Sneak preview

Here is a sneak preview of our 2009 Christmas Newsletter.

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Drat – more snow is here

Our great streak of good weather has come to an end.  Snow will be here tonight as was Thanksgiving morning.  Tomorrow prospects are not much greater.  I put the truck in the building in anticipation of the liquid and then solid event.  There were no church services tonight so I worked on the Christmas 2009 Newsletter and went to Auburn with sister Ann to Cracker Barrel – they have a great trout plate for about $7.  It was raining then.

I do not expect as much snow as the included scene but then again anything can happen.  Tomorrow I work on fixing the wind sock rotating bearing which failed and was stuck in a fixed westerly direction.

Reflection

I tried to make a Quick Cam picture showing the reflections off the lake tonight – it is a still as glass.  The web cam is not too good and it showed only indistinct images of what I am seeing right now.  Beautiful..

I started watching SG-1episode 7 and ended about 2230 on heaven knows what episode.  I just paused the Hulu desktop and we will see if it waits until tomorrow.  I am learning my way around the Hulu DT and while it is not intuitive it is usable and takes some getting used to.  The Help screens are to too useful.  So far it seems as if it does not remember the settings of the previous session and start at that point – again maybe I am missing something.  One thing it does is nice – once you start a series it continues on to the next in sequence automatically and without interruption except to load and the inevitable commercials.  The commercials appear to be a little louder that the video audio levels… Same as TV – Too bad.

What a day!

Today was just beautiful and warm too.  I did a lot of little things, one of which, was trying to locate a sealed bearing for the wind sock.  I have a wind sock down by the beach that I use to determine wind direction and for just the plain enjoyment in seeing movement down there.  Previously, I used a bearing from an old hard drive but it froze up almost immediately – did not even last two weeks.  I ordered a sealed bearing from NAPA today and it will be in on Monday.  As I write this, I just finished adding a little aluminium vane to help keep it pointing into the wind.  The new bearing will probably have more friction to overcome so the extra vane may help point it better.  We shall see.

We went to Menard’s today.  As usual there were two agenda’s and mine was to find the Christmas present that I wanted for myself.  I found one and it is only $7 so perhaps I will get it.  Of course SAM has a different agenda and that is to replace the bathroom counter in the downstairs apartment.  I must admit it is getting a bit long in the tooth and is a yucky blue 1970’s countertop.  The cabinet is ok but the top definitely dates the room.  This will probably be a $500 changeout which is not too bad but I dread changing the  shutoff valves.  Installing the two new shutoff’s will be a repeat of the apartment sink fiasco.  At least I have the RTV Blue on hand this time.

SAM found a integrated countertop / sink arrangement at Menard’s which is sort of off white with a tinge of grey.  If it matches the color already down there that will be great.  If not then I guess a room redecorating is in order.  The biggest problem I see is the bathroom mirror.  The silver on the present mirror is coming off near the edges so we need a 48″x40″ mirror and I do not know if these are a standard size.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Most of the immediate relatives attended and our crowd numbered about 17.  All the preparation paid off and things went very smoothly.  Almost everyone was over stuffed except me and I was suffering from the pizza last night when Garret was here.  All too soon the dinner was over and the Dayton clan had to rush off – black Friday shopping takes preparation.

Everyone disappeared except Sam, DJ and I but later they Ann & Lee came back with the Armey grandkids.  We had a good time and played with leggo’s and watched Hulu.  DJ was zonked out for the count and missed almost everything.  Too bad.  Marc called but the connection was bad.  He was going to send an audio but my phone does not receive web stuff.  It is a web 1 phone only and my provider does not support web 2.

Cleaning for Thanksgiving

Spent the whole day tidying up and cleaning the garage and organizing the out building.  The Thanksgiving crowd may be large enough to spill over into the garage so I did some cleaning and organizing out there too.  I also brought up the 4’x4′ plywood shelf that Dad had in the hardware.  That will be our garage table sitting on the saw horses.  If we need extra space then I will bring in the glass top deck table.  We will be ready for the dinner.

Rain is on the way and weather does not look too good for the next several days and I am glad we have the leaves pretty much wrapped up for the year.  Next is Christmas.  I am working on the Christmas letter but the flow has not started yet.  We actually did not do too much this year.

EAA Oshkosh 2009

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKU0uQki5Dc&feature=player_embedded

Proposal: the 28th Ammendment

We should have a 28th ammendment to the constitution.

28th Ammendment: 

Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators or Representatives, and Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States .

Related articles

• Time for a 28th Amendment (thepetitionsite.com)
• GOP senators push for term limits (cnn.com)

Burn Paper & Oil Change

Up early this morning to get the car to Toon Up for an oil change.  I returned home and drilled 1/2″ holes in the bottom of the new burn barrel and some on the sides.  This should let any liquid out and air in during the burning process.  I installed the barrel on top of three half cement blocks, dumped in some paper and started the fire.  Guess what?  It burned.  We really do not have that much scrap paper to burn because we recycle most paper so maybe this is sort of a folly but we shall see.  Isn’t life exciting?

55 gallon drum

Went to Rural King before church tonight and bought a 55 gallon full metal drum.  The intent is to punch a bunch of holes in it tomorrow and to use it as a burn barrel to burn only paper products (no plastics allowed).  Ok, I know it is not exactly green but do I want to use all the fuel to truck it to a landfill that will allow all decaying matter to slowly seep into the aquifer?  In the long run I think it will save energy while polluting  just a smidge.  To the USA energy is more important than going on a vendetta against burners that live in the far country environment.

We canceled our garbage service 6 months ago and have instituted a rigorous recycling program that includes no special trips to the recyclers – we include this on our weekly shopping trip and to special events like buying a burn barrel.  The result is about 3 -4 shopping size plastic bags that leave the premises each week: That includes glass which the recyclers will not take.  We were pretty impressed with this.  The burn barrel will “take it up a notch”.

Remember that all the new stuff, like the energy efficient light bulbs, contains mercury and other bad contaminants.  Recycling those items to the county recycling agent is a special trip and does not figure into our energy equation but we try to do these trips in an energy efficient manner.

I have two mercury vapor bulbs, many Ni Cad & Lithium batteries that I take to the special place.  The new efficient electric light bulbs will take a special place to get rid of them & I cannot understand the government stance on the subject.  They list all incandescent bulbs as bad but we have a totally electric heat situation and in the winter any light that is on is 95+% efficient in generating heat.  In the summer, we are on DST so the incandescent lights generate heat for only a couple of hours at most.  Be that as it may, the lights we leave on most of the time are the efficient type that contain mercury and cast a greenish sort of glow ( OK, this is not fair) that makes my skin look jaundice.

CWM perfected & related articles

• What “green collaboration” might mean in practice (jamesfallows.theatlantic.com)
• Oil Generator Recycles Plastic Into Fuel (takepart.com)
• A Brief History Of the Light Bulb (time.com)
• Recycled Russian bombs supplying US nuclear power (tech.bl0x.info)
• E-Recycle: Where loads of electronic waste wind up (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Following Trash on Its Journey Through the Waste Disposal System (huffingtonpost.com)
• Lighting: Chandeliers, Blazing With Recyclables (nytimes.com)
• Closing the Waste Management Loop: Creating Fuel From Landfill Gas (treehugger.com)
• The Death of the Incandescent Light Bulb (blogs.abcnews.com)
• Study says LEDs are about as efficient as compact fluorescents, all things considered (engadget.com)