Keep your tires inflated !

[angus]

the Republican National Committee is sending tire gauges labeled "Barack Obama's Energy Plan" to Washington reporters.

LOL.  Clever, though, you gotta admit.  Maybe that explains the bump in McCain's polling.

I bought my first six-pack of CFL bulbs at Wal-Mart last week.  10 watts they were.  The garage had six one hundred-watt incandescent bulbs when we moved in, and I just couldn't stand the thought of it, and replaced them.  So I replaced six hundred watts with sixty.  It's slightly dimmer, and there's the slightest pause when you flick the switch--I'm told that the slight pause will became a long, frustrating one around mid-January, when it's minus twenty degrees Fahrenheit.  I'll cross that bridge when I come to it--but I like them so far.  I also bought my first lawn mower last week.  I'm 41 and I've never owned a lawn mower till last week.  It's electric.  Bought it on Amazon.com.  Free delivery.  I did a little calculation comparing the one I ended up buying to a comparably-priced combustion mower, assuming 7c per kW-hr and 4 dollar gas, and it turned out to be much, much cheaper to do the electric.  The 100-foot cord is a bit of a drag.  But it's orange, and so I managed not to run over it yet.  I'm sure I will at some point.  ZAP!  Won't need to do that twice.  And we're still recycling all my booze bottles and Coca-cola cans.  Also, I'm bringing a bag to the supermarket nowadays and minimizing the single-use plastic bags.  And of course I still cycle to work except when it rains or snows.  Most importantly, I'm down to two pulls, three squares per pull, in the toilet.  No kidding.  That's six squares per movement.  Can't beat Cheryl Crow yet, but I'm getting there. 

[angus]

...The garage had six one hundred-watt incandescent bulbs when we moved in, and I just couldn't stand the thought of it, and replaced them.  So I replaced six hundred watts with sixty.  It's slightly dimmer, and there's the slightest pause when you flick the switch--I'm told that the slight pause will became a long, frustrating one around mid-January, when it's minus twenty degrees Fahrenheit.

Damn, that's an awful shame, angus.  You should never discard the old things which are either already unavailable or likely to be outlawed soon.  You'll regret it living with those inferior bulbs.  Incandescent always give a superior light.

not discarded.  merely placed into a tupperware bowl in a cabinet above the dryer.  I'm a packrat, and rarely throw anything out.  Especially illegal stuff.  I still have a 500-mL bottle of methylamine stashed away.  You never know.  But you're right about the old stuff.  One day when I was living in Columbus the maintenance guy came to the apartment to install a fire extinguisher.  Apparently some new city policy required it.  As he was placing it on the wall in a conspicuous and tasteless arrangement apparently also required by the city, the screw he was power-tooling into the wall found its way to the Romex cable leading from the AC thermostat.  The lights flickered and the unit shut down immediately.  This sort of ineptitude I had come to expect as I had lived in Columbus over a year at that point.  Lucky he wasn't killed.  Anyway, he noticed that we had one of the "old" thermostats on the wall.  The tan, round kind.  The kind that always work.  The kind that you set at 72 and it stays between 71.5 and 72.5.  Very precise and very accurate.  Well, that's one of them old'uns, idn't it?  y'all'r gunna need a new one.  Wait rightcheer a minute and I'll get Tyrone to fetch y'all a new 'un.  Whar's that walkietalkie?  Thar it is.   Pretty soon we have a very pretty white digital thermostat.  Well, it looks perty, don't it?  Ah thank that'un oughtta work much better for ya.  The thermostat now matched the paint and had a remote sensor and did everything except control the temperature.  You could set it at 72 and it'd guarantee a temperature of anywhere between 65 and 80.  Very frustrating that was.  If it ain't broke don't fix it I said to the old man next time I saw him.

Verily, yeah, according to the packaging, the luminous intensity of the bulbs that I installed were comparable to a 40-watt bulb.  In fact, it seems that all the GE CFL bulbs, at least, have a  light density of about 25% of the GE incandescent bulbs.  I generally replace 100-watt  bulbs with 40-watt bulbs in the apartments I have lived in.  As they burn out.  Now I'll just replace the 100W bulbs with 10W CFL ones in my new house. 

The thing is, China will be getting all the oil just outside US waters because we're too stupid to do it.  Or have convinced ourselves it'll wreck the environment.  And France supplies the majority of its electrical power with nuclear using technology developed right here in the USA, while we don't because we have convinced ourselves that storage of waste material is impossible.  As is the case with most homeless drug addicts, our situation can be traced to poor decisions.  We have made our own collective bed, so it's fitting that we should have to sleep in it.  I do think Obama is right that we should try to use less, but I am also glad Obama has changed his tune about offsore drilling.  Now, someone needs to school the congress about the efficacy of allowing US power companies to build nukyular reactors, and someone needs to convince the yuppies and planned suburban housing developers that those big windmills aren't so ugly after all.  There's this cracker billionaire named Pickens doing commercials all the time about promoting alternative fuels--when he's not swiftboating the competition, that is.  He says we should start with wind and natural gas, but not be afraid to go nukyular eventually.  I think he's right.

[angus]

The thing is, China will be getting all the oil just outside US waters because we're too stupid to do it.  Or have convinced ourselves it'll wreck the environment.  And France supplies the majority of its electrical power with nuclear using technology developed right here in the USA, while we don't because we have convinced ourselves that storage of waste material is impossible.  As is the case with most homeless drug addicts, our situation can be traced to poor decisions.  We have made our own collective bed, so it's fitting that we should have to sleep in it.  I do think Obama is right that we should try to use less, but I am also glad Obama has changed his tune about offsore drilling.  Now, someone needs to school the congress about the efficacy of allowing US power companies to build nukyular reactors, and someone needs to convince the yuppies and planned suburban housing developers that those big windmills aren't so ugly after all.  There's this cracker billionaire named Pickens doing commercials all the time about promoting alternative fuels--when he's not swiftboating the competition, that is.  He says we should start with wind and natural gas, but not be afraid to go nukyular eventually.  I think he's right.

Come on, that's all just a bunch of silly right-wing talking points, angus.  China will 'Get all the oil'?  What oil?  I think the point is there's precious little left to get.  No, oil's passe, alas, convenient as it has been.  As for nuclear sure, but there's no need as we have plenty of coal for now (we have no electrical power problems, just transport problems).  So really there's no solution for the problem we have, just Republicans' suggestions of solutions which don't effect the problem but which at least create profits for narrow interest groups.

Though I disagree with your claim that we have no electrical power problems, I do agree that our transport problem is more immediate, and I have often posted of the need to invest in more public transit infrastructure.  My wife and I have also begun to buy locally-produced meat and vegetables, when possible.  Every thursday, in fact, we meet with a farmer who supplies our eggs and other vegetables.  We do drive to that meeting, but it is only once a week and only a few miles away.  I encourage others to buy locally-produced goods as well, and to considering walking and cycling to work.

Our electrical problem is related to the fact that our reliance on fossil fuels for electricity is growing, precisely because you and others do not see the problem.  Coal produces carbon dioxide as well, more even than the combustion of other fossil fuels, so if you're considering alternative energy it seems that nuclear power and wind and solar energy are safer alternatives than coal. 

And, yes, many petroleum engineers claim that we are near the end of cheap oil, and I don't dispute that, but given our current reliance on oil and the effect on the global economy when Americans see their fuel prices increase, Obama's new position on drilling makes sense to me.  Whether he came by the position due to political expedience or because of some epiphany makes little difference to me.  We are entering an adjustment period, or are about to, and during that period, if someone's going to have whatever oil exists, I'd rather it be US companies than the Chinese, because it will likely be done with greater environmental oversight and have a more positive effect on the US if the Americans explore and recover the oil than if the Chinese do it.

[angus]

angus, isn't the market for world oil global? I mean, the US or China or Azerbaijan could be drilling all the oil in the world, but the price would still be about the same for everyone. You may be right about the environmental oversight, but then again, the country within whose territorial waters the oil is being drilled should have that ultimate regulatory authority.

Price Theory is fine on paper, but it doesn't always work.  Mostly it's the assumption of unfettered access to everything by everyone I suppose.  For example, prior to March 2003 automotive fuel cost about 33.5 dinars per liter (4 cents US per US gallon, roughly).  Some stuff happened, then later, after the palace lay in ruins and the museum was looted, the gas was about six times that much.  So you had western reporters reporting that all the cabbies were bitching about 25 cent per gallon gasoline.  Now, I"m sure I haven't paid 25 cents for a gallon of gasoline in my life.  I can remember the upper fifties if I think about it.  Have some fuzzy mental image of a sign saying 569, with the nine being really small.  Never understood the little nine.  Still don't.  Anyway, but that's the price of auto fuel.  You were talking about the price of oil.  The price of a certain type of oil, quoted in US dollars per 42-gallon whiskey barrel may be the same for everyone.  Funny everyone still quotes oil in US dollars per 42-gallons.  The staying power of the Pennsylvania robber-barons is pretty impressive.  West Texas intermediate crude is 128 per barrel or whatever.  That's market driven.  But you can't say for sure how the discover of a major field off the coast would affect that, and there's no reason to think that the cost would be the same no matter what company does it.  The US has tested technology for this, others may not.  Then again, no matter the local authority, the companies may be pressured into behaving differently regarding the local ecology if they're headquartered in a place where people are free to make big banners and march outside your offices than if you're in a place where the government will bring tanks and run folks over if they try to march with signs.  And that probably also affect the price.   But these are technical details that do not necessarily matter.  I simply stated that much of our problem is our own fault.  But we seem to be reacting to it.  Obama has come around.  Good for him.  As you know I generally favor him, but we disagree on a few key issues.  His intransigence is probably not as great as mine.  I'm very stubborn.  So it'll have to be him to change.  Glad to see it coming.  I also can follow advice.  I did buy a gauge about a week ago.  fifty cents.  It was from the Salvation Army Thrift Store.  Seems to work well.  Turned out my car tires were sitting at about 24 psi.  Pretty low.  Well, my wife's car tires.  So I aired them up to 35 psi.  I should also do my car, but honestly a tank of gas will last four months in my car.  I drive so rarely.  So I'm in no hurry to pull it out of the driveway just to drive to an air compressor.  Seems more wasteful than not driving it at all.  Anyway, my car has michelins.  And fairly new ones at that.  And they still look good and tight.  So I'm not bending over for it.  Screw it.

[angus]

"Tires are the Rodney Dangerfield of the automotive world.  Even though they're the only component of the car that actually touches the pavement, they get no respect.  Tire maintenance key to safety, fuel economy."   
    --NASCAR press release entitled "Tire maintenance key to safety, fuel economy", 2006.

[angus]

the Republican National Committee is sending tire gauges labeled "Barack Obama's Energy Plan" to Washington reporters.

LOL.  Clever, though, you gotta admit.  Maybe that explains the bump in McCain's polling.

I bought my first six-pack of CFL bulbs at Wal-Mart last week.  10 watts they were.  The garage had six one hundred-watt incandescent bulbs when we moved in, and I just couldn't stand the thought of it, and replaced them.  So I replaced six hundred watts with sixty.  It's slightly dimmer, and there's the slightest pause when you flick the switch--I'm told that the slight pause will became a long, frustrating one around mid-January, when it's minus twenty degrees Fahrenheit.  I'll cross that bridge when I come to it--but I like them so far.  I also bought my first lawn mower last week.  I'm 41 and I've never owned a lawn mower till last week.  It's electric.  Bought it on Amazon.com.  Free delivery.  I did a little calculation comparing the one I ended up buying to a comparably-priced combustion mower, assuming 7c per kW-hr and 4 dollar gas, and it turned out to be much, much cheaper to do the electric.  The 100-foot cord is a bit of a drag.  But it's orange, and so I managed not to run over it yet.  I'm sure I will at some point.  ZAP!  Won't need to do that twice.  And we're still recycling all my booze bottles and Coca-cola cans.  Also, I'm bringing a bag to the supermarket nowadays and minimizing the single-use plastic bags.  And of course I still cycle to work except when it rains or snows.  Most importantly, I'm down to two pulls, three squares per pull, in the toilet.  No kidding.  That's six squares per movement.  Can't beat Cheryl Crow yet, but I'm getting there. 

Ran over the fuçking cord today.  Bam!  Second time I used it and I managed to run it over.  You know how like when you are vaccuuming and you come across the cord and you try to jump it?  Like, you push forward, accelerating, and pop a bit of a wheelie, front, then back?  Because you're basically too lazy to bend over and grab the cord and whip it out of the way or hold it up?  Well, I did that.  Except that the electric lawn mower is a bit heavier than the vaccuum cleaner.  Not that I'm too weak to lift it.  Just wasn't expecting it.  Kind of like, it's not that I don't like grape juice, but when I pick up a glass of dark-colored liquid and expect it to be coca=cola, and I'm hot and thirsty, and I pick it up expecting that phosphoric acid and sugar burn, sweet and icy hot in my throat, and I end up with this tingly sensation on the sides of my tongue, the way grape and other fruit juices do.  It's just weird.  Not that I don't care for grape juice.  I was just expecting coca-cola.  It was like that with the lawn mower when I tried the accelerate/wheelie/front/back manoeuvre when I came across the cord.  I'd expected the slight pressure sensation on my wrists that I'd come to know and love when I did the vacuum cleaner that way, but I didn't give it enough of a jerk.  Being heavier, it didn't jump up over the cord, but cut through it.  Dammit.  I'd had about a half bottle of Bohemian Highway Cab and decided it was time to mow.  Actually it has only been eight days since I first mowed, but the lawn was looking shaggy.  (I'm really finding my inner Hank Hill since I bought this place.)  But the cord didn't kill me.  Didn't even jolt me.  Actually, it just shut down.  So I pulled out my Swiss Army knife and got the medium-sized blade and I cut the cables clean and peeled the wires back--green, white, and black--and twisted them together then looked for some black electrical tape to tape them.  Couldn't find any so I used duct tape (Or maybe it was Duck Tape.)  Whatever it was it worked.    I went down to the basement and noticed that the "ext. recpt. all" breaker was thrown.  So I flipped it and plugged back in and finished the job.  Then I finished my bottle of red wine. 

Man, the grass grows fast here in Flyover Country.