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Ripping out hydropower is plain stupid. It has the lowest operational cost to produce. These politicos keep trying to find to increase the cost of power production.
We just came through 5 days of heat 95-103F (2x). The AC only stopped running late at night we had the thermostat set at 78. The daughter was here for 5 days with her 5 kids, then no. 2 son called Sat morning, Hey we’re coming down for the weekend. I had to turn on the AC for the upstairs too. Daughter and clan return Monday AM for 5 days. 2 of hers are taking sailing lessons during the week while 3 stay at home with us. It’s non stop until they leave Thursday, just as no 1 son and his 3 kids appear at the door Thursday afternoon. It’ll be like this through July.
NJ charges EV owners a $250 registration fee which is about $200 more than a car gas. They say it’s because EV’s don’t pay a dime for road wear and tear which is funded by the fuel tax. On top of it the electric utilities in the state jumped the rate charged by 19% on average as of June 1. That was on top of 15% rate hike last year. Those jumps came on the heels of a study that opposed the installation of wind farms off the Jersey coast because the cost of production would cause a 50% increase in the rate. I sure does appear they were trying to up the cost of electric without wind so when it did get added the bump in the rate wouldn’t be as large. NJ shares an electric supply with NY and CT, all 3 are liberal and pushing hard for wind even though it will send the cost of electric skyrocketing.
NJ fuel Tax is 44.9 cents per gallon for gasoline and 51.9 cents per gallon for diesel fuel.
Regular: $3.134 per gallon.
Average cost per gallon
Mid-Grade: $3.669 per gallon.
Premium: $3.908 per gallon.
Diesel: $3.651 per gallon.I pay on the low side for regular at about $2.90. It was down to $2.70 earlier in the year. We’ve got some Exxon stations that are charging +/- $3.70 per gallon.
Yowzah, 91F today, 90’s all week. I’ll water the lawn and place a lawn chair right in the middle of the shower.
I spend about $75 per month 10 months out of the year for water, the about $225 in July and August. Part of the issue is the sewer bill (public sanitary system) is a percentage of the water bill, about $50 per month. I end paying a disposal cost for the water not going down the house drain.
A lawn sprinkler system is on my bucket list but the cost to sink a new well is +$5k out here. We have an older well and pump which hasn’t been used in over 30 years. I have no clue how deep it is sunk and if it still works. Most of the neighbors have well irrigation. Some say their wells are at 125′. The pump is in the basement, so it is likely noisy and not something I’d be willing to run at 4 AM. We I get further down the road with wifey’s project list I’ll call someone and start to figure out what I can do. Getting a well permit around here is a tough ask around here, but a plumbing let me know that since I have a system, it would be deemed a repair of a grandfathered system. Also, the well and pump are in the front of the house which the town no longer accepts. It must be on the side of the house for aesthetics. They could deem that a new installation to negate the grandfather permit.
My cousin operates the family bakery in Old Zurich so we’ll be stopping by for a couple of days, then head to Lucerne. Last time we were there we drove north through Bavaria and the Black Forest before heading to Munich to meet up with my sone and his wife. The girls went to the Munich Opera House while we made a tour of bierhauses. Augustiner remains my favorite. I’ll check out Passo Giau and see if we can swing over to it.
Back to crazy weather, 63-64 earlier in the week, then 74 and two days at 94. Back to a high of 63 tomorrow.
Agreed, proof is on the mat, Mesenbrink tires you out just watching him. We’ll see how he fairs at Final X against David Carr.
Just back from a week in Bermuda. It’s a tropical isle only 100 minutes away. Great Caribbean style seafood. We’ll be heading off to Europe in August. Switzerland, northern Italy, France and Monaco
Mesenbrink may well become the best the US has ever produced. He’s got a shot at that moniker. I’ve never seen someone wrestle relentlessly like he does, not even Cale. Cale was deliberate. With Mesenbrink, he is in constant movement with arms and legs flying. He’s got an uncontained tank. I can’t wait to see him on the world stage.
WTT Dake over Starocci 3-3 criteria. I think Dake’s reign is about over. He’s fading fast. He’ll take one more shot for 2028 gold, then turn to coaching.
Both are at the Nittany Lion ClUb now. That has to take any edge away either may have over the other.
Nothing but clouds and rain the past 4 days. Haven’t been able to do a darned thing outside, but the grass is back to green.
My son just bought a used diesel. The issue he wasn’t aware of is that it’s intended to run hot which means highway driving. That’s fine since he hits the highway 5 days a week going to work. It’s on the weekends when he does mostly local driving taking the kids to their games, the store, etc. It has a computer that will kick on to burn off excess carbon and when it runs it can burn an extra 1/2 gallon so to get it up over 900F, but at idle. Outside of that he gets 29-30 MPH on a Sierra pickup. He’s learned to jump on the highway from one exit to the next rather than take local roads in order to get from one end of town to another.
There’s nothing exotic to hunt out here. When traveling in Chicago I used to go to a restaurant, The Wild Game Room. It served meat that you ordinary can’t get, anywhere. The best was antelope. I thought it would be like venison but wasn’t even close. It had its own unique flavor which I can’t describe. They served rattlesnake, grizzly, kangaroo, and other you would even consider to be edible.
So in the past week, the transmission on my truck stalled twice while waiting for a light to change. Engine revved but no movement. Fortunately it kicked back in when I restarted the engine. Ut oh, decided to look around for a replacement. Found a nice GMC Canyon, 3 years old 23,000 miles and GM certified bumper to bumper warranty for an added 2 years. Traded that disaster in waiting on the spot. My old truck was at 105,000 miles.
I haven’t hunted deer just birds, mainly pheasant. No’1 son hunts, got his first black bear last season, 350+ lbs. Filed dressed it, then had it butchered for half the meat. It filled his freezer so he gave a bunch away. Tried it, didn’t like it. I think venison is best as a stew, Then had the fur cut into a vest and mittens for the kids. Now my nephew is the hunter. He has over 50 kills by bow. He has 2 freezers at -20F. His family eats venison once a week and his kids love it, be it steak, stew or ground burgers. He even took some meat to a local butcher and had ground and stuffed for sausage. His biggest was 16 pointer that he took it down in 1 shot. That’s a hard find in NJ. He got that at sanctioned town hunt. It took 3 hours to drag it out of the woods. A game warden was there tagging, measuring and photographing. They put his pic on the cover of the NJ game magazine.
Deer are just big rats, though they look better. We’ve tried all kinds of deer resistant shrubs and flowers and they still eat them. They ignore the repellant. Before we moved here, the town we lived in held an annual deer hunt. There were daily collisions between deer and cars. Permits were issued for specified lots and days. With state approval they allowed all deer to be culled from the herd, male, female, large and small. 200-250 deer would be culled from the herd in the early years, then the numbers stated to fall as the herd was reduced.
You’re welcome. The Georgetown area has the best food. Downtown is very commercial, not much special about it. I wasn’t aware the black history museum served food. I’ll have to try it next time I’m there. DC has the best subway system.
Was SCOTUS in session when you were there? I know you can get in to observe, but I don’t know if you need a reservation or an invite from someone with pull. Otherwise, I imagine the line to get in would be lengthy. The weather out east has been great the past few days. I hope you missed the T storms last week,
Next time consider taking Amtrak. It drops you in center city. I think it’s a 3 day ride.
