Nancy Pelosi!!!!!!!

I just received an email from the ACLU telling me that,

Nancy Pelosi,  will soon be bringing back my Constitution and Bill of Rights.  That all of the rights I’ve lost will be returned. 

Wow,  these folks at the ACLU,  but know something I don’t.   (or could it be that they have a VERY TWISTED sense of priorities)

Let’s start a watch right now,  and see how long it takes Pelosi and crew to start attacking our Second Ammendment Rights,  then when the attacks start,  call the ACLU on their misguided politcal views.

~~GB

Water rates up again!

For the second time in less than two years,  the City of Au Gres has decided to raise water rates again!  This time from 13.65 for 2000 gallons to 14.15 for 1500 gallons.  The price for the next 1000 gallons is going from 3.41 to 3.66.

Included with this an accompanying sewage rate increase from 11.55 to 12.05 for the service,  and from 3.41 to 3.66 for each thousand gallons dumped.  (they don’t count gallons dumped,  so you get charged the sewage charge for every gallon of water used, whether it goes down the sewer or not)

This may not sound incredible,  but consider that the average household of two people uses between 2200 and 2800 gallons a month. (no car washing or watering included) Making the average monthly bill for water,  between 40 and 75 dollars.  More than phone service,  more than Internet service,  more than satelite TV.  And,  this is the smaller of the two rate increases!!!!

This is all done without public input,  or public notification.  I found out about this increase, when I visited city hall to pay my outrageously high property taxes.  (another story)

If those in the city had asked for city water,  it may have been a different story,  but to extend the city limits to many times the area of the actual city,  then tack on these water and tax rates,  is ludicrous!!  The water rates of the neighboring township,  are precisely one third of those who are unfortunate enough to live within the ”expanded” city limits.

WATER,  one of the basic needs of life!  I sure hope they never find a way to tax the AIR WE BREATH! 

(The site IS called GreyBeards Gripes)

~~GB

Frozen

The river is a bit eerie tonight.  Last night it froze over  and was dusted with about an inch of snow.  Tonight,  a good strong wind has come up and done away with the snow.  Then continued to polish the ice into an ebony blackness.  Standing at the seawall watching the eerily glowing black ice,  I was almost afraid to turn my back on it to return to the house.  There were wispy tendrils of snow playing across the darkness,  and in the boat lot across the river,  the masts of the stored sail boats were chiming like far away church bells.  All the while,  the winds wailing and moaning, causing a random clunk and thunk, generated by tools hung on garage walls, or mooring bouy’s left on someones seawall.

No ice on the Bay yet though,  just the beaches.  With nearly eight foot waves throwing freezing spray up and over the frozen shore ice.  Wind gusting to 36mph.  Wind chill 12 degrees.  Air temp.  28 degrees.  Water temp.  44 degrees.

~~GB

Another cold one at Point Lookout

We had a low of about 12 degree’s last night and a high of about 22 degree’s today.

You’d think the river would be completely frozen over,  but you’d be wrong.  I’m quite surprized to see good sized area’s of open water.   They got a little smaller today,  but still large enough to attract a lot of ducks.  It’s 21 degree’s right now,  I wonder if it will be solid tomorrow.

And on the subject of ice,  cold,  and nasty weather:  I’m currently sipping a shot of Scoresby Very Rare Blended Scotch Whisky.   Light in color and very smooth.

P.S.  Note the change in the look of the blog,  I’m having trouble getting my original theme to display correctly,  in fact,  this is the only theme I can get to display correctly.

~~GB

Trajectory

I had a short discussion today about trajectory.  I know it’s a fairly complicated science,  but here’s the short take I came up with: