later I went by the same intersection and the flag was gone off it's stick and the skeleton was holding on to the shovel for dear life!! 
And there was a VW down in the hole.....

[john e. holliday]

Nothing like having relatives or friends working for a utility or construction crew.  I asked why they have a hlaf dozen guys at a site and only 4 of them are working.   Answer was there is only so much room in the area and they take turns in the area/hole.  Also some one has to keep watch that nobody gets hurt or the boss shows up.

[John Carrodus]

It is comforting to know things are the same for you guys as it is here in Auckland NZ. Last year a roading crew turned up in our 600m long street. A machine with one driver ripped up the old seal while a truck ran along behind or beside filling up with all the rubble. One guy in fluro at each end of the street with a walky talky and a stop/go sign. A couple of engineers watched from the side with measuring tapes and clipboads for 30 mins then drove off (for lunch ?) and retuned and hour or so later. One obsever / worker assisted the truck while the other assisted the seal remover driver. They both had shovels and would poke at the odd bit of rubble a couple of times every hour or so. This was a team of 8- only 2 did the real work.
A few days later a cast of thousands turned up to reseal the street. Honestly it was bigger than Ben Hur. I think they may be the same jokers who cone off a couple of lanes on major roads and expressways outa town on holiday weekends for no apparent reason other than to @#$% everyone off.