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We have Hydro power here and the government wants to tear down the dams that provide that. In their place wind farms mostly. There is some solar. They never think about the issue of reliability. The dams produce 24/7. The wind and solar produce somewhat less.
We have the e car registration tax as well which seems like the right way to go. My personal opinion is that the hybrid is the best way to go if you want to do that. Great mileage, great ability to drive forever without having to stop and charge up. When the e-car can charge in 10 minutes and not destroy the charging system, they might have a product that can work. But they are heavier and ruin roads faster word.
mspart
Cheap gas here is $4.29/gal. We had my wife’s cousin here a few months back and they couldn’t believe how much gas was. They are from NH.
I think the gas tax here is 0.50/gal, then there is the CO2 tax which adds 0.50/gal and now a new gas tax takes effect 01 Jul that adds 0.06/gal for gas and 0.12 for diesel. They don’t want us driving Internal Combustion Engine cars so they subsidize the electric cars. Now there are so many e-cars that they aren’t getting the gas tax they want/need so they up the tax on us and are proposing a mileage tax. Even here, where extreme liberal is the norm, people do not want some device in their car that tells the state where they are going. So then they will inspect the odometer and charge from that. But what if I took a lot of trips outside the state? That’s miles not on WA roads that they are charging us for. The state is too hungry for money to pay for all the non essential things they want to do that they don’t do the essential things they should do and then say they have to raise taxes to do the essential things. And people put up with it. They think that is the way it should be word.
mspart
Hey Ryou,
Yeah, that is how most jurisdictions do it. I know in UT, at least in parts, they have a different water feed for watering lawns that are not subject to sewer costs. My water bill grows similarly for Jul-Sep.
2 months ago Diesel was $4.39/gal. It is now 4.89/gal and will go to 5.01/gal Jul 1 with a new 12 cent/gal tax that is coming. We have a CO2 thing here that jacks up the price around 50 cents/gallon. So very expensive to drive around here. My VW Passat is a diesel and it works pretty good.
Our high temps are coming in about a week. Today 78, next 3 days in 60’s, next 2 in 79’s, then next 2 days in 80’s. It has been fairly dry, although it rained +.5 inches last weekend word.
mspart
Ugggh permits. Bane of existence. Good luck with that. Your regular water must be pretty expensive if you turn to a well for irrigation. It gets spendy here during the summer but it keeps the plants green and my wife happy word.
mspart
It was hot here last week, all windows open, furnace off. Windows are still open and the temp inside is 61F. That’s a bit chilly. It is not supposed to warm up soon, so we might have to shut the windows and turn on the furnace again.
I did set the in ground sprinkling system, it turns on at 4:00 am and runs 30 minutes for each of 7 stations. Well, I forgot that that runs right through the shower time. Shower was warm but water did not come out with gusto word.
mspart
You should look up Passo Giau on google maps, you’ll be amazed and my wife got even better pics of it word.
mspart
Wow!! You didn’t get caught in the Triangle and survived to report the trip. That is amazing!! How was Bermuda? Is it warm there. It seems like it is more in the northern latitudes to be really warm. But I’ve never been there and have no idea.
Our last trip to Italy we were in northern Italy for part of it. We went to Bolzano and drove through the Dolomites and back. My wife specifically wanted to go to Passo Giau. That road is the crookedest road in the world. Hairpin 180 degree turns, or almost 180 degrees. But the views were incredible and my wife took great pics of that whole trip. Really incredible vistas. You drive through many of the ski towns there and they all look Bavarian. Very cool really. Passo Giau is about 20 km from Cortina d’Ampezzo where the 2026 winter olympics will be along with Milan. That might be a cool place to go as well. Much easier to get to both from Venice. Straighter roads.
In addition, Bolzano is the site of a concentration camp from WWII. In addition, there is a museum there that houses the ice man that was found not far away. He died thousands of years ago. All in all, Bolzano was a pretty cool place. But there are a lot of cool places in northern Italy. I hope that is a cool trip for you. I have thought about flying into zurich and do Switzerland for a week or so and then head to Italy from there. Cheaper than going direct to anywhere in Italy.
Welcome back and I’m glad you survived Bermuda word.
mspart
Welcome back, you’ve been gone a little while. It’s good to take a break every once in a while.
I don’t know anything about Mesenbrink. But there are a lot of all time greats from the US, so that is a tall order to aspire to. I’m not saying he is aspiring to it, but still. But I can think of a few that are incredible. Burroughs and Snyder as the most recent, with a nod to Dake and Taylor. Then we have Big Bruce, John Smith, Mark and Dave Schultz, Kenny Monday, Lee Kemp, Kevin Jackson to name a few.
If he is our guy at 74, he will have to win gold at Worlds to even enter the conversation word. But I wish him luck.
mspart
Yeah, 3-3 is close. Eternal youth is something most of us will never achieve. I am an exception of course!!
I was not as invested in the WTTs this year. We have had such an incredible group of wrestlers this last 5-10 years and they are going away. The new crop is just not energizing. Perhaps they will surprise at Worlds, word!
mspart
Same here. It was really nice, cool but no rain for a couple of weeks. We got the deer fence up for the garden, increased the size of the garden, and are almost finished with it. We are heading to Portland soon for a family get together so no more progress on that for awhile word.
mspart
I’ve been told I need to, at least once a week, really put the gas on and get it heated up. Otherwise the turbo inlet will get clogged. The mechanic I take it to thought that was a deal but he removed it and it was clean. I do not often get on the freeway with the car and traffic is so congested here anymore that it is not much different than surface streets. When that turbo kicks in, it is a nice acceleration boost. I’ve never had a car that moves like this ever before. But usually I drive sweetly word.
mspart
Sounds like a good deal for the truck. My camry died some years ago so I had to get a new car. Bought a used or new 2013 VW Passat TDI. This car was part of the software issue that cost VW a ton of money. I am at the end of paying it off with a 0% loan from VW. I get 40mpg at the high end. It has been a fairly good car. Very reliable. One thing about it is it takes DEF, diesel exhaust fluid. If you don’t add when you first get the advisory, it may not reset and then it costs money to get someone to reset it. So I learned that. But it has been a pretty good car so far word.
mspart
Wow, a 16 pointer. For me, dragging a deer out of the woods is a hindrance to getting me out there. I always wanted to know how to hunt, field dress, and butcher. I got that with a friend and that was good enough. I did go the next year and caught pneumonia due to lack of sleep. I haven’t hunted since. I learned how to do it. That was good enough. I now know what gamey is. I would love to get an elk or caribou but generally you have to go deep in the woods or off road and have to haul them out. No thanks. I’m too old for that anymore. My father in law hunted his whole adult life. But his hunting went from shooting whatever, to shooting prize deer, to taking pictures of them in the wild. I thought that was interesting, he seemed more interested in taking photos of deer rather than shooting deer word.
mspart
When I lived in MN, my neighbor decided I needed to go hunting. I hinted I’m guessing. The had a family farm south and you had to use a shotgun with a slug. No rifles. So I took my trusty shotgun, bought slugs, and found that the full choke barrel caused the slug to move to the right and up from where I was aiming. No wonder I missed my first number of shots. I’m not a bad shot and I couldn’t understand that at all. I finally saw a piece of plywood and shot at it, and the hole was up and to the right. So I’m up in a tree platform and a doe and fawn come under me. I have a doe tag. Knowing how my gun shoots I aimed at her rear flank kind of low. I shot, she fell with a horrible yell. I hit her in the neck. Talk about a lucky shot. Easily could have missed again. So, it was not a kill shot, so I had to dispatch her up close. I felt bad but did it. Anyway, one of the guys heard the shots and came over and we gutted it and they brought a truck over and hauled it out of there. We ate that deer all winter long. My son who wouldn’t eat meat, saw the deer hanging in the garage and decided he was going to eat meat. Now he can’t not eat meat. Anyway, the deer there in the area are grain fed, corn and soy bean, and not as gamey as those that live on sage etc. My wife and I butchered it and it as a butchered job, but it worked out. We ate a steak that night, no aging. It was horrible. I finally knew what gamey meant. We froze it all, and would take out a steak and let it thaw for 24 hours and then cook it up. No gamey at all. It was very good. That’s my story, and it is a true story word.
mspart
SCOTUS was not in session when I was there. That would ahve been really fun to do. Black History museum has really good southern fried chicken and cornbread, and the works. It is really good, I highly recommend it.
Regarding the roof, they replaced 25 plywood sections. My roofline is unique which poses issues. They added venting to areas where the plywood had been wet. They covered areas that were not covered before and and that should be helpful. I think we could have waited a few more years but the old roof was getting down to no granules in the shingles in many places. They were able to resuse most of the roof line flashing so that was a savings. I’m waiting for the invoice on that. Overall, my neighbor’s company did a really good job. They are coming back to clear some gutters that were inaccessible but got debris from the roof job. So they were not aware there was a problem.
In addition, it rained hard when we got back that’s how I found out about the gutters. They were overflowing. Before we left for DC, it rained hard and flooded my wife’s preschool (ex garage) and I had to try to figure that out. Found the culprit, a crushed drain pipe, probably from a fallen tree branch. I cut out the bad section after we got back and put in a new pipe with connectors. It was leaking the other day and then we got the grandkids for a few days so I have to check tonight if tightening it up fixed that up. I’ll do that tonight. Hopefully so so I can bury it.
Then we have fence post holes to dig and put posts in. 10ft 4 by 4’s to keep the deer out of the garden. That work wears me out. We should be done with that by Saturday with 7 yrds of dirt delivered by my son. Then we can get all the posts in and fencing in and keep those pesky herbivores out. Man they do damage word.
mspart