Category: Just a Thought

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Out of Gas

As the millions of people in Texas and neighboring states deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, the rest of us – especially in the southeast – are sharing some of their pain by paying even higher prices for gasoline and going without gas. I have every confidence that the emergency response teams are doing an excellent job helping restore power and order to the areas devastated by the hurricane.

In a small way, there might be some comfort to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina that some of the painful lessons from Katrina were learned and applied here for Hurricane Ike. Of particular notice to me was that the animals of the area have been cared for this time.

But the gasoline situation is horrendous. The Texas refineries supply about a quarter of the country’s gasoline and oil. However, the Texas refineries supply over HALF the gas to the southeastern states, and these states are having to deal with spikes in the price plus shortages.

The gas stations around my house are out of gas. Not just one or two stations. I mean like 40 stations. They don’t know when they will be getting any more deliveries. Period. I drove around in ever widening circles for hour before I could find a gas station that has any gas at all, and all they have is premium grade gas. The cars were lined up in the parking lot and out into the street just to get whatever gas they could get from this station.

I hope with all my heart that the people of Galveston and Houston are safe and on their way back to a normal life after Hurricane Ike. And I hope that the refineries can reopen in the next couple of days and start shipping the gas out to the southeast. Because we are hurting, too.

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Garrison’s Rant

Personally, I try to stay out of politics and ranting about the lack of good candidates running for President this year. But others make politics their livelihood and some love to rant about the Presidential race, so I’ll read what catches my interest and not normally go into it here on my own blog.

Along those lines, I did read an excellent rant by a notable figure, Garrison Keillor. You may know Keillor from his “Prairie Home Companion” show. I just love reading his weekly column in the Chicago Tribune. If nothing else, Keillor will make me laugh at least three or four times – often more – as I read his column.

So, this week, he writes about the election, and whether I agree with his opinion or not, I think you should read what he has to say. I hope you get a laugh from it like I did, and if you want to leave me a comment with your thoughts I’d like to read what you have to say about his article, too.

The “bums” try for an end run – by Garrison Keillor

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Wind Power

For the little bit that I actually watch TV, the fact that I saw three commercials yesterday by T. Boone Pickens about his plan for bringing wind power to America is remarkable. From what I’ve heard so far, wind power makes sense if the geographic area has sustained winds of about 10+ mph.

Now, a clever guy in Petaluma by the name of Steve Rustad who draws cartoons has a good idea about wind power, too. If I did this link correctly you can see his idea here. Thanks, Steve!

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What a Difference!

The past several days have typical summer weather with temperatures in the high 80’s or low 90’s and high humidity. The kind of hot muggy days that suck the energy right out of you and you really appreciate the cool air conditioning when you get home.

We’ve had a lot of thunderstorms this summer. We need the rain, so I can’t complain much, but the thunder makes my dog bark and freak out, and the lightning makes me nervous about strikes too close to home. I’ve to power down my computer several times these past several days so that if we have a lightning strike it won’t zap my system.

But today is beautiful so far. It’s only about 80 degrees, sunny with a few clouds, there is a nice breeze, and the humidity is gone. I’ll be outside as much as possible today to take advantage of this!

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Cards vs Cubs

I really want to go to Chicago and watch the Cardinals come into town to play the Cubs. They do that twice this year, once in August and again in September.

I know this is a big sports rivalry, but it just doesn’t seem fair to the public to have all those games in the series completely sold out from the official box office. The only way to get tickets is to buy them from scalpers or online ticket resellers. That just seems wrong.

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Sobe Sayings

What is the deal with all these weird sayings printed on the inside of the bottle caps on Sobe drinks? The new version of fortune cookies?

I can’t pay top dollar at the convenience stores for a bottle of flavored water. At the local Dailey’s stores, the Sobe drinks are $2 and sometimes $2.29 for just one bottle. But they do go on sale every once in a while at the local grocery, so when they are featured “10 bottles for $10” I will stock up.

This week I’ve enjoyed two bottles of the Sobe green tea. It’s an acquired taste but now I’m hooked. I also like the citrus and the Nirvana flavors.

Under the bottle cap of the first one it says, “Scorch Muffins.” WTF is that? A band? Instructions?

Under the bottle cap of the second one it says, “You’re kind of a big deal.” Well, YEAH!

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Hurrah Beltane!

Does anybody that is not a practicing Wicken even know what Beltane is? Does anyone understand the origin of the May Day celebration?

I don’t recall learning any of this in school. You would think that with all those years sitting in a classroom with all those different teachers and all those different subjects, that someone would have introduced a mention of the ancient days in England and the surrounding countries.

World History is a lot more than just World War I and World War II. I honestly don’t remember anything else from school about world history. Everything that I’ve learned about the world has been from documentaries on TV, books from the library and bookstore and the internet. There is a lot to learn about other places and other people’s cultures.

Americans are being shortchanged not learning these things – or at least being introduced to some of the topics for further independent research – in the public schools and colleges.

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Paying “The Man”

I hate paying taxes on April 15.

To me, if I have to pay money in on tax day then I screwed up figuring out how much I will owe at the end of the year and didn’t have my withholding set correctly. No one should have to pay in more taxes on April 15th if they paid the right amount through the year from their payroll withholding.

The worst hit are the people who work for 1099’s. Having to keep up with forms and schedules and deadlines is really hard for a lot of people. Surely there is an easier way to handle collecting and figuring out how to pay your fair share. why doesn’t the Government take a set amount from everyone and just call it even instead of going through all this crap everyone April?

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Hello friends!

Welcome to Adam’s blog.

While you are here, please make yourself comfortable and open your mind to some new thoughts and new places to visit. When I find new web sites worthy of a bookmark I plan to write about them here, and I’ll share my thoughts about what’s going on in my life and other parts of the world, but mostly Tennessee and Georgia, where I spend most of my time.

Spam is not allowed. But constructive, interesting comments are welcome. Flattering comments especially welcome.