My wife (WG) was right and made the correct decision. I was skeptical that we’d really get some shower activity yesterday, in spite of the weekend forecast issued last Friday. That forecast said that Saturday would be the better weekend day and that showers would dot the landscaped off and on Sunday. Our forecasts recently predicting showers have been less than very accurate for my place. Nevertheless, WG and my daughter (DG) decided we have our Father’s Day celebratory cookout Saturday.
We did. It was delicious as always when DG cooks steaks out on the grill. I did add my extremely good, if I do say so myself but the family agrees with me, homemade onion rings. They’re made from scratch, except we do buy the onion at the store. And as I had anticipated, DG brought over a cake. That was it. They honored my request for no presents, but DG, as she did last year, promised to wash and wax my car. We agreed it should wait until we have a stretch of good weather so it’ll stay clean for a while.
And yesterday, it did rain, sometimes hard, for most of the morning. We probably could have had our cookout just the same. The afternoon was rather unfriendly and we may have had to eat it on the dining room table, but the yard was really wet so that would have meant some soggy doggies romping through the house. The decision the gals made to have our cookout Saturday turned out to be a good one. Along with the decision to hold off washing the car. The forecast for this whole week doesn’t look too promising, either.
My fearless friend forwarded a couple of very interesting e-mails to me over the weekend. If you are on more than one mailing list, you’ve probably seen them both. I’m on the tail end of the “food” chain so they’ve just reached me. One deals with Congress’s decision to require the so-called CFL light bulbs and the other deals with ethanol in gasoline.
Congressman Ted Poe (R-Texas) made a five minute speech on the floor of the House denouncing the law. He requested and got a five minute time to present his case. I already knew most of the information Poe presented. In fact, most of it, the safety issues, have been discussed here a couple of months ago. You should already know that these bulbs contain mercury and require some very specific actions for cleanup if one breaks.
I did not know, though, that this law passed by Congress has effectively killed another “Made in the USA” industry. According to Poe, every single CFL bulb is made in China. Poe went on to point out all the problems this country has had with products from China. Food. Toys. And others. And now, he thanked Congress for ending an American industry, the incandescent light bulb, and replacing it with yet another potential disaster from China.
It’s a five minute listen, but thanks to YouTube, you can hear Representative Poe’s speech for yourself.
The other piece I received was a transcript of an article written by Walter E. Williams, an economist at George Mason University. I believe he is retired as chairman of the department. Back in March, Williams wrote a syndicated column titled Big Corn and Ethanol Hoax. Just about every gas station I see here in Southern Maine now sells ethanol gasoline as standard. I’m not sure you can find real gas anymore.
But, according to Williams, this corn laced gas can potentially raise havoc with your car. When it burns, it leaves behind a water residue which cannot be distilled. Most of us are driving vehicles that will eventually cost us a lot of money to fix engines not equipped to handle internal water. Also, the cost of producing ethanol is so prohibitive it could not survive the free market. That, according to Williams, is why the government is offering huge subsidies.
Those subsidies also have a side effect on the cost of food. As farmers are growing more and more corn for ethanol, the supply of corn-related products is dwindling thus raising the cost. The rising cost of gasoline and oil is raising the cost of transportation and, therefore, just about every aspect of American life. And, according to Williams with facts and figures to back up his statements, it’s all a great hoax.
My personal observation is that ethanol/gas isn’t saving me any money. My gas mileage has dropped since I’ve been forced to switch which means I have to buy more gas. Thus I’m using more gas, not less, and it’s costing me more money, not less. I have seen no savings. I’d suggest for some interesting information, you read the column.
GiM
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