Yes, a whole week (plus!) without putting thought to keyboard (because pen to paper doesn’t work in this setup) and my mind is whirling with thousands of things to write about.

Unfortunately, they are all dated and of no consequence, so they won’t see the light of day.

I will say this: We (the United States) have enough untapped oil deposits to be free from foreign energy, when combined with alternative forms of energy. Like, walking and riding bikes and sharing the rides you do have to make. Selfish buggers. I’m talking to you, Phoenix. Hundreds of miles of freeways and surface streets, and still we have more people driving solo than sharing rides. Oh, and whining about fuel costs. Here, in one of the few areas of the country that was not affected by Ike’s price increases. Selfish buggers.

I will also say that Obama has finally seen the light, and is trying to slam Palin’s door shut. Tough noogies, Barry. There are still a few things you haven’t shared with the US as a whole that need to be cleared up. Like, a paper copy of your birth certificate. Records from your college time. Lists of clients, cases, and whatnot from your time as a lawyer. What, exactly, a community organizer in Chicago does. Why ACORN plays such a big part in your life. Why Bill Ayers, an unrepentant domestic terrorist, is one of your biggest fans. And, why does the entire muslim world want you to be our next president, if you aren’t muslim?

On with updates of a personal nature:
Custom woodworking isn’t paying the bills. I’ve actually lost money this year. So, I’m driving a cab two nights a week to help make ends meet.
Speaking of custom woodworking, I have a project to do. I need to make a storage case for an item that measures 8 3/8″ long by 6 1/4″ deep by 4 1/4″ high. It will incorporate a picture frame, a brass plaque, fancy footwork and a hinged lid. It will hold Logan’s ashes.
MEG still misses Logan, as do the other dogs. All five of them (MEG and the four dogs) wander around at times; MEG calling for Logey Ogey, the dogs sniffing the places he normally laid. Sara seems to be especially lonely, since the two of them would often lay together at night.

Life, however, goes on. I need to go run some errands. I will swing through the blogroll later today, and drop comments where appropriate. It’s good to be back, and I will try to keep all three of my regular readers entertained whilst I continue to ramble. With the cab, I should have some good stories. Like Saturday evening, when ASU got handed their butts on their home field, and I was sitting in Tempe traffic when they got their one and only touchdown, and I had forgotten that they tend to celebrate those things with fireworks…

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

So, how was your weekend?

My Saturday post (just below this one) was written Friday afternoon, and set up for publication by way of the delayed posting ability in WordPress. Pretty cool feature. Almost worth paying hosting fees right there…

Speaking of hosting fees, don’t send any to StartLogic. They don’t seem to think that their users can and would be an accurate early warning system for impending failures. I can’t be nearly as eloquent as Texas Fred on this subject, so I will direct you to a post of his that really covers it.

I am really, really regretting going with them – even though it was on the word of a trusted adviser – since not just this site is on StartLogic, but also the site for the non-profit Black Canyon Railroad Corporation, of which I am a member and the webmaster. Down time can only hurt exposure, not help it.

Saturday the seventh was my Mother’s 80^th birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom.

Yesterday (Sunday the eighth), I had another migraine. This one hit hard and fast – right when I sat down after praise and worship, communion, and the offering (being in leadership, I was involved in all three). I tried to hide it, and just Marine my way through the service – but TMBWitW figured out real quick that I wasn’t praying silently but nearly writhing in pain with my eyes closed. She insisted we go home immediately. I took a migraine pill and went into hibernation mode – door closed, pillow over the head blocking sound and light – and slept for about six and a half hours. Woke up a bit groggy, but able to function.

For some reason, TMBWitW thinks that two migraines inside a week is cause for alarm, and that I should see the doctor about it. With a persuasive argument like that, I couldn’t help but be on the phone with the doctor’s office as soon as they were supposed to open. (0900) At 0915, they still hadn’t taken the answering machine off of weekend mode, so I left a message on the appointment line. Oh well. We’ll see where this goes.

OK – if you are eating anything while surfing this entry, you may want to either check out some blogroll activity, or go over to comics.com for a minute.

If you are still reading, then I am going to assume that you have a stomach that can handle what I’m about to write.

As my four or five regular readers know, I have five dogs. Lately, the weather has been warming up to the point where being outside after, say, 0730 is just uncomfortable. Not unbearably hot, but enough to make yard work unappealing. I haven’t been getting up and going outside early enough to get any yard work done before 0730 for about a month.

So – doing the math, my normal 1/2 – 3/4 bucket’s worth of yard apples has been building up a bit. Today I picked up four buckets, some of it still fresh, and I have more to go – but the rest will have to wait until tomorrow morning. I’m not going to deal with that stuff in the heat and direct sunlight if I can help it. The pick-up pattern is to stay just inside the shadow of the house as the sun rises, so you gotta move fast if you want to be efficient and stay out of the sun.

I’ve been hoping that the constantly rising price of gasoline would finally silence the liberals who say that we are in the middle east to steal the oil over there – but it doesn’t seem to be so. They are still claiming we are trading blood for oil – are they not seeing the prices going up, or are they still the clueless individuals they always were?

Never mind, rhetorical question.

Well, MEG is awake. The first thing she wanted to do was watch the “wawas”. Now she is watching Lilo and Stitch, and eating her morning waffle. I’m going to wrap this up now and start going about my business.

Ya’ll have a good Monday (if that is possible) and I will keep you posted on the migraine thing, OK?

Update:

I have an appointment for 0800 Thursday morning. Yes, Loon, I will be a good Marine and actually go to the appointment. 🙂

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Over at A Newt One, war has been declared on the high prices of fuel.

Get your marching orders here.

Leave word here when you have contacted the proper authority.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

I got this little blurb from my wonderful GG in Fort Worth. There are some good tips in here, but there are also some misleading ones, too. My comments will be in italics. Full disclosure: I used to drive a fuel truck for a truckstop in northern Arizona. No, it wasn’t Little America in Flagstaff. It was called the Bellemont Truck Center, outside of Bellemont AZ, across the freeway from the Navajo Army Depot on I-40, west of Flagstaff.

ON PUMPING GAS

I don’t know what you guys are paying for gasoline…. but here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money’s worth for every gallon. obviously, this was written a while ago. everyone knows that California pays more than $10.00 a gallon, because McCain is going to be president

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose, CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons. this kind of threw me for a loop – I never knew that all these different types of fuel were delivered through the same pipeline

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening….your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. point of order – and a physics lesson. the underground storage tanks are like thermos bottles. the ground around them insulates the contents, so the temperature of what was delivered will mingle slightly with the existing temperature, and hold steady; unless the surface temperature of the ground is highly different from the product (more than 35 degrees) the ground temperature will not overtly affect the fuel temperature due to the tanks being below the frost line to prevent heaving.

A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps. unless you are in Canada or Hawaii, this is true. in Canada the fuel temp is below 60, so the fuel company wants to get paid for what they pump. Hawaii has common sense laws in this area. the rest of the US is out of luck, since the average fuel temp is above 60 and will then pump less than what you are paying for

When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting less worth for your money. the debate here is whether the vapors are really being produced at a rate that it would make a difference on how fast the gas is pumped; over a year’s time is it worth YOUR time to double the amount of time spent pumping gas?

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount. “half full or half empty” – that sounds like a philosopher’s conundrum. again, it’s a matter of what your time is worth – do you want to spend twice as much time pumping gas as normal, considering that vapors in your tank are going to stay there unless you do fill up? and, having installed the underground tanks, i can assure you they have no floating roof – only the above ground, tank-farm storage facilities use the floating roofs, and then to keep the vapors to a minimum so as to avoid flash fires.

Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up–most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom. Hope this will help you get the most value for your money. between the filters in the tanks, on the pumps, and in your fuel line, what little bit of dirt that might be stirred up when a load is delivered is not worth worrying about. heck, what’s to say the truck didn’t leave just before you pulled up, and the fuel is still swirling around from being delivered?

Now, if you are REALLY concerned about not buying so much fuel, let’s look at ways that have been proved to increase your fuel economy:

1. Keep your vehicle tuned and maintained.
2. Check and correct your cold tire pressure weekly.
3. Drive like there is an egg under your right foot.
4. Anticipate the stops and let off the gas earlier.
5. Most cities have the traffic lights timed. Get on the rhythm and reduce the number of times you need to accelerate or brake.
6. Carpooling reduces the amount of fuel YOU buy. Share a ride with one person – cut your fuel purchases in half. Share with three people, cut your fuel purchases by 75%.
7. Use public transportation when practical.
8. Walk or ride a bike for short trips where practical.

And, from a world view point, research where the gas comes from at your favorite station. If you are buying from a station that gets most of it’s crude from Middle Eastern sources, think about the impact that is having on us as a country.

Write to your representatives, and badger them – er, I mean, ASK them about revisiting the drilling and refining of our own oil, as opposed to using foreign sources so much. There is no completely energy-independent country in the world, but reducing our dependence on foreign sources only strengthens our sovereignty.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!