Alt. Op. #49. The oldest fossil fuel and why it is NOT a green energy sorce

            Dang, it’s happened again.  I recently heard an otherwise intelligent, knowledgeable person say something I see as totally ignorant. Maybe he really doesn’t know. Maybe he just doesn’t realize the full parameters of what he said.

            “Okay, Montgomery,” I can almost hear some of you sighing out there as you ask the question you know you’ll likely wish you hadn’t. “What did this poor fellow say that got your tree hugging underwear in a wad?”

            To which I would reply: “Gee, I didn’t know underwear could hug trees.” At which point you would glare and I’d get back on track.

            What the fellow said was: “Nuclear reactors give off no pollution.” Oh, I wanted to jump on that immediately but was in a public meeting (Not to mention the glare I got from the guy in charge of that meeting).

            Now I’m guessing that there are those of you out there who just might agree with this guy. Even I must admit that if you look at it from just the right direction you could say he was absolutely right. A nuclear power plant does NOT give off carbon dioxide, smoke or anything else. All you see coming out is just white billowy steam from the cooling towers.

            I heartily disagree that nuclear power plants are non-polluting (pardon my snicker). The first part of the pollution they, and all other fossil fuel powered plants cause is the process of getting that particular fuel, be it coal, oil, gas or uranium. Yes. Uranium is a fossil fuel. It is one of the oldest fossil fuels in fact being left over from the formation of the planet. Yes, there is a good deal of Uranium here in the states. It just happens to reside in formations about half way up some mountains in the North West US that are sacred to the Native Peoples of that area. The most economic way to get at it is to just rip off the tops of the mountains. So what, you may have just shrugged and thought. Let’s put it this way. How would YOU react if, being a Christian, you were told they’d discovered that the material used to build the corner towers on several of those big churches in New York had gold in them and the government was going to let a company rip the tops of those towers off to get at it. Oh, they’d put a roof over what was left and make it all pretty again, sort of, so that should be alright, right? Yeah, I know. You can’t even imagine such a sacrilege. Other than that, out west there would be the complex and really unfixable environmental damage not just from the mining of the uranium but from the refining of it into fuel rods for the power plants.

            As I said above there is no nasty Carbon dioxide produced by a nuclear plant but there is a waste product. Waste even by my broad standards (Waste = a product that hasn’t got a use). That waste is the used up fuel rods. Nope they have no real use once used except to be wrangled over about where they will be stored until they stop being radioactive and how to keep them out of the hands of terrorists, etc.

            Speaking of radioactivity; what do we do with the old, no longer safe to use, outdated nuclear power plants anyway? There’s all that big area, that huge building that really can’t be used for anything else because, duh, it’s radioactive in a lot of spots.

            That’s the pollution we face from nuclear power plants that don’t have any problems. These plants can have problems because they were built poorly. Trouble can come from poorly trained or inept operators. Problems can also come, as we know, from the plant being situated near earthquake zones, placed where it could be hit by tsunami or threatened by wild fire. Add all of that in and we have a whole lot more to worry about.

            Nuclear power plants are non-polluting my, ah-hem, tree hugging underpants.

Alt. Op. #48 Fire Departments, Mention of South Fulton, and some history

            My goodness! Aren’t we all glad we don’t live in South Fulton! Saw this on the Yahoo page and wondered what the heck happened until I read the story. Seems that if you live outside of South Fulton and don’t pay the $75 yearly fire protection fee to the South Fulton fire dept. they won’t put a drop of water on your burning property or do anything unless a life is in danger.  The Mayor of South Fulton defended his city’s position by pointing out that if they did go ahead and put out the fires of those who hadn’t paid the fee then there would be no incentive for folks to pay the fee that helps with the up keep and maintenance of the city’s fire equipment. I’m guessing it also goes a way’s toward paying the firefighters, their health insurance and other such as well.

            Believe it or not that’s the way a lot of fire departments were set up back when they were first being organized. Later the insurance companies got in on the deal to. In fact those insurance companies actually funded some of the fire brigades and those brigades were not allowed to fight fires on property NOT insured by their ‘boss’. Back then a lot of commercial buildings especially, had big emblems painted or bolted on them to indicate which insurance company covered them and thus, which fire brigade could save them.

            Later someone got the idea of paying fire brigades for fighting fires. Then you’d have the sight of two or even three different and competing fire brigades showing up at a fire and fighting each other rather than the fire! But that was then and South Fulton is, thankfully, THERE!

            Here in Hunt County we have several all volunteer fire Departments as well as two different paid departments. One of which is in Greenville and the other in Commerce. The department in Commerce is aided by the Commerce Emergency Corp which is also an all volunteer group. There are even volunteer fire departments in neighboring counties that will respond into Hunt County if one of the Hunt County Departments needs help or, for some reason can’t respond themselves.

            Some of you may ask: “And just what would keep an all volunteer department from responding to a fire or medical emergency call!” Not, thankfully, that you didn’t pay your fire fees! Not here! Here the problem is often simple man (or woman!) power. Here, depending on the time of the incident, there just might not be any one in town who can respond! The members of the various fire departments, being volunteers, must also work for a living as well as do other things like mow the lawn, do the dishes, cook supper, take the kids to school, go to school functions, go shopping or even, just kick back and enjoy a well earned beer. Now, if they’ve just taken one sip of that beer and a call comes in, they can’t respond! That is for their and your safety! Then there is the problem caused by the fact that most folks work on first shift. That means there are few folks handy for anything during those hours. Just those who are off work for some reason, work for themselves, don’t have a job, or work on second or third shift.

            “Say!” you may think about now. “What’s the alternative opinion in this article?” Well, It’s not really alternative at all, I suppose.My opinion is that it would really be nice if we had some second or third shift workers on the Lone Oak Fire Department. Heck, retirees who are still active enough to get out there and beat down a grass fire would be good to!

            Of course if finding out about the South Fulton fire department makes you feel like  maybe you should send some cash to your local volunteer fire department. I’m sure they’d appreciate the donation. It’d sure help pay for gas to get to any emergency's.

Alt. Op. #47 What-cha gonna do when the well runs dry?

            My fingers are cold as I type this.

            No, the power is still on or I couldn’t be keyboarding this into the computer. No, I haven’t turned the central heat off. In fact its set at a temperature that lots of folks considered comfy this summer if maybe a little warm.  I set it at 66. So I’m used to seventy or so! I usually had the central air set at 75 during the day and 69 or 70 at night during the summer. Most of the spring and fall I didn’t even use it.

            Problem is this cold snap has got me to thinking troubling thoughts. This nice house of mine, while I appreciate it and am grateful to have it, has its draw backs. While it is well insulated it isn’t oriented so that the longest side faces south so that I could catch the winter sun for extra warmth. The Law said, I was told when I requested that orientation, the front of the house had to face the nearest public road. That road runs north/south so now the longest sides of my house face into the morning sun and the setting sun. Not a good thing during the summer. I am trying to think of ways I can afford that will capture that passive solar energy and use it to good purpose. Right now I’d love it if I had a small narrow green house on the south end of my house.

            The most troubling thought I have about this house is that it is an ALL ELECTRIC house with central heat and air. Yes, I do like the central heat and air. I remember all too well my old house where the temperatures during high summer and low winter would make it nearly impossible to use the kitchen and made the bathroom seem more like an outhouse. (Ever set on a really cold toilet seat?) Why does the fact that my house is all electric bother me? It’s great now, but what do I do if the power goes off for some reason? And stays off for a long time? I know there are some of you out there shrugging and saying, “Pack up some clothes, your dog and cat, and go stay with relatives or friends.” So, what do I do if I can’t for some reason? A blizzard for example, or a region wide power loss due to ice, wind, or some other weirdness that can and has happened elsewhere could keep me in place for a long time without power.

            I know others of you out there are just grinning and shaking your heads. “Silly girl!” you say to yourselves, “If it worries you that much just go buy a nice big generator.” To which I reply, “So how will I pay the ridiculous cost of the gasoline or diesel to run that generator?”

            By now you are all rolling your eyes and thinking, “Give us a break, Montgomery!” To which I tartly reply. “NO. I will not. I want YOU to think about how you would live if the electricity went away.” I mean that. How would you cook your food? So you have a grill outside. All well and good, but then what do you do if it’s raining out and you don’t have a covered patio, deck or some other safe place you can use such a thing. Don’t even think of bringing it inside the house, you’ll kill yourselves! Speaking of inside the house, how will you stay warm if it’s cold, or survive the heat if it’s hot out or even open food cans with no power opener?

            My point is houses should not be built with only one source for power, for heating, cooling, cooking and keeping food. Yes, electricity is convenient and easy. But it is also easy to interrupt and often hard to reconnect. Think about it.

Alt OP. #46 Weeds for lunch

Well, I finely found someplace this weekend where the folks at least half way understand me when I get off on my Permaculture stuff. I actually used the word Permaculture and Hugelkulture while I was talking to them and . . . They knew what I was talking about!!!

This place is even in Hunt County, though it is north of Greenville and even a little N. E. of Celeste on 272. The place is called Good Earth Organic Farms (they are online, look it up). You can go there and pick up some organic produce just about any old day I think. They are also planning on having more classes similar to the one I was there for when I started talking about my favorite subject.

The class was on wild food and it was very informative. Fortunately the young lady teaching the class warned us that it was highly unlikely that we would remember all of the plants we would be shown growing in the wild that day. It is fortunate because, sadly I remember only a few.

Most of them were greens, I do remember that. She mentioned Poke Salet but that is a spring green and not available right now. However, the various types of Dock are. They had some Yellow Dock growing near their hay barn and it was rather tasty. At least the younger leaves were. One of the others in the class noted that one of the Dock plants had put up stems with clusters of dark brown seeds. He asked if those were edible and the instructor said they were. Just pop them in a grinder or blinder as you would whole wheat and grind them to a flour consistency. She told us we wouldn't have to thresh the Dock seeds like we would the wheat to remove the chaff as the Docks hulls were also edible. We moved on through the sheep pastures and to the garden areas where there were various tasty goodies growing between the rows of normal garden plants. Now remember this is an organic farm so there have been no pesticides or dangerous petroleum based fertilizers applied to the fields. Thus we could simply pluck the weeds and eat. There were lambs quarters which were quite tasty as I remember. Sadly I don’t remember what they looked like well enough to trust I’d be picking the right thing in my own yard. There was also clover. Yes. People, as well as live stock, can eat clover. Another plant, related to mint she said, is one with lovely little purple flowers. Bee’s love it too for the flowers of course, but the leaves do have a hint of mint to them. Can’t remember the name. I even found out that an odd looking plant I've been seeing around my barns is actually edible. I’ve been calling it the paper lantern plant because the obvious seed pod looks sort of like a little Chinese paper lantern. It is actually called a Ground Cherry and each little ‘lantern’ carries a small cherry that is ripe when it turns a dark purple. It tastes slightly like a tomato and is related to that plant as well as the tomatillo.

One of the most surprising edibles I encountered that day was the Choke Berry Tree. Those little red to reddish brown berries that appear in the fall and then seem to hang on forever are edible!! The instructor had about a cup of the berries that she had harvested earlier and rinsed off. She put them in a blinder with about two cups of water and blended them for a fairly long time. (At least it seemed so to me) Then she strained the mixture through a “paint strainer” cloth bag she’d bought for this use and viola! Choke Berry milk.

 Ah, no. I was not overly impressed with it, but then I don’t like cow milk either. I would have added some sugar and cinnamon to the mix as I do with real milk, but others there liked it as it was. So all in all I had an interesting Sunday this past weekend.

It’s always bound to be interesting when you can say you had weeds for lunch.

Alt Op.#45 The coming Fall and What can save us

Now, as I remember last week’s article was a downer where I went on about how the economy and the civilization it supports is likely not long for this world because they are both so unsustainable. I still stand by that. Especially with all the changes in our climate that are going on.

Honestly folks this is a geologically and climatologically active planet we live on. It’s just been napping for a century or two and us short lived humans will just have to get on board with the new way nature works or take a hard fall.

Now, as I see it, one of the hang ups of our modern civilization is that it just does not allow for change. At least not change like we are seeing it now and will continue to see it in the future. We have come to depend way to heavily on Big Brother and the ever popular “Somebody” who is supposed to take care of us, our things, and our way of life, keeping it from changing, so that we can just keep toddling along with a frown on our faces complaining about taxes and how big government interferes in our lives.

Yes, we do that. Just think about it a bit.

To illustrate the point I tried to make above, here is a tidbit I read somewhere, possibly on the internet. Those areas of Mississippi that did NOT wait for government assistance or money; did not stop and ask “where’s FEMA?” or “What if we do something that will keep us from getting relief (money) from the government”, those are the area’s that were being rebuilt and prospering while those that cried about how the government wasn't helping them were not.

Yes, the places where the government finely did jump in got those nifty trailers and tons of cash eventually poured in. As far as I know a lot of those trailers are still there and some of the money has been spent fixing what was destroyed but the rest of the cash? Who knows. Yeah, I know. A lot of what I’m saying here is “hearsay” as I can’t remember where I read it or even how reliable some of the reports were. But it makes sense to me that if you sit around on your hands waiting for someone, anyone else, to do for you nothing will get done and you will be in the same place, the same situation until you get up off your buttocks, and use your own hands to do for yourself.

That brings me back to what can be done about this fall of civilization, of the economy, that I see coming. What can we do? The answer as I see it is not simple, not easy and probably not popular as it will require looking at the world around us in a new way. It may even require us to give up some old and cherished
points of view and ways of life. This complex and difficult path is, surprisingly, fairly well laid out within an idea, a way that has a name. A name that has been copy righted so that only those actually trained and
receiving a certificate stating that they have been so trained, can legally use it to describe themselves or their work with it. That word is Permaculture.

Yes, I’ve used that word a lot. I can’t afford to travel to the places where the training in Permaculture design is given nor can I afford the classes. Thus you will not hear me say that I am a Permaculture Designer. I am
just a poor old gal that is trying to use the ideas and methods of Permaculture to improve my land, lower my impact on the local ecosystem, and maybe even grow some food. To get a look at this stuff for yourself go to www.permies.com or just Google the word Permaculture.

Alt OP #44 Sustainability

As some of you may have gathered from last weeks article I’m on my sustainability kick again. Oh, and yes, that really was an opinion piece. My opinion being that Mr. Fukuoka has the right idea and that his ideas, modified to fit our climate and land will work here.

Yeah, I know. He doesn't use any of the big machinery we Americans are so fond of. No big combine rolling down the rows of corn, wheat, or even rice and spitting out tons of grain into a big ol’ dump truck rolling beside it. Just a lot of folks swinging scythes as they walk through a field, then maybe using a simple machine to thresh and gather up the grain before they haul the straw back into the field.

Sounds down right primitive. But isn't one of the problems we have right now in our nice high tech, big machine civilization unemployment? That big combine only takes one man, or woman to run it. Only one person is needed to run the truck that follows beside to catch the grain. Yeah, I know. You also need “behind the scenes” types to fuel, maintain, build, and make parts for those machines. But other things are going on back there too. Things that are, going to help bring us all down. The environment is being mauled to get the materials (metals and such) and the energy (oil, coal) to build and run those big machines. Then there is the literal killing off of every life form but the crop being grown that is done when you use pesticides, herbicides and, yes, even chemical fertilizers. This leaves you with dead, sterile soil that can’t grow anything unless it does get those chemical fertilizers. Guess where almost all of those things come from, folks.

 Oil. And oil is not going to be getting cheep ever again. Ever.

As to why oil isn’t ever going to be cheep again, I’ll leave that to you all out there. I believe it is simply because we've already pulled out all the oil that is available and that if we want more we will just have to wait the geologic eons it takes to make more. I do know that a lot of you out there think that there is this big stock pile somewhere that the country could run on for years. To which I reply. So?

So what if there is a big ol’ pot of oil stashed out there somewhere that the country could run on for what? Two years? Three? Maybe even five. Do you all realize how much oil that would be?! Just think people.
Think about how many cars are on the road right now, how many big diesel trucks are hauling produce, material, finished products or even out there fighting fires. Then there are the airplanes, the ships, the lawn mowers and the weed eaters as well as the chain saws and the golf carts. Do you really believe there is
enough room anywhere to store that much oil without someone knowing about it and blabbing?

Maybe back during simpler times. Not now. Remember Wiki-leaks. But let’s just suppose there IS such a pot of stored up oil. Now lets suppose further that we go ahead and use it. Then what? We’ll have one to five more years of living just like we are now before the whole civilization we've built on the availability of cheep, plentiful, energy falls down around our ears and on our heads. Sad thing is a lot of the stuff we think can save us, those big, humongous, wind generators, and the solar panels to make electricity when the wind doesn't blow, guess what is needed to make those?
 Yep. Oil. Cheep energy.

Might oughta think about putting in an all season, organic garden. While you can.

Alt Op #43 Seed Balls

Okay. So here I sit considering the idea of Seed Balls. I can almost see you now, gentle readers. You are either blinking and saying “Huh?” or rolling your eye’s and thinking:  “Hooo Boy. Here we go again!” Most of you are likely asking what the heck I mean by seed balls. Do you eat them or what?

Well, you toss them. As to where you toss them, it depends on what you've made them of. If you made them of a mix of wild flower seeds then you toss them into whatever area of your yard, field, or drainage ditch that you want decorated with bright flowers this spring. On the other hand if you made the balls of say, winter wheat, clover and other assorted small, winter hardy grains then you toss them around your pasture. Then you maybe shred the weeds that are all over it (well, you do if it’s like my pasture) and then just let those weeds lay there and protect those seed balls while the seeds in them sprout. Nope. You don’t plow, till or otherwise tear up the soil. The most you do is mow. Then you turn your cattle, horse, or goats out on the stuff for short times as each seed starts to mature. Ideally you've used a mix of seeds that grow and mature at different rates so that you get plant A coming up first. It gets eaten down or pulled up by the grazing critters or by you harvesting it. Then as plant B has already germinated and just started to come up you don’t have naked ground showing while the next crop comes in. Then plant C starts coming up and you graze or harvest plant B. Get the picture? There’s this guy in Japan that does something
similar with rice.

Bear with me now, his name is Masanobu Fukuoka and he’s written this neat little book called “The One-Straw Revolution.” Yes! Of course it’s been translated to English!

Mr. Fukuoka is a proponent of what he calls “do-nothing” agriculture. And no you don’t get out of doing any farming. You still have to sow, and harvest but mostly you have to watch what’s going on. He claims he can get his whole years sowing done in a week or so then just wait, and watch, while he floods, and drains, his fields. He doesn't even leave the water in his rice fields as long as most other rice farmers do. He uses no insecticides, no fertilizer (other than an occasional thin coating of chicken manure, he used to use ducks but that’s another story) and no big machinery. Not even the old style water buffalo. Yet he has harvests at least equal to the per acre output of the big factory farms in the most ‘productive’ part of Japan.

Mr. Fukuoka points out early in his book and often later on that while his methods work very well for his particular farm in his particular area of Japan, they must be tweaked to work on other farms in other parts of Japan. He stated flat out that his exact method will not work here in North America. Our weather is different, our wet seasons come at different times and, well, it’s just different here. He even points out that he doesn't do the exact same thing every year! After all one year is never exactly like the last one, now is it.
Some times the rains are a little late or a lot lighter than before. So while you planted say in the middle of September last year you have to wait until October this year. In case you wonder, I do recommend this
book to all my fellow gardeners, and local farmers. Mr. Fukuoka holds farming in high regard as both a physical and spiritual activity.

There is a good deal of philosophy in this book and spiritual references but he does not ‘push’ any particular religion. He quotes the Buddha and the Bible with ease.

Alt OP #42 . . . I hope

But first! An apology for taking so long to post more. I've been in the process of switching out computers and darned if the 'new' one, being newer, has decided it can't read the word program the other alternative opinions were written in. Sigh. Happily I am backlogged on deleting things from my email inbox and those contain the prose you see below and in about three or more future posts. All I had to do is figure out how to do it on this new interface, program, whatever you call it. But I did figure it out so here ya go. Hopefully I haven't missed any.


Enjoy. 

“But first . . .,” How often have you said or heard that? I seem to say it a lot. I hear it a lot to. Usually it works like this: “I need to hang this picture, but first I need to move that book shelf so the step ladder will set closer to the wall for me to reach where I want the nail, but first I have to find the hammer to hammer the
nail.” It can go on and on down to finding a place to stack the books so you can move the book case and end with having to dust the books before you put them back in the book case after you've finely hung that cotton picking picture!

I and a friend call this the “but first! Disease.” It’s when you find yourself standing there knowing what you want to do and going over all the things that are in the way of you just hauling off and DOING whatever it is. It has been the end of many of my pet projects. Usually, it’s because: “but first I need to get the money!” Of course that can sometimes be gotten around, the money issue anyway. The real problem is that when you try to do some things without money the but firsts pile up so high it’s just too much! You either loose track of what the heck it was you planned to do in the first place or, worse, you discover that trying to do it without an up front cash lay out is going to cost you more than that cash lay out!

Don’t get me wrong this “but first” thing can be useful when you are trying to either get out of doing some thing you really don’t want to or to point out that you really need more time (or pay!) for doing a job. “Sure I can paint your house for only a couple hundred, but first you’d have to buy the paint and brushes, supply the scaffolding, the wire brush and scrappers for cleaning off the old paint . . .” See what I mean. Trouble is we sometimes take this but first thing to extremes and let it keep us from doing things that really need doing.

Take Congress, they seem to think they really can control every single aspect of American life so as to make us all safe, secure, happy, and healthy. They and we, seem to have forgotten that while life and liberty are guaranteed by the Constitution, the only guarantee we have for happiness is the pursuit of it. If we can’t
catch the sucker, tough. They (the ones who want to control Congress, the Government, Etc.) are going to give us all kinds of goodies to make our life one of leisure, jobs that pay us loads of money, health care out the wazoo, AND lower taxes! But first! But first they have to get total control of the whole government so no one can tell them they can’t do these wonderful things for us! Uh-huh.

Yep.

Guess what. That would mean even we the people couldn't tell them they couldn't do whatever came into their little pea brains to think we the people really needed . . . Whether we wanted it or not!

Yeah, I know. I used that dreadful, anonymous “They” in the preceding paragraphs. Just who the heck am I accusing of this heinous plot anyway? Oh, just the Democrats, the Republicans, the Tea Party, the Right to
Lifers, the Right to Choosers, the Liberals, the Conservatives, and all those other folks that think they have to be the ones in charge of telling us what to do and not do.

No, I do most certainly NOT suggest we should try to live without any laws at all. I’m way to old to survive the kind of civilization anarchy would bring about. I just think all we really need are general directions like: “Don’t kill or beat up folks cause you don’t like them or just cause you can, live by the Golden Rule, take care of your self, and act civilized even if you aren't.”

Alt Op #41 Do We Really need Such a High Formal Education?

It always seems to surprise me when I see something on TV news that seems to support something I’ve said. This very evening on the news I saw this report where a manufacturer reported being worried that he would soon be unable to hire skilled workers, skilled technicians to work for him. The one job they actually mentioned was, ya ready for this? Welding. Yep. Remember back a few articles ago when I was ranting about how maybe some kids just really didn’t need to go to college? That maybe even my over educated self would have been far better off when I moved out here if I had a welding certificate rather than a Masters Degree in Broad Field Earth Science.

Now here’s this report on national TV saying that American industry is running out of workers who can do skilled labor. That’s folks who can actually MAKE STUFF rather than push paper around on a desk, fill out forms, or make presentations for a business, a product or whatever. Now the wild thing is why these folks fear they will soon be unable to find these skilled workers. Seems the Vocational Education in most schools is being cut.

Yep. Seems kids today are basically being told, you can go on to some Jr. College and four year University OR you can flip burgers for the rest of your life. Nothing in between like welding, machining, carpentry, or even the technical side of the high tech revolution. You know the side that builds the machines or actually takes care of folks like nurses do. So who’s going to do that if we don’t let kids who’d rather mess with that stuff than spend endless hours and money they might not have getting a higher education they don‘t really want?

This is supposed to be a rural community here in Lone Oak. That means that, theoretically at least, most folks out here make a living off of the land. They grow food of one kind or another, for people and animals, they grow fiber. In other words they keep the rest of the country fed, clothed and supplied with numerous things they take for granted. Do the local kids in 4H or any of the Ag classes really get any encouragement to keep doing that? Don’t think so. Some of what I’ve heard is that the Ag department is shrinking. I’m guessing due to lack of funding.

Now I do not subscribe to the idea I’ve sensed in some areas that farmers and ranchers are dumb, narrow minded, resistant to change or anti-technology. Anybody who can fix a hay baler with spit, hope and baling wire is probably as smart as any big time engineer, maybe smarter and way more practical. I also know that if it looks like it will work for them they will be the first in line to jump on a new technology as well as the first to drop it if it turns out to be a dud.

So why are the schools dropping vocational ed and cutting back on teaching Ag?

Heck if I know. Same reason they are cutting out PE and complaining that the kids are getting fat for all I know? Yep. I know. They blame lower funding for the schools. But come on here folks. Dose it really take that much cash money to do a really good job of teaching? Yeah, you got to pay the teachers and the better they are the more you better pay them to keep them there teaching your kids. But then the teachers are like the guy on the line welding stuff together. They are making a product. They are the ones who should get the good pay, I say, not the folks with the fancy degree (fancier in the case of teachers) shuffling papers on a nice big desk while sitting in a comfy chair. They should also be let to do their jobs instead of baby sitting or trying to use politically correct language to tell parents that Johnny would read better if there was stuff at home for him to read or if he ever saw his parents reading. And maybe just maybe, little Anna Bell really would rather be a nurse than a doctor or even a farmer! We all need to realize that there are real jobs out there that are extremely important that don't get paid enough, but should at least get some respect for the folks who do them and do them well.

Alt Op # 40, Economic downer

Lots of bright minds in DC and other places are coming up with all kinds of plans to “Save the Economy.” Well, folks, here is where I get not only alternative but down right gloomy.

I don’t think the “economy” that we have developed over the last century or so can be saved. I don’t think it can be saved because it is inherently unsustainable. Why do I believe that? Who am I to say such a thing? I’m a regular gal. Slightly over educated, but not in economics. But I read all kinds of things from all kinds of places. I’m not the only one who thinks our present economy is doomed. As to why I agree that it is doomed, keep reading.

Our economy today is dependent on one and only one energy source. If you don’t get your energy from that then you don’t get, by our economy’s standards, “enough to do anything.” No, that energy source in not electricity. That is just how we use a lot of it. The real, the basic energy source is fossil fuel. Oh, here is where I might point out that even the uranium used in nuclear reactors is a fossil fuel, perhaps the oldest one, left over from the very formation of the planet.

That dependency on fossil fuel wouldn’t be quite so bad if we used them, and had always used them, in a wise and frugal manner. But we didn’t and with the outlook our economy insists we have in today’s society we never will. We use them lavishly and wastefully.

We are using them that way even though they are no longer cheap and easy to get. You’ve all read the horror stories about “fracking” as it relates to the process of getting oil or gas out of non-permeable shale. Want to know why we are only now finding out about this problem? Because until now the oil and gas folks didn’t need to do any fracking where people rich enough or close enough to a big city TV station could bitch about it. The only reason they do it where they do it now is because they have to. Why? Because there ain’t no more else where!

Yep, that is one of the big reasons the economy is, in my opinion going to go bust. We are running out of the stuff we use to make it go. Coal? HA! What they’d have to do to make that run your car or truck is way more expensive than gas is now. Yeah, it could power an electric car, but without a lot of filtering the smoke from the stacks would have us all suffering from COPD before long.

Then there is the basic outlook our economics has taught us to have. We deserve a raise just because we showed up for work most days and were generally on time. We think we deserve a raise even if the cost of living our life dose not go up.

Why? If we have enough to live on, enough to eat, keep reasonably warm in winter, cool in summer and stay dry and comfy when it rains, and friends / family to keep us company, why do we need more money? More stuff? Human nature? Maybe. Maybe not. Somehow I think our present wastrel life style has taught us this outlook. Now we throw out things even our grandparents would have repaired and kept using. These wasteful habits of ours are really rather new to our culture and will end it.

What to do, specifically what to do NOW to survive the end of oil and the modern economy? Start a sustainable food garden. Read up on Permaculture. Learn to walk again. Help any interested neighbors start their own gardens. Work with nature, not against it.

Alt Op # 39 : Don't call me! Call 911!

Okay folks, this is just a little silly. In the past month two different folks have called me to tell me that there was either a fire somewhere or that there had been and now there was smoke somewhere it shouldn’t be.

First, thanks for the vote of confidence, BUT!

Don’t call me, or any other person you know to be a volunteer firefighter when there is an emergency situation. If there is a grass fire headed toward your property; house or barns, or if there is smoke inside your house for some odd reason call 911, don’t call someone on the fire department! 911 is the fastest way to get someone there to help you.

Okay if you just want to know if there is still a burn ban on, or if it’s a good idea to set off fireworks go ahead and call up your friend on the VFD. But if it is an emergency and you need help call 911! Calling a member of the department will not really get help there any faster. Calling them second might get them to the fire house ahead of the others.

Remember most real emergencies, medical, fire, or accident usually require more than one person and even specialized equipment like fire trucks or an AED and not every single person on the department can use ALL the equipment. If you call 911 and tell them what the problem is they can tell the local VFD faster than one of the members can call up everybody on the phone. Then we all go to the firehouse, get what we need and get to where ever we need to go.

And that brings me to another big problem. When you call 911 know where you are! Know where the problem is! If you call from a land line the address you are calling from shows up at the 911 office, but it helps if you also tell the dispatcher your address number and road. Then you can elaborate a bit and say it’s this or that color house with something noticeable (if anything) out front. If they ask you can give them simple, clear directions. You should have also told them exactly what the emergency is. Maybe you burnt that pot of beans and the house is full of smoke and all you need is a big fan to blow the smoke out. That’s fine. Make sure they know that’s what you need so they can tell the VFD. If your friend just fell down after complaining of a sudden pain in his left arm and stopped breathing, be sure they know that and be ready to do what they tell you to do.

However, if there’s smoke in your house or it’s on fire don’t even bother calling 911 until you and your family is out of the house! And don’t go back in! Use a cell phone or your neighbors phone and call 911 from OUTSIDE the house.

If you use a cell phone to call 911 about an emergency on the road or otherwise, be very sure you can tell them where you are. Preferably something like “Hwy 69 near the water tower just north of 513.” or “the water tower north of the river bridges.” Be as specific as you can. It’s very frustrating to be wandering up and down roads trying to find somebody who’s called for help when you’ve only been given a very general location like “somewhere on 513!” when the actual problem is at the fourth house east of 513 on 21whatever and THAT is actually closer to, say 2947 than to 513. See what I mean.

When you need help you almost always need it quick. So call 911 rather than an individual. After all it is entirely possible that all the volunteers on the VFD could be at work and/or out of town at the particular time you need help. If that happens and you only call your friend on the department then you are, as they say, S. O. L. But if you call 911, give them a good idea of the problem and an accurate address and/or good directions then one of the surrounding VFD’s can come help you. Or at least come looking for you if you don't give them an address or good directions.

Alt Op #38 Buzzes and bites

This time I’d like to talk about buzzwords and sound bites.

First let me give you a definition of these two words. Buzzword means: a fashionable word or concept, often associated with a particular group of people and not understood by outsiders (informal)
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Sound bite, on the other hand, means : brief broadcast remark: a very short comment or phrase intended or suitable for broadcasting in a news program, especially one by a politician. Their use is often regarded as demonstrating superficiality and glibness.
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

There is even a game called buzzword bingo that can be played when you know you will be sitting through a boring meeting or speech likely to be loaded with the things. You simply make up a bingo card before the meeting with a list of the most likely buzzwords the speaker will use and then pass it out to your friends. A number of words used for a ‘bingo’ is decided on and when you are able to check of that number of words on your card you either yell ‘bingo’ or, if you just don’t want to get in trouble then you raise your hand and ask a question, dealing with the subject, that has the word bingo in it somewhere.

Sounds like something we should all do when listening to either the news or political speeches. It might make it harder for them to lead us blindly about with these kinds of words.

The problem is that while these words may have once actually carried a definite meaning, buzzwords especially as they are usually taken from a technical jargon of some kind or other, that meaning has usually been lost or diluted when it becomes popularly used. “Green” for instance. Once it was just a color. Then it became a movement. Then it became a descriptive for a special form of whatever other word it was tacked onto as a descriptive. We now have “green power”, “green fuels”, “green economy”, and any number of other “green” things. It has become as bad as the word “lite” or “light” and just as misleading or, in this case; fattening!

Sound bites are just as bad. We all think we know what they mean. But these short groups of words that may or may not stir the soul one way or the other, have been taken completely out of context and used that way so often I doubt some of us even know what they once really meant.

One that bothers me, that I have heard recently is “Class War.” It was being used to refer to the idea, a splendid one in my opinion, that maybe; just maybe, those who have scads of money should pay the same tax rate as everyone else. Not MORE than everyone else, just the SAME as everyone else.

Now I’m not against people who have a lot of money. I’d really like to be one someday. I’d have no problem paying taxes on what I earned then, just as I have none paying what I owe now. How dose that make the very idea the opening shot of a “class war?”

Alt Op # 37, Alternative book lists

Well, school is back in session and some kids are being taught, despite the teachers best intentions, that reading is painfully dull, boring, and uninteresting. They are learning that it is something that often must be done, like it or not, to get information to pass tests or perform tasks.

Yeah. Some books are like that. Text books in particular. But, honestly, there are a LOT of books out there that are WOW! Just that, folks, wow. They can blow you away. They can yank your self / home town centered brain right out of your skull, strap a faster than light unit on it, and set a course for. . . Well, for the grandest adventures you never thought of before!

Uh-huh. You got it. I am a reading fool. I started reading young and I still read. When folks ask me how many books I read in a year I get glassy eyed, then I have to ask, "Does that include the ones I’ve re-read?"

Honestly, I usually can’t tell how many books I’ve read because I lose track! Ask some other folks how many songs they’ve listened too! That’s me, only with reading. Books, magazine articles, even stuff I can find online!

My opinion of why kids get turned off reading, other than never seeing Mom or Dad read anything and there being nothing to actually read in the house, is that the stuff that educators tell them is good to read; well, it isn’t all that great. I shudder when I remember some of the stuff I had to read for my English classes in Jr. High and High School. I can summarize them all with one word. BOR-R-R-R-R-ING!

To that end I have compiled a list of five books for "juvenile" readers and another five for "older" readers. Some of these are series’ of books. At least one group you will find familiar.

JUVENILE BOOKS:
1) Any of the Asimov Juvenile books, particularly the Lucky Star series. Yes, a lot of the science in them is now outdated, but the books are still hard core SF.
2) Ditto for the Heinlein Juvenile books.
3) The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
4) Any book by Andre Norton
5) The Harry Potter books ( I said you’d recognize at least one!)

BOOKS FOR OLDER READERS:
Okay, there will be some repeats here. Some of the above books have stuff in them that younger readers just don’t see. I didn’t. The wow got bigger when I reread them as an "adult!"
1) The Hobbit AND The Lord of the Ring.
2) The Power of Myth by J. Campbell
3) A Brief History of Time by S. Hawking
4) Harry Potter, trust me. Older folks get even more out of it.
5) Way Station by Clifford D. Simak

Of course I also recommend just about anything you can find in the science fiction, fantasy, adventure and mystery section of the library or book store of your choice. These are the kind of books that can open up your mind and get you to thinking outside of the box you live in now. I decided to limit myself to just five each but I could go on and mention other authors like Anne McCaffery, Glenn Cook, . . .Oh, yeah, I said I’d limit myself to five.

Oh, science books are good to. Just scarier cause it’s well, real!

Alt. Op # 36. I Remember 9/11

We are coming up on a ten year anniversary. One I do not have an alternative opinion about. It hits way to close to home even though, technically, it never affected anyone I knew personally.

The week before I’d found out that I would indeed be getting that new job in Quality Control at a slight, ever so slight, increase in pay. I’d also learned that I’d have to go through some on the job training. I’d looked at my old clunker and decided I just could not take the chance that it would fail me as I was starting a new job. Besides my birthday would be that very Saturday! My best friend had already said she would be treating me to a movie so, just to feel special that Sept. eighth, I’d put on my nicest pair of shorts and a nicer than usual blouse. I even accessorized a little with a necklace and went to look at cars on the way back from picking which movie I wanted to see. I left the car lot, in debt but driving a truck that had not seen the light of day before 1995! I was feeling good.

Tuesday morning, September 11, I was still feeling good. The new job was ever so much more technical than just standing there shoving plastic pipe into a machine then pulling out the finished product. It at least engaged a larger portion of my brain. Besides I was driving a brand new (to me anyway) pick-um-up truck! The morning sky was a deep beautiful blue and it was not too cold or to hot. It was a perfect morning to be driving home from a third shift job that had just become a lot more interesting. The radio even worked in my new truck so I turned it to my favorite oldies station from Dallas.

They weren’t playing music at that point but I was used to that as the DJ’s during the morning rush hour were always joking and joshing about all kinds of things. This time they seemed kind of serious. I heard them discussing the breaking news about an airplane crashing into one of the World Trade Center buildings. They talked about how there were two extremely tall buildings very near the river. Some one suggested that maybe it was one of the tour planes that had somehow gone badly off course. As I turned off of highway fifty on to the north end of 513 at the Campbell exit it was solemnly announced that yet another airplane had crashed into the other building and that something had blown up in Washington, D. C.

They played music occasionally, mostly I suspected, so they could pay attention to a TV or other radio reports. I kept that radio on all the way home.

When I got there the first thing I did was turn on the TV. There the horror played out in full color. There were reruns of the planes crashing into the buildings, reports from D.C. showing, at first a column of black smoke in the distance, then from nearer to the Pentagon as time passed.

Meanwhile there were reports of people jumping from the heights of the World Trade Centers burning buildings. Long range camera’s showed the cluster of fire trucks around the base of the buildings, the ambulances, some with doors ajar waiting to whisk the injured away.

Then there was the news of that airplane crashing into some field because the passengers resisted the hijackers. Those passengers saved DC they said, as that is where that plain was apparently headed.

Unlike some, I had some idea, slight but there, of what was going on inside those two tall buildings. Inside people of all stripes who worked in those structures were trying to go down the stairs few of them ever saw.
As they sought to escape, men wearing heavy, oh, so heavy, bunker gear and carrying hoses, axes and other heavy instruments of fire fighting were going up as fast as they could. I know that to a man the fire fighters  intent was to save as many lives as they could while putting out the fire before it could consume more property. After all. That is the job of any fire fighter. The EMT’s were there too, getting to the people who just couldn’t go any further and helping them. Doing what they do, everyday. Helping the ill, the injured.

Then one of the camera’s started focusing on one of the corners of one of the buildings. I felt a mild stirring of disgust. Was this fool looking for someone to film as they jumped, choosing death by falling, over burning or choking to death on acrid smoke? I looked closer at the image on the screen. No one would be jumping from that area, I realized. The fire burned there, licking through shattered windows. Then I noted how the edge, the corner of the building, seemed to be bowing outward. "Oh, that’s not good." I thought. Moments later it happened.

There on live television I watched as the first and then the second tower fell as if they were the object of a poorly planned and badly executed implosion. I found myself shivering, quivering as I sat there unable to move.

I heard a voice plaintively asking, "But what about the firefighters? What about the EMT’s?" I realized the voice was mine and that I had gone into a kind of dry eyed shock.

I managed to get up and go feed my animals. I managed to eat something myself. I even went to bed and slept. When I got up that evening I learned that all air craft were grounded and I had the odd experience of feeding my critters their evening meal with no contrails from passenger jets crossing the evening sky and glowing in the setting sun.

Of course I watched the news and saw the towers fall again and again. Learned that so many thousand civilians and hundreds of fire fighters and EMT’s had been lost. I saw the mangled remains of dust coated fire trucks. Those mangled trucks somehow brought it home harder.

When I left for work I sadly realized that I no longer had any joy in my new truck and that my fascinating new job had already become just that, a job.

And yes, the next time my pager went off, I like my fellow volunteers, jumped in our cars or trucks and headed to the fire house. What else could we do. Our Brothers in New York would have expected no less.

Alt Op #35, Water conservation?

You all may remember me complaining about bureaucracy last week or the week before. There’s an example of it right on our water bill. Lone Oak, as well as most other cities in this area have a contract with Cash water. It’s the same all over Texas, I hear. Different cities, different water companies, but still the same.

What chaps is that most of these companies right now are yelling for us to conserve water as we are in the midst of a drought. That in and of itself is not the bureaucratic problem that I see.

The problem is that these companies have a contract with the local cities that guarantee’s them a ‘stable income.’ I see no problem with that as I’m all for folks making a profit. I’d love to make one myself. The problem is that while we are in the midst of this drought these water companies are unwilling to back up their demand that we conserve water with any real reward for good behavior.

"Duh, isn’t the reward for good behavior NOT getting a fine?" you may be snorting in derision right now. Yeah, I can see that, but you may be missing one little bit of the puzzle.

These water companies guarantee their stable income by having the cities sign up for a specified amount of water per month to be sent to their cities. The cities in question must then pay for that amount of water whether they use it or not.

Generally this is not a problem as they pass this cost along to their citizens.

Those of us here in Lone Oak all are (or should be) aware that we have a two thousand gallon minimum on our water bill for water usage. In other words, if we use only that two thousand gallons of water or less every month, then we will pay only a minimum set amount every month (comes in handy when you are planning your personal budget). If, on the other hand, we use a varying amount of water every month, two thousand this month, two thousand fifty next, then fifteen hundred, then fill up our swimming pool and use five thousand, our bills will reflect it. That is also not a problem as far as I can see, unless like me, you habitually use less than that two thousand and are on a fixed income. But if you are on a fixed income the city you live in may give you a break on your water bill. (As Lone Oak does, thank goodness!)

The problem comes in when there is a drought. Then, as a whole, we good citizens get all bent out of shape when we are told not to water our yards or else, especially when we see no relief for our pocket books on the bill for using less water. Maybe the city goes ahead and lowers our rates, mostly it doesn’t. But the real kicker is that the water company does NOT lower the cities rates! They have a contract, after all.

So, let’s say the city does an excellent job of getting it’s citizens to lower water use, and bingo! everyone uses less than two thousand gallons. What happens then? Does the city only have to pay for the smaller amount of water used? HA! Guess again, my friend! No way that happens and if the city doesn’t pay up it, and it citizens, don’t get any more water. This leads to an obvious attitude of "So there’s a drought! I’m still going to use the amount of water I’ll have to pay for anyway" from not only the citizens but the city as well.

That’s no way to save water.

If the water companies really want us to save, to conserve water they need to wake up and side step their own bureaucracies. When a drought emergency is declared they need to inform the cities and the citizens that for the duration they will only be charged for the amount of water they use. Now THAT should save water!

If the water companies want to save even more water on a constant basis they could also encourage rain water harvesting for gardening and animal use, and the use of gray water for toilet flushing. That last would even help the cities with sewer costs maybe as the volume of effluent would be lessened.

Just a couple of idea's folks. Think about it. Then start nagging the water companies.

Alt Op #34 The dread "B" word

I have been informed that last weeks opinion was not alternative but widely shared.

Dang. I must be slipping.

Let’s try this then. We will start with the discussion of a word. One that I am sure we all detest especially when we have to deal with the entity(s) it represents.

That word is: bureaucracy. According to The Merriam-Webster Dictionary 2004 edition that word means: “ 1: a body of appointive government officials 2: government marked by specialization of functions under fixed rules and a hierarchy of authority; also: an unwieldy administrative system burdened with excessive complexity and lack of flexibility”

Sounds danged familiar all the way around doesn’t it. We are surrounded by these bureaucracies and none of them like to change the way they do things. After all if they changed somebody who is part of it just might have to go find another job somewhere. Somewhere else where they will have to, OMG! Think. Worse of all by far, if there is change the bureaucracy just might have to change the way they do things or even HORRORS!!! change their paperwork.

You have all probably also noted that a bureaucracy will often cast a blind eye to common sense and punish those who want to do good or who are doing good if they have not filled out the proper paperwork, in triplicate, and gotten it signed, and notarized by all the right officials in the precise order required. Mean while those folks who do nothing but push through paperwork and get it all properly signed and notarized in just the right order by exactly the right officials get what ever they want, whenever they want it and maybe they do good with it and maybe they just spend the money or use up the supplies for themselves. No one really checks. They’ve got the right paper work!

Such is the way of bureaucracy. Bureaucracies also loves centralization. It is so much easier for the bureaucrats to get together for lunch or golf that way. Besides, the more centralized a government gets the easier it is for bureaucracies to grow and envelope ever more of the government until it is strangled into complete submission to the overall bureaucracy.

With me so far. Bet you are agreeing right down the line. Maybe even saying: “Heck yeah! Down with these nasty bureaucracies and the centralization that goes with’em!” Well, I’m with you there.

But I do have a word of warning for you. Let me remind you that I am totally not in favor of all these nitpicking, bossy bureaucracies we have. I’m also dead against an over abundance of centralization.
I must point out, however, that if things aren’t centralized as they are now then “Big Brother” A. K. A. “Uncle Sam” will cease to be. “GOOD RIDDANCE!” you say, and I agree. You do know that there will be a price to pay for that don’t you?

You will no longer be able to say “Somebody should DO something about ____!” (fill in the blank) There won’t be a “somebody” there. YOU will have to do whatever it is that needs to be done about whatever you put in that blank. Worse, YOU will have to take the responsibility for the consequences of whatever action you take.

It’s called independence, by the way. Just thought you’d like to know. It’s something your supposed to get when you grow up and no longer depend on parents. Oh, yeah, it's also what fighting was about back in the War of INDEPENDENCE. Remember that from the history books?

alt op 33 or "Hey! Who the heck is in charge around here?"

Hey! Who the heck is in charge around here!

Rick Perry is off running for President while his second in command is off running for some other office. They are doing this just after they’ve spent piles of cash to get elected to the offices they are in right now. So who’s minding the store while these guy’s are out gallivanting around the country / state asking folks to vote for them? Yeah, I know all I have to do is wade through the Texas Constitution or maybe google it on-line. But I’m just a little put out about this situation right now and just plain don’t feel up to it.

I do feel up to a bit more complaining about a similar situation.

It has become obvious that the President and a whole raft of other federal level “leaders” are answering the siren call of the campaign trail. Some are running for re-election and others are running for a higher office, but the point is they are all already running for an election that is MORE than a year away!!

I mean, really now!

We should spend that much time planning our Forth of July Parade here in Lone Oak! But even if we did, it wouldn’t take that much time away from either our jobs, our families, or the clubs that the folks who do that planning belong to. But these politicians who are running for office will be spending a whole lot of time away from the jobs they were elected to do, and instead of paying attention to bills that need to be vetoed, or passed, or even just spiffied up a little more, they are going to be paying attention to polls, and surveys, and what some big ad company say’s will get them elected. Not to mention the attention they will pay to what their biggest contributors are whispering in their ears.

Next thing you know we are all going to be having all kinds of mud spread across the TV, the newspapers, and the inter net about just about every person running for everything from President to local dog catcher (excuse ME! Animal Control Officer!).

And it’s not even November yet! Sheesh.

Secondly, I’m bent out of shape because of all this cash the various candidates are getting put into their “war chests.” Money that will only be spent on advertising and such. Yes, it will help the economy of the ad agencies but how about the rest of us? These guys are going to be spending billions, Billions on advertising! It wouldn’t be much but it would go a ways toward something really crazy like, oh, say, paying off the National Debt!

Here’s an alternative idea for ya. The government issues a million bucks to each candidate from each party. Even oddballs that say they are the candidates of say, the Party Hearty Party whose main platform is “Party ’till the Cows come Home!” But nobody gets any money until August of the election year. Then they can only spend it or do ANY campaigning from August 31 until election eve. Period. The rest of the year it's nose to the grindstone and get-er-done!

Yeah, I know. Sometimes the mud slinging contests can be down right entertaining but lately they have begun to pale on me. Especially as I realize how much money is being used to smear reputations and tell us how good the other guy is in comparison.

Frankly the mud often gets so thick and gooey it seems to stick to the one throwing it as well as their target.

That just isn’t right.

Makes you wonder if it’s worth voting at all as none of the fools seem able to keep it straight who the heck they are really working for once they get in office.

Sorry for the rant, but I just had to get that off my chest.

Alt Op # 32 : Questions about the economy.

Well, folks, I honestly have no clue what to have an alternative opinion about right now.

I’ve been ranting for ages that the economy, as it is, is just plain unsustainable. Unfortunately, with the stock market still going down (it is the night of 8/10/11 as I write this) it’s starting to look like I was right. Darn it. This is some scary stuff folks and I’d really rather be dead wrong because it won’t take much to tip the whole shebang in to total chaos.

Honestly, I have some questions for the big gun on economics, anyway. Simple questions about stuff I think helped get us into this mess. Questions like, “Why does the bottom line have to always get bigger? What’s wrong with it getting big enough to keep the ball rolling and then just staying at that size? In fact, as long as the cost of living stays the same, why do paychecks have to get bigger?” Then there is, “What ever happened to that law that kept a big business from ‘cornering the market’ as they used to say? You know, the one that busted up Ma Bell into the mini-bells.” The very law that might have kept certain businesses from becoming "to big to fail!" Oh, and then there’s my favorite, “Why in the world does a product have to become ‘NEW AND IMPROVED!!’ every year or so? Even if all you did was add a new fragrance or remove one for that matter?” Not real sure that last one has to do with economics.

Heck, I even wonder why stuff has to be so freaking centralized. I mean, I could see it back when you had iron ore and coal all together in one state, more or less but that’s not the case now with most modern industries. Why haul the raw material to a central location for processing then haul it away to somewhere else. Why not have a recycling plants in most big cities where they could recycle their trash flow right there instead of having to either bury it or haul it somewhere else? Then they could have factories there, small ones, that could build the stuff to supply that city. You know keep it local. (Yeah, I know! I’m skipping over some details and the devil is in those details. Especially that pesky law of thermodynamics that talks about entropy.) That goes for energy too. Especially, renewable energy like with solar and wind. Why does there have to be a big plant way far away, when a small turbine and solar array can power at least one or two houses close to it? After all electricity does not travel well.

Oh, yeah, I forgot. The old NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) thing. Yeah, I can see the problem there. I darn sure wouldn’t want a nuclear plant in my back yard. Or a fracking gas well either. [Why, yes. I did watch Battle Star Galactica back when! ;) ] Unless it was using solar and wind power to turn rain or dirty water table water into hydrogen and oxygen. That I think I could live with. Heck, wish I had the bucks to build that in my back yard and then buy a honking big fuel cell to power my house and maybe a couple of my neighbors houses as well!

Then there’s the food problem. Some folks just have no clue where food really come from. I suspect they will be learning fairly soon or going hungry.

I don’t know who said it but I just recently I read a saying I’d like to pass on to you. I hope I can remember it right. “For all Mans wonders and marvels his very existence rests on about 6 inches of fertile top soil and the fact that it rains.”

Now that’s scary. Especially when it hasn’t rained in so long.

Alt Op #31 Retirement?

There has been a big flap lately about the government ‘forcing’ people to keep working until they are older instead of letting them retire at 60 or 65. Got me to wondering.

Look how long we live now (baring the killer problems that can arise from obesity, tobacco, over indulgence in alcohol and drugs and the odd car wreck or drive by shooting) as opposed to way back when ever this age was selected for retirement. Way back then when the dinosaurs ruled the earth you were really old when you hit 60. You were maybe five to ten years max away from falling down dead from old age.

Now, 60 is the new 50! Or so they tell me, 40 is the new 30! By and large this is true as folks are generally healthier and more active at the advanced age of 60 or 65 than they were when the retirement age was set.

Retirement, according to Wikipedia, “is the point where a person stops employment completely.” Who really does that now? I’ll not go into the “who can afford to do that now!?” question. Even folks who can afford to just stop working completely usually find something else to do now days simply because they are not only still physically able to work but because they simply get bored stiff sitting at home and after a while even the ol’ fishin’ hole or the garden can loose it’s appeal especially on a constant basis. Personally, I’ve even gotten bored reading a few times. Might be because I’ve been having to re-read books because of not having enough extra to buy new ones but let’s not get into that. It is what the library’s for anyway.

The point I keep meandering away from is this: if you actually like your job, are good at it, and in good enough health to keep doing it, why the heck should you have to retire? Yeah, yeah, I know. To make way for the up and coming next generation with their new ideas and willingness to change. Ha!

My opinion is the main reason most employers want to dump older employee’s, and sometimes find reasons other than retirement to do so, is because they tend to make more money than the younger, fresh hires, and are also more likely to actually use the medical insurance the company may be providing. Indeed, it may only be the older employees, working under an old contract, that even have medical insurance in this day and age.
Frankly it may be time for us old farts, umm, I mean retired persons, to do something wild and wickedly wonderful. Even those of us who are disabled in one way or another. Maybe we should, as 60 is the new 50, start our own small businesses. What have we got to loose?

Yeah, I know. Our shirts, our homes, our IRA or 401k, maybe even our social security benefits or disability pay. Thing is folks, I’m not all that sure we’ll be getting those nice little (emphasis on that word ‘little’) government pay checks that much longer anyway. And with the way the economy itself seems to be headed, along with the price of energy, we may be loosing our shirts, homes and retirement plans anyway.

Why do I say start up small businesses? Because I really don’t believe many of the local and bigger businesses will hire those of us who are or are near retirement for much more than minimum wage. Of course minimum wage is better than no wage. However, I’m sure that most folks who’ve lived long enough to retire also have all kinds of ideas on how to do a number of things better, and they still have the energy to carry it off.

Having your own business has got to be better and more fun than being a greater at one of the big box retailers anyway. Doesn't it?

Alt Op #30, thoughts inspired by the education funding debate

All this debate lately about funding for education sometimes gets me to thinking about the educational system. I should know a little about it after all I went through 12 years with the DISD and managed to snare two diplomas from what was then East Texas State University. I still can’t spell worth a flip but I can read like a son of a gun! Of course the blame for the reading really falls on my mother. You see, she was for all practical purposes illiterate. However, she felt it was a mothers duty to read to her only child (me) so she did. She would carefully point to each syllable of every word as she struggled to sound it out while I sat all warm, cozy and content in her lap with my eye’s following that finger and my ears listening closely while my mind absorbed everything about this strange relationship between those squiggles on the paper beneath the story pictures and what my mom was sounding out.

Yep. My nearly illiterate mother (she dropped out of third grade I was told, to baby sit her younger brother while everyone else went to work during the depression) actually taught me to read. More she taught me that reading just plain felt good and was fun. True she didn’t read much but my dad did and his reading habit resulted in plenty of reading material being in the house at all times. Plus I often saw him sitting down and reading. The up shot of that is that the DISD in all it’s power was never able to convince me that reading WASN’T fun and I’ve been doing it ever since. They were able to convince me that the so called “classics” were, for the most part boring as all get out and I’ve read only the ones I was required to read in school.

But on to my point. Considering my high school and university degrees I should have been raking in the dough while I was working right? HA! Whenever I’d apply for a job dealing with my education level I was told that I didn’t have enough experience. On the other hand when I applied for jobs that would let me work up to that level I was told I was over educated. Bummer all the way around and that was with just one degree. With two and living here in beautiful Hunt County I was told the same thing. I finely realized that if I wanted to be gainfully employed in this county, perhaps even in Dallas County, what I really should have obtained was either a nursing degree (not possible with my allergy to sick people!) or a welding certificate.

Having neither I’ve worked most of my life at low paying, factory floor type jobs that have just about destroyed my feet, my knees and my self esteem from being constantly underemployed.

With that experience I can only ask: just exactly WHY is it absolutely necessary for young folks to get a higher education if they don’t have a specific goal in mind? And if that goal can be reached with out the all mighty degree why should they go in debt to get that silly piece of paper. None of the ones I have ever did anything but decorate a wall.

I’m just saying, why the emphasis on the paper or the fancy letters you can put behind your name if you can get the skills and knowledge you need to support yourself without them?

In case you are wondering, I'd likely have learned nearly as much about the Earth Sciences on my own just reading for the fun of it. I must admit I'd of rubbed up against much less math or chemistry but then again who knows! I'm a glutton for the stuff lots of others think is 'boreing!'

On a personal note. Good bye WCR. You will be missed. Who’ll keep me straight now?

2011 alt op # 29: Rule of Law, pundits and rumor mongers

Hey People! What the heck ever happened to the rule of LAW? To “innocent until proven guilty?” You know all that constitutional stuff, those rights we all want to lay claim to when it’s our bow hinnies in a sling?

Guess what folks, for those laws to work they have to cut both ways. They have to work not just for the good friend, neighbor or relative that you know just has to be innocent as the day is long, but also for that good for nothing’ low down creep that just has to be guilty of something!
That is the reason all those statues of Justice wear a blindfold. You can pretty it up and say it’s so she (Justice) can’t see if your rich or poor, upper or lower class, what your race or sex is, so that she judges you only on the facts of that particular case. But frankly folks she wears that blindfold so that the “good folks” of a community also can’t rail road a total creep who also happens to NOT BE GUILTY of the particular crime he/she is accused of. Yeah, he or she may be guilty of something or other but there just isn’t enough to convict them of the particular crime they are accused of. So. Find something else to charge them with that you can prove. Just be careful what wild and convoluted laws you pass to try and hang the dang fool because those laws can also be used against you.

Always remember that! The sword of truth that Justice carries is double edged! It can cut both ways. What the heck am I talking about? Remember how Eliot Ness managed to bring down the crime lords who were making a bundle selling boot leg booze? Not because they were selling booze but because they weren’t reporting it on their taxes! Yeah. They did not go to jail for the other mobsters or innocents they might have killed but because they neglected to mention the cash they made selling booze. This increased the power of the IRS and now we all quake in our boots at the mention of a tax audit.

Just remember that all kinds of wild and odd things can happen that seem to put you on the wrong side of the law. Worse you can realize that something fairly innocent that you’ve done looks bad, maybe even is bad and you try to cover it up. Maybe you try to hide it because it’s embarrassing as heck or because it will place you in a bad light socially. But all you end up doing is digging a hole deeper and deeper until you can’t get out of it. If it relates to a very serious situation like a death or robbery it can get real bad real fast.

Then the gossips or the news stations, if its ’big’ enough, get hold of the story and start publicly asking all kinds of questions. Maybe some of the questions have to do with that particular situation, maybe they don’t. But the press and the gossips don’t care, they are having a field day and the reputation they are ruining is yours.

So what do you do then. Even after you are proven guiltless, there are still the rumors and the titillating questions that have been asked that the trail did not answer because they were not pertinent to that case.
You are innocent but the news stations, news papers and an outraged public just “know” otherwise.

Always remember the law isn’t there to just get rid of bad guys. It’s also there to protect the innocent. Even if the only thing they are innocent of is the particular crime they are on trial for.

Think about that the next time there’s a trial like the one down in Florida, or like with OJ. It doesn’t really matter if the deed was done just as the pundits claim. The pundits and rumor mongers are not the law, that's for the judge or the jury!

Thank God. If those who wove the rumors everyone loves so much, we’d all be in jail eventually.

Alt Op #28 The Copper Thief

As all of you likely know by now Lone Oak is presently dealing with a copper thief. At least I haven’t heard yet if the guy’s been caught. I hope, for his own safety, that he has.

Why his safety, you may well wonder. After all the dang fool is a crook who is ripping off folks who can’t really afford to be ripped off. Folks that, frankly, don’t have much, if any thing, more than he does. Folks like the Community Seeds over at the old school house. Seems he destroyed four of the big AC units that were used to keep the building cool enough for classes designed to help local folks get ahead and to run the clothing store. A store where those same folks can find affordable clothing fit to wear to a job interview and to a good job. Not that the loss of those AC units has stopped Community Seeds, it’s just making their work a little less comfortable.

Now, as for the ‘preps’ safety. For one thing I have read some things on Face Book that indicate he just might run into some buck shot at the very least if he attempts to rip off some folks copper. Then there are the small to large dogs that some folks around here have in their yards. Believe me, helping out Peggy in her dog grooming business occasionally has taught me that even small dogs with practically no jaws can still inflect a painful bite that can leave a mark. (Don’t believe me? I’ll show you my thumb.)

Then of course this fool has to deal with the fact that quite often there is electricity running through the copper he is trying to steal. That can give him anything from a painful tickle or nasty jolt all the way to painful burns and even death by electrocution. Yeah, I know, some of you; particularly those he has ripped off already, may feel he deserves nothing less.

This person isn’t out of the woods safety wise even after he has absconded with copper wiring that doesn’t belong to him. Why? Because to sell the stuff for the most cash he has to strip the insulation off of any electrical wiring he has. If you’ve ever tried to do any of your own electrical repair on anything you already know what a tiring mess that can be even with a proper wire stripper. Imagine having perhaps several feet, if not yards of wire to get clean of that insulation. So, a crook I am told, is usually a crook because he is too lazy to work or because he or she is after the big, fast money. The fastest way to get insulation off of copper is to burn it off.

Burning insulation off of copper wire is dangerous in many ways. First off the smoke that comes from the combusting insulation is not something you want to breath. It is one of the reasons fire fighters have to wear those heavy SCBA’s when they fight car fires or go into a burning building. So this criminal can do himself some serious harm if he breaths this smoke. Then the smoke from this burning insulation is rather obvious as it is dark black and easily seen by others. The smell is also a dead giveaway as to what’s going on. That in itself can lead to the fool getting caught. Worse case scenario in this dry weather is that the fire he’s set to clean his ill gotten copper gets away from him. If he’s lucky he gets away but loses his booty as it is confiscated by the police. At worse, the fire he sets can kill him.

So I am left with a simple but confusing question. Why? Why do crooks really do this foolish thing. It seems breaking the law is much more work and involves much more danger than the alternative of getting an education and at least looking for a job or even making a deal with someone to work for food and/or shelter.

Alt Op #27

As I noted last week there are some who have pointed out that these articles I write about my opinions aren’t all that alternative anymore. Well, here’s a hot one for you: Women’s Rights.

I can hear the guy’s and some of the gals groaning way back here on Wednesday as I write this. Yes, I put it to you that we gals still do not have true equality either under the rule of Law or socially. After all, if a young man manages to bed more than one girl in one night out on the town he gets a round of cheers or at least a high five from his buds. The gals in his circle might frown but unless they were his ‘main squeeze’ or one of the girls in questions they’d likely say nothing about it. After all, “boys will be boys!” The social inequality in this is obvious, isn’t it? A gal doing the same is a harlot, a whore (even if all she gets out of it is a hangover) or a slut. No high fives in the locker room for her! Just whispers behind her back, frowns from the gals and leering grins from the guys.

No, I’m not advocating that kind of behavior for either sex. Far from it. I’d rather we were all good little boys and girls who saved ourselves for marriage and only had sex with that one person of the opposite sex and none with anyone if we didn‘t marry.

Talk about your wild fantasy’s.

We humans being what we are, that just ain’t gonna happen folks and we all know it. Some might just naturally go that way. Most, just as naturally, will not. Accept it. Get used to it, cause that’s the way the real world is and not even harsh laws will change it.

Another thing that should be accepted, even noted, is that the two sexes just can not ever really be equal.

Why? Because men don’t bear children, that’s why. If men did have babies, and as they are the majority of those who make our laws, then, may I suggest that safe abortions would be legal, at least for rape, incest, and medical or even economic necessity. There would have been a truly effective and safe birth control pill on the market ages ago (that would limit the need for abortions!) and every company, large or small would have child care available for it’s workers on it’s property and not a darn thing would be said if a parent had to take off work to care for a sick child, go to a teachers conference, or pick a kid up from school.

Yep, you guessed it. I’m pissed about these new law’s limiting the availability of birth control or family planning just because one of the methods used happens to be abortion. No, I am not all that pro-abortion. I have personally never faced the need for one and I don’t think I could go through with one. I would counsel any who asked me about getting one for themselves to consider adoption instead. But, I also know that my personal situation is NOT shared by all. I know that some women face much harder, more terrifying choices than I ever will. I am also quite aware that a lot of those women are the very ones that just can’t afford to pay for all the things that are being added on to the cost of getting a safe abortion. They are also the ones most likely to need them for economic reasons.

Honestly, if you stand back and look at the whole thing logically it looks as if those powerful, rich, MEN, in our government want to make sure there are a lot of poor, underfed, unwanted, uneducated, and perhaps even angry young folks out here. Kids, born to mothers who didn’t want them because they were the product of rape or incest, or because they would make it impossible to feed the rest of the family. Face it. There aren’t enough folks who want to, who can afford to adopt, or who even want more kids! Sad, but true. Besides hasn't anyone noticed that the more there is of something, the less it's valued? This is especially true of things and people, who cause the majority or even just those in power, problems. This should never happen to children. Just because I've never had my own children does not mean that I don't recognize their innate value. They are indeed the hope of the future and should be raised, educated, loved and set free as such. Not fobbed off on a Nanny cause Mom and Dad are too busy, or left out on the streets cause Mom's to poor and uneducated to support them.

Socially abusive words and book banning, Alt op 26

Oh boy. Peggy mentioned something sure to get my “alternative” up. Specifically, censoring books read in school.

That just makes me crazy, folks. She was talking about the problem that comes up every few years where somebody gets bent out of shape because their precious little one has to read Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. They get upset because the kid has to read about folks who blatantly and casually used the dreaded ‘N’ word. A word I myself despise and refuse to use because of it’s obvious racism and callous disregard for a group of people who just happen to have more pigment in their skin than I do.

So why am I NOT on the side of those wanting these books with that horrid word banned? Because, my friends, I want it remembered and remembered well exactly WHY that word is so detestable. Those stories Twain wrote were written in an age when that word really was bandied about as unflinchingly as we today say “Hey, y’all!” It was to the people of that time, that place, and that situation the word used to indicate a specific group of people. What those two books also make clear is that in that time, place and situation that specific group of people were not just second class citizens but actually considered by some to be little more than animals. The contrast between what is so accurately portrayed in those books and what exists today is a lesson we all need to learn. Along with the eye opening realization that we still have so freaking far to go!

Yes, seeing that word and any other racial epithet in print is shocking. I’m not even sure I could read those two books out loud without stumbling and a blush or two. The blush would be because I remember my grandparents and parents using that very word, without a seconds thought or hesitation, just as the characters in the book use it.

Other racial epithets, applied to various other races, are equally insulting and socially wrong in my opinion so I will not mention them here, except to point out a simple fact.

If I, as a writer, chose to write something set in the World War Two American South I would have to use not only the N word but the K word, the S word and the J word. Why? Because in that time and that place during that war those words were used. The N word was a hold over from our past and was used to keep the chains of slavery well oiled. The K, S and J words were epithets used against our enemies of the time. Just as today every one thinks they know who you refer to when you say (please excuse the terms) rag head, or camel jockey. I put it to you my friends that these words are also offensive and belittle those who use them more than they belittle those they are hurled against.

However! Those two are used in this time and age. If I wrote a book about today it might well contain a character who used those last two epithets vehemently and with scorn, but avoided the N word.

Should such a book be banned in some future school just because a child of that ethnic group might read it?

No, it should not! And not just because I wrote it! But for the same reasons we should never even consider banning such books as those written by Mark Twain (who was a way better writer than I can ever be!) or any other that accurately presents a picture of our past. Those books can teach us where we have been, the mistakes we have made and show us the road we still need to travel. A road that will only end when we all finely realize there is only one race on this tired old planet. At least it's only one race until we discover that the whales and dolphins are indeed as intelligent as we. (They may be smarter, I think. They aren't polluting us all to death!)

We call that one race “Human,” and it is as beutifully varied in it's skin tones as it is in it's religions and ethnicities. The more of us who see that variaty as a blessing the better off the world will be.

2011 Alt. Op. 25 Budget blues again

Here’s a poser for you. All these folks, Republicans, Democrats, Tea Party folks, you name it are absolutely adamant that the national budget MUST be balanced. They are equally eager to get or keep local State, County and City budgets balanced. I’m fine with that. I gotta keep mine balanced. If I don’t I get these nasty notes from the bank and they charge me this honking big fee for covering my ah - posterior until I get some more cash in. But the thing is they won’t wait too long for me to pay up.

Where’s the poser of a question? Just this. What do all these folks do when the big guys really do start trying to balance the budget? They are like little kids when Mom or Dad say’s, “No you can’t have that candy, that toy or that comic book because it isn’t in the family’s budget!” You can hear the screams of outrage throughout the store!

Yes, I am quite aware that it isn’t quite that simple. Especially as the “comic books”, “candy”, or “toys” are, in this case, usually things that a lot of folks see as necessities. Just as I see my piddling, almost makes it through the month but not quite, disability check as being an absolute need. After all if I don’t get it I don’t pay my bills and the bank will get very unhappy.

Things like class room size, special advanced classes for the smart kids, remedial classes for the not so bright kids, Fire Department and Police pay in big cities, swimming pools in the summer, after school programs during the school year, contracts to big companies that build weapon systems and employ lots of folks and the other companies that supply those big weapon system companies with the stuff to build the weapon systems are all on the chopping block now. People are rightly up in arms about this and they should be! After all these things are needed! They are necessary!

But then I remember when the times were a bit leaner for me. I didn’t go to the doctor (I was working then) not because I didn’t have insurance but because I had such a high deductible that I had to pay for each visit I just could not afford to go. I had to pick that insurance plan because it was the only one that would leave me enough in my take home pay to pay the other bills! Heck, even now, I’m considering not going to a rheumatologist as my Dr. suggested because it costs so much more ($50!!) to go to one. That and they are all in or around Dallas and I’m not sure I can afford the gas! But hey, at least I have insurance right? For now.

I saw an add on TV the other day where the advertiser was saying that “wasteful” and “unneeded” studies should be cut. Trouble is those studies employ people. People who pay bills and taxes just like us.
The point I’m trying to make is this: we all want the budget to be balanced. All of us. BUT. But none of us wants to pay the price of the balancing. The politicians just want to be re-elected so they bluster and make little puff cuts that will get them good press and hopefully re-elected. I just want to pay my bills, keep my car on the road and food in my tummy so I definitely don’t want them cutting my benefits! Teachers just want to keep their jobs for the same reason (though I have heard this odd rumor that some actually like teaching). The workers in the government contract plants and the businesses that supply them just want to keep their jobs to. We all raise cane and holler when they cut any of our services; when the streets aren’t repaired or the water bill goes up.

Yet I can’t help but go back to the family with a budget telling Jr. he can’t have that toy. After all Jr. also knows that he’s just GOT to have that toy. Just like you and me with our benifits or services.

What’s the answer? Heck if I know. I’m just not putting my neck on the block.