No More Rantings

This will be my last post to Rural Rantings. I will concentrate on my Sawdust Musings which is also on blogspot. I got screwed up when they did the google thing and wound up with two blogs. It's too much work trying to keep up 2 blogs. I am really surprised! I thought I had a lot more to say. I guess not. I feel like I'm talking to myself since I don't think anyone reads these things. I guess I'm just too boring. But that's ok because it lets me get stuff off my chest. So, if anyone is out there, see me at
http:sawdustmusings.blogspot.com. Adios

Icy Sidewalks

We have had a real mild winter this year. We did have snow early and on Christmas, but since then not much. It was a little chilly for a couple of weeks, but the coldest it got was around 5 degrees. Not really cold at all when us old timers remember temperatures in the -30 degree range. That was cold. For the past week or so it has seemed almost spring like, daytime temps in the high 50's and lows in the 30's. If it keeps up like this we'll have to take a blanket off the bed.

This morning I didn't look at the thermometer but it felt much the same as it has for the last few days. When I looked out the window I coulld see that it had rained just enough to wet the sidewalk and that it had frozen. I didn't think much about it when I went out to scrape the frost off the pickup windshield, but when I stepped around to the passenger side I hit a patch of ice. I knew immediately that I was going down, so I looked to see if anyone was watching. Luck was with me, I fell unobserved. It was a classic slip on the ice, both feet went into the air and I hit flat on my butt. Nothing hurt but my pride.

I made the mistake of telling my wife about it this afternoon when I got home. She insisted that from now on I sprinkle salt on the sidewalk to keep other passsers by safe. She also said that I should be more careful. At least I took my pratfall in private. Be careful out there!

This is Me

I have been trying for several days to get my picture into my profile. No can do. Every time I try it winds up in the posts. So here I am, just as fat and sassy as ever. I feel lke the information revolution has passed me by. Oh well, at least you can see what I look like if you really care.

The Next President of The USA

Lots of folks seem to want to be the next president. I guess after GW they figure anyone can do the job. Maybe they're right. As much as I hate to say it we have survived 6 years of Bubba Bush, I guess that's one of the great things about our system of checks and balances. Of course, there are those who think that Dubya is doing a great job, I think they must be members of the "Flat Earth Society".

I think that we should be watching Hugo Chavez very closely. He is making Socialism sound great to all the folks down there. The next logical step is to export it to all of the Southern Hemisphere. Then Good Ol' George can invade Venezuela for their oil. We call that "exporting Democracy". You know, no habeous corpus. warrantless wiretaps, unfettered mail opening, and a general suspension of human rights in the name of security.

It does seem that we are going to have lots of choices in the primaries. I suppose that we'll wind up with a moderate liberal vs a conservative moderate. I hope that we get religion out of the campaign. If the churches want to rally for something how about food for the hungry, clothing for the naked, and housing for the homeless. Leave the judgement thing to God, whatever form she may take.

The High Price of Wood Pellets

My elderly next door neighbors have a pellet stove they bought to replace a 50 year old oil furnace. They decided on the pellet stove because the price of pellets was low and they felt the could heat their home cheaper than any other way. That was 7 years ago and pellets were under $100 a ton. On cold days they use a 40# bag of pellets a day, so a ton would last 50 days. Their heating bill was about $200 a year. Now pellets are $220 a ton if you can find them, so the cost of pellets has more than doubled in the past 7 years. That's a pretty steep rate of inflation. Makes it tough for a couple on a fixed income. My gas bill has increased, but certainly not doubled, but of course the gas company is regulated by the government. My guess is that the pellet manufacturers have taken a lesson from the oil companies and have created their own windfall profits. It is interesting that the gasoline prices have continued to drop since the election. Now that the Dems are in control and not their Republican buddies, the oil companies are probably afraid of an investigation into their pricing practices. I figured that prices would go back up if the Reps won in November. I guess we'll never know. Of course, here in Oregon the gasoline prices haven't gone down much, certainly not as much as the rest of the country.

Anger

I was listening to NPR today and the guy being interviewed was talking about the amount of anger in blogs. He seemed to be surprized that there was so much anger being expressed. I think the reason for the anger is fairly easy to explain. First of all, until the advent of the Blog-o-sphere the only way to express anger to the masses was with a letter to the editor. Letters to the editor are a weak substitute for a good rant, especially since it will be a week or more until you see your opinions expressed in print, if at all. With blogs you can rant to your heart's content, and it is printed immediately. You have sent out your feelings to a huge audience and they can respond to your rant and you might even get a good arguement going. You might even get famous! Someone might read your piece and be so struck by your well reasoned thinking and your deathless prose that they might link to you and get others to read your stuff. People may even agree with you and start a world wide revolution for the betterment of humankind.

Of course, chances are that no one will read your stuff, but at least you have gotten it off your chest. I don't think there's any more anger than before, just an easier way to express it. Just look at my title, Rural Rantings, I was looking for a place to let off steam without getting my wife upset. I find that I really don't have much to rant about, but it is kind of fun to do the stream of conciousness thing. This way we can say stuff we wouldn't say to friends or neighbors without offending them. I think we are all frustrated authors who have found an outlet. So Rant on.

Now I'm a 2 Blog Guy (with pictures)

I guess I should pay closer attention to what they call my user name. It seems as though every site that assigns a user name does it differently. The other night I couldn't sign into this blog because they were changing things over, so I wound up with a new blog, Rural Church Mouse. Now for some reason I can't sign in on the new blog but I can find the old one. So here I am. I'm not sure I can keep 2 going. I don't have as much to say as I thought.

The picture is what I see out of my living room window some mornings. The horizon behind the trees is our local landmark called Vale Butte, but labeled Rinehart Butte on the maps. Rinehart built the first building here in the 1870's so he gets his name on things. The hill the maps call Vale Butte is behind Rinehart Butte and runs more East - West, whereas Rinehart Butte runs North - South. I guess that's more information than anyone really wanted. Anyway, the picture is of a fairly common sunrise in the summer. In the winter the sun comes up further south and doesn't give us quite such a spectacular display. The second picture is a winter sunset taken south of town. I was a little late getting to a good spot without trees and buildings so it is not as spectacular as it was in person. We do get great sunsets in the dry part of Oregon.

Happy New Year

Well, the new year is upon us. I was intrigued that there wasn't much of the year in review in the media this year. I'm not sure if it was because there wasn't much worth reviewing or if the media thinks that people don't care much about what happened last year. I seem to remember that there would be entire sections of the newspaper with the year in review, and Time and Newsweek would devote whole issues to the past year. I also notice the absence of "seers" making predictions for the coming year. I miss that too, because they generally had some outlandish prediction that everybody knew would not happen. The great thing about the prognosticators is that you seldom saw anything about their success from the previous year. It was almost as though it was a free guess, nobody cared if they were right or not.

Maybe I'm nostalgic for the year in review articles because it seemed to give closure to the year. This January 1 seemed to be just another day with football. Didn't see many pictures of Father Time giving way the Baby New Year 2007 either. Is all this just something that us of increasing age remember, and the current crop of news consumers couldn't care less?

Well, for us the year was kind of run of the mill. No life changing events occurred (at least that I can remember) and no once in a lifetime trips either. Just a year of getting our poop in a group and getting along. Our church life improved, we gained a great couple from the South. They are deeply involved and have gotten us excited about being The Episcopal Church in our little community. That is a good thing and we are pleased about it. It's been a good year and we look forward to an even better year in 2007.

So to you and yours, have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Wallowa Lake, Oregon

Thanks to Measure 37 this place may soon be filled with houses. Measure 37 was pushed through by timber interests as a way to market their cut-over land for vacation home sites. It basically gutted Oregon's land use planning laws. They were considered to be some of the most forward looking planning tools in the country. Angered a lot of folks who felt they should be able to build anywhere and anything they wanted. Voters are beginning to realize how big a mistake Measure 37 was. I only hope it's not too late for Oregon.

Christmas Thoughts

This evening is the day after Christmas and we are slowly recovering from the holidays. As usual, Christmas snuck up on us, mailed the Christmas Cards a little late, shopped for the last of the Christmas presents on the 23rd and finalized dinner plans on Christmas Eve. Wonder of wonders, we had a wonderful Christmas Eve service at church, lots of singing and lots of laughing and lots of good cheer. Christmas dinner was wonderful, we cooked the turkey and friends brought dessert and salads and we met at Char's to eat. Char was in California visiting her dad, but many of her friends met at her place and had a great dinner.

This was the first year that we didn't have some other members of our family to celebrate Christmas with. It was different, but it was good. Talked with family members on the phone and that helped. We don't get to see the kids and grandkids much because they are in Arkansas and Massachusetts. But we get to travel all over the country to visit them. Thanks to our kids we have been in nearly every state in the 50. Only missing the deep south.

It was interesting to consider the Nativity and the world that Jesus was to confront. The situation hasn't changed much since then. We still do not have peace in the Middle East after 2000 years of strife. We must continue to work for peace and understanding. We need to work to convince others to work for peace and not for war. The road to peace is seldom paved with bullets. I find it hard to understand why people don't know that.

Death and Taxes

Was talking the other day with a friend who is a business owner in a neighboring town and the subject of taxes came up. Now, he is a Republican and I expected to hear some rant about high taxes, but he shocked me by saying that he couldn't understand people who were opposed to taxes. He stated, and rightly, I think, that if you continue to cut taxes and let routine maintenance go it won't belong until everything grinds to a halt. He recognizes the need for a good infrastructure in his state and community to foster better business. If the roads and streets go to pot(holes) people will go elsewhere to shop. He uttered my favorite saying when it comes to taxes, "you can't get something for nothing." If you want good streets, schools, parks, fire protection, etc. you have to pay for it. I don't understand people who complain about high taxes and poor streets at the same time. Do they think that asphalt is free? With the oil crunch street paving has gone through the roof. I know, they want the city, county, state, federal employees to work for nothing, "after all, they're at the public trough".
I spent 6 years as the mayor of our little town and it was nearly impossible to get a budget passed because people complained about the high taxes in the city. ( About $500 for a $100,000 home) These same folks thought nothing wrong with spending $10 - $20 bucks a week on the lottery. I always called the lottery the stupid tax, because stupid people spent hard earned money on lottery tickets. I pay my stupid tax about once a year. I buy a $1 lottery ticket whenever the prize is over $250,000,000. I know I can't win, but somebody might win and donate a mil or so to the schools in the area. Pay your taxes folks that's the best way to support our democracy. Oh yeah, you can't take it with you. Now I've tied the death part into this masterpiece.

Winter Travel

Here in Oregon there have been several cases of people getting lost or stuck in the snow. Often these situations end badly. People fail to realize that mother nature can strike with a suddenness that is unbelievable. My mother-in-law used to always tell us to make sure that we have ample food and water aboard whenever we travelled across the state. We always pooh-poohed her concerns because she grew up in an era of bad roads and unreliable cars, but she really knew what she was talking about. We always carry warm blankets in the trunk, but seldom have food supplies with us. I think I could live off my fat for a week or two, but drinking water might be a problem. My wife always makes sure we have a lot of water in the car when we travel so we could be ok.

It's really easy to get into trouble on the roads especially when travelling in unfamiliar territory. A number of years ago we went to Phoenix, AZ for our son's wedding. It was spring break, the end of March, and we decided to take a different route home. We had never visited The Grand Canyon in all our trips to Arizona so this time we went north to Flagstaff and into the Park. After doing the tourist things we continued on our way and spent the night in Page, AZ intending to drive north through Utah to Interstate 84 and then home. The next day we left Page and drove through Kanab and then north on a highway that appeared on our map to parallel I 15. I figured that we could go all the way to I 70 and then over to I 15. After a while it started snowing heavily and the road we were on was soon covered with snow. We decided that the going would be better on I 15, so we turned on to the highway to Cedar City. Soon we were on a road walled in by snow 8 to 10 feet high on either side of the highway with no place to get off or turn around. I stopped in the middle of the road and put on tire chains and we continued on. After a while we met a snow plow coming from Cedar City so we knew the road was open all the way. We were soon over the pass and on the downhill side of the mountains on our way to Cedar City. Everything worked out fine, but we could have just as easily gotten stuck in the snow and stayed there until we were found frozen in our car. What we did was really foolish and it could have ended badly. What you see on a road map is not always what you get on the ground. I guess the moral is be prepared for any eventuality.

Package Sizes

Perhaps no one noticed but many of the package sizes that we have grown to know and love have changed. I don't know when it happened, I suppose that it has been going on all the time, but the packages of ice cream that most people buy, the half gallon, is no longer a half qallon, but rather 1.75 quarts. No advertising blitzes telling us, "now in a new reduced size", no nothing... Prices are the same, maybe even a little higher, but practically all "Half Gallon" Ice Cream containers are now 1.75 quarts. What's next? 1.75 pint quarts? I'm really suprised that no one has complained. I think that since the packages looki about the same size most people haven't noticed that they're getting screwed out of a quarter of a quart. I know thaqt you can't fight city hall, but I'm sure that you can't fight Wal-Mart.

TV Offerings

I'm sure I am not alone, but it seems to me that the offerings on TV are getting worse and worse. I realize that I'm older than the demographics they shoot for but you would think that there would be at least one show a night on the 60 + channels on the cable that is worth watching. I can't believe the drivel that they try to pass off as entertainment. The reality shows have created a nation of voyeurs who seem to enjoy watching people plotting against other people so they can win a prize. I have nothing against competition, but at least they could require a little ability in some area. There are four Law & Order shows on the air at at least that many CSI shows. Can't our creative geniuses come up with something else?

Then there are the "NEWS" shows with some celebrity conjecturing about the Jon Benet' Ramsey murder 6 years after the fact. Get a life! Any lurid happening draws reporters like manure draws flies. About the same amount of substance too. I guess we could watch pro sports if you like watching a bunch of overpaid over exposed kids playing games for the benefit of overweight couch potatoes who have to be told what is happening by overpaid ex-jocks. The ex-jocks seem to think they're getting paid by the word, so they never shut up. They also think their opinions are worth something which in itself is laughable. Why don't they shut up and let us watch the game? Thank God I can read which I suspect some of the cretins on the tube are unable to do.

Well I've got that off my chest. Got to hurry, Boston Legal is on.

No More Ranting?

I read a letter to the editor in the paper the other day and the writer said that the Democrats wouldn't be able to rant anymore because they were in power. That would be true if they held the Presidency and held a majority on the Supreme Court. The GW Bush presidency will have long lasting effects, many of which we haven't considered yet. We're stuck in Iraq with an increasing insurgency and a rapidly destabilizing Middle East. Iran is ready to step into the vacuum left by the fall of Saddam Hussein and the Israelis are facing a strengthened Hezbollah fighting for control of the Palestinian lands. There will be no easy fix and I hope that the Democrats realize that. Maybe we can get Henry Kissinger to broker a peace deal like he did for Vietnam. No quick solutions.

The Middle East situation is just one of his major screw ups. How many people are still displaced by Katrina? What has been done for them except to pay contractors outrageous amounts to clean up some of the mess. Individuals can't get anyone to help them clean up and rebuild because the contractors are busy working for the government. It seems to me that the best thing we could have done as a nation would be to offer organization and some price controls. Most people don't like to live in cramped travel trailers for over a year. Help them to rebuild!

I think there will be plenty to rant about for the next two years.

Elections

Well, the Democrats seemed to have pulled it off. The pundits are saying that the Dems who won are middle of the roaders not liberals. Maybe, I think that the Dems bought in the idea that liberal is bad and acted accordingly. I thinks it's time for the true liberals to step up and reclaim the wonderful legacy of the liberal/ progressive folks have given us. Women can vote, civil rights, social security, and on and on. Liberal is good, conservative is bad. Let's get that straight.

Election Time

Well I voted yesterday. Oregon uses a mail-in ballot for all elections and I filled mine out yesterday. I won't mail it though, I'll just take it down to the County Court House and save 39 cents. We have a bunch of stupid things on the ballot this year. Oregon is the home of the initiative and referendum process and we have some real yoyos who get stuff on the ballot. Unfortunately the electorate isn't too smart either and we've passed some real dumb laws. The last go around we basically dismantled Oregon's exemplary land use planning process. This year we get to vote on term limits (again), various tax cut programs, and some poorly written campaign finance reform ideas. Hopefully we will be smart enough to resist the temptation to govern by a committee aof the whole.

Republicans may be in trouble. Across the border in Idaho (one of the reddest of the red states) there is a dead heat between the Republicans and the Democrats for both the Governor's chair and the U.S. House. When that happens in Idaho where they think that GW Bush has come to lead them to the Promised Land, then they are in trouble! Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of folks.

Kerry"s Gaffe

Well, the Republicans with the help of John Kerry have done it again. Poor ol' John Kerry, after being Swift boated out of the election in '04 has now let them take his comment about GW and turn it into a slur against the troops in Iraq.
When I heard the Kerry comment the first time there was no question in my mind that he was talking about Bush. I thought it was a pretty good slam. But, the Rep. spin masters go hold of it and it became a slur on the education of the troops. They knew he was talking about the boss, but were quick enough to see that it could be turned against poor dumb John. I think he hasn't figured it out that they will do anything to make him look bad. He is still trying to figure out how they turned his heroism under fire into a liability. He obviously has never been in a pissing match with a skunk. Ain't no way you're gonna' win. Karl Rove and his band are all skunks and they don't care who they spray. The truth is something to be warped and used against the truth teller. "A good lie well told and stuck to is better than the truth any day." Of course, the important thing is, that they have the media analyzing Kerry's comment and not focusing on the 105 troops killed in Iraq in October. Mission accomplished my A$$.
John expects folks to be honest and tell the truth. He should tell the world that he saw Karl Rove performing unnatural sex acts on GW and blare it to the media. They don't care if it's true or not. They publish first and check later. By then it's too late.
Well, that feels better! I haven't ranted much lately. It feels good to get it off my chest.

A Real Fire

Well, Fall is here and Winter isn't far behind. Here in the High Desert of Eastern Oregon it can get pretty cold at night. Thank Cascade Natural Gas we have heat on demand. When we first bought our home, one of its selling points was a floor to ceiling fireplace that opened into the living room and the dining room. I immediately saw an Irish Setter asleep in front of a crackling fire and me in my smoking jacket with my pipe surveying my kingdom. We bought the house on that vision and even though the renter whom we displaced said the fireplace smoked I couldn't wait until Fall so I could fire it up. My wife got to try it out shortly after we moved in in June. Early summer was cold and rainy that year and she found out that the floor furnace that was intended to be the primary source of heat didn't work. I was at summer school in Eugene and she was trying to keep herself and the kids warm. We talked on the phone, but no fire was forthcoming in our beautiful fireplace. I made it back home the next weekend and got it to work. It seemed that it smoked for the renters because they hadn't opened the damper and the only wood we had was soaked from the unnatural June rains. I found some dry wood and showed my wife how to start a fire and all was well. Actually she didn't need it any more because Summer turned on with a vengeance. The Irish Setter came a year later and he did make a great picture lying in front of the fire.

That was over thirty years ago and we still enjoy the fireplace. I have cut and hauled innumerable cords of firewood and enjoyed its warmth often. This year we bought a cord of wood from some ladies who cut and sell wood for extra income and I have officially retired my chain saw. As I sit here typing at the dining room table we have a nice Juniper fire going in the fireplace. By now, our primary heat source is a gas furnace, but the fire has a warming effect. The flames, the crackling, and the glowing embers give an indescribable feeling. Thank heavens we live in a rural area and there are no burning restrictions. I can't imagine living in an area where you can only use your fireplace on certain days. A gas log just doesn't cut it.