Actually, he arrived with Mrs. Claus this afternoon. In case you missed it...

The sun came out mid morning on Sunday and bathed the turning basin in its gentle, late fall light.

I walked around the turning basin and shot these photos. Do you know what those round, brown things are or where they are?

It's easy to forget there is a large piece of undeveloped land very close to the heart of downtown. At least for now, you can find reminders of Petaluma-days gone by rusting away on the lot.

Petaluma Blvd. takes on a different look and feel early on a misty, Sunday morning. It is usually quiet on a Sunday morning but misty silence is a bit different. The fog and mist deaden sound; the world takes a step closer to silence.

The wailing started in April, always accompanied by the same prayer; save us from $4 a gallon gasoline. Before summer began the wail had turned into weeping and gnashing of teeth as $4 gas seemed like the good ol' days. Deliver us from high-priced oil we cried to the government; set your drivers free!

In mid June, if someone had told us we'd be flirting with gas priced under $2 before Thanksgiving, we would have wondered what fantasy world they live in; yet that's what has happened. What seemed like an impossible dream at the beginning of summer, affordable gas, is now a reality.

Just five months ago all we wanted was cheaper gas. Now that we have cheaper gas, why is no one celebrating? The price of a gallon of gas fell six cents overnight at my corner station and then went down another four cents after lunch. Prices are going down faster than they went up and dropping more too.

Unfortunately the price of deliverance has been steep. We have traded high-priced gas for an economy in the tank and one that may not have hit bottom yet. I wonder how many people would gladly pay $5 per gallon if paying that price would get the economy going again.

We got what we asked for didn't we? Now what?

A brief timeline of rising gasoline prices, summer 2008