I just heard the forecast for the coming winter. It seems that we are in a 10 year cycle of El Nino proportions. It was 10 years ago this year that we had one of our worst winters ever here on the east coast. Heavy snow brought down power lines and record cold temperatures kept the line crews from working more than a few hours at a time. Most of our power lines are relatively new now, but another winter like that one coulod spell disaster again this winter. It would certainly drive fuel prices up drastically and cause even further burden on the fixed income and home bound elderly, as well. I don't know if they can predict these things accurately or not, but they claim the ocean currents are behaving like they did when El Nino hit us 10 years ago. I know a lot of our seasons run in cycles of 7 or more, so it could be true. Be prepared, whatever happens. rockhound