Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has had a rough couple of weeks.

First, he had to fly to Cuba for cancer surgery. (You mean 11 years in power and countless billions in oil revenue, he hasn’t built a decent cancer hospital in Caracas? ¡Qué lástima!). Then, he lost his country’s retail foothold in the tiny yanqui paraíso we call Decatur.

All of which is an unnecessarily confusing way of saying that the Citgo on West Howard Avenue at Atlanta Avenue is changing its retail affiliation. Yesterday, a small construction crew began removing the station’s Citgo markings and replacing them with Valero decor.

Citgoing, going gone.

A better blogger might have walked across the street to ask the station’s owners why they’re leaving Citgo to become a Valero, but why risk getting hit by a car when I can settle for a stupid Hugo Chávez reference?

For all my talk about mass transit, I, like most people, still use a car on an almost daily basis.  And the Emory BP has been my go to station.  Close and relatively cheap compared to everything else in the vicinity.

Welp, it looks like I’m about to start paying more to fill up.  Maybe this is a sign that I should finally go diesel/bi0-diesel.

A reader sends in parts of a note that was just sent out to Emory staff…

“… the BP station in Emory Village has been sold and will close as of June 1, Emory University did NOT purchase it, … did not know what plans have been made for that property.”

Just wondering if you have any leads on who purchased this property and what the plans are?

Also, fyi, here is the remainder of the email detailing the Emory Village project and future plans for this summer and the rest of the year:

“…The water line project in Emory Village is complete. Georgia Power will now begin the process of burying overhead utilities, including electricity, cable TV, and telephone. This phase is expected to begin in June and extend into fall, perhaps through the end of the calendar year. The work is scheduled to take place mainly between 8pm and 5am, but will nonetheless be disruptive. DeKalb County has gone to bid for construction of the roundabout, with an anticipated start date in August, and a one year duration. So it looks like Emory Village will be a mess for another year…”