Tripping

So, my 55TH High School reunion is this weekend down in West Chester PA just outside of Philadelphia.  So I am driving down, mostly to avoid taking my shoes off for TSA perverts.  It's about 11 hours from Franconia.  So I stopped in Danbury Connecticut to visit the Danbury railroad Museum.  I found the place, despite Google Maps street names not matching Danbury street signs.  They have a Boston and Maine steamer, a mogul, B&M Class B15, very famous in B&M circles.  I have two models of said locomotive.  I took a lot of photos.  They have a "lightening stripe" E-8 diesel, a PRR mail car, a NH Buddliner, a fantastic double header NYC wreaker, some cabeese, lotta cool stuff for rail fans like me.
  I found a low end motel in Danbury to spend the night.  America's Best Value Inn, right off exit 5 on I84.  It is unpretentious, the air conditioner works, the ice is cold and clean,the wifi works.  $85 a night.
  Tomorrow I press on to West Chester.  Ought to arrive mid afternoon.   

Don't help ISIS propaganda

ISIS  just claimed responsibility Garland Texas  terror strike.  If believed, ISIS will gain stature among it's friends and fellow travelers.  That sort of people will be impressed that ISIS was able to strike the Great Satan on its own soil, even if a Texas cop snuffed both attackers with only a handgun. 
   We should not offer an opinion as to the truth or falsity of the ISIS claim.  Let ISIS persuade the world wide audience that it really happened that way.  Give ISIS the burden of convincing skeptics that they are telling the truth.  DO NOT issue a US government stamp of approval to ISIS propaganda.  We should just keep it zipped.  And the TV newsies would do their country a favor if they would just stop talking about the ISIS claim of responsibility. 
  I would rather learn the name of that Texas cop, and what he used for a handgun.  Did he pack a big .45 Colt sixshooter?  Or merely a skinny little 9mm Glock? 

Trac fone photography

The camera in the phone works OK, the trick is getting the photo off the phone and onto your computer.  It can be done.  The USB cable begins to work AFTER you go thru some totally weird finger fiddling on the phone.  Then the computer will recognize the phone on the USB and display it like it was a flashdrive.    Then go back to the phone, do some more finger fiddling, and your pictures will appear on the simulated flash drive.  This comes off an Amazon website/help site that popped up in Google. The LG 305C manual says absolutely nothing about any of this.  Clearly the Trac phone software people were retarded, none of this finger fiddling puts any new information into the phone, it's just a magic finger dance that you have to learn and memorize.  If the software geeks had done their job right, just plugging USB into the phone would be all you need to do.  Both my still camera's manage to work that way.

Oh you can see the body rot a coming thru the fenders

Yesterday got warm enough to wash the car.  It hit 70, first time the year.  Poor car has gone all winter without a wash.  Not that it matters much, it's painted a mud dirt color (not my choice) and looks about the same clean or dirty. 
  And, as I sponged the winter filth off it, I find a smallish rust patch has eaten thru the left front fender, and more is coming up on the right.  It's 12 years old, with over 100K on the clock, and it looks like it might rust out before anything serious goes wrong.  We will see.  Previous set of wheels ran to 140K before the rust made the rear axle fall off. 
   And, when she finally goes, looks like I'm reduced to some dinky little econobox.  Present set of wheels is a full sized Mercury Grand Marquis, they don't make those anymore.  Or anything like it. All they make today are econoboxes, minivans and SUVs. 

Tesla Battery Powered home. Payback time.

Tesla has announced a big battery, big enough to run your house overnight, for $3000.  Right now, my electric bill is $100 a month, so it would take 30 months, call it three years, to pay off the battery.  And that's just the battery.  To live off-grid, I need solar panels or a windmill to charge the battery, and some fairly heavy duty electronics to regulate the charging and convert DC into AC.   Let's guess another $3000 before I am off grid all the way and have reduced my electric bill to zero.  It will take 60 months, five years, before I recover my costs, and then I am ahead $100 a month.  I could invest $6000 in the stock market, and with 6% per year, that oughta be worth $8029 after five years.
   You know, that battery is almost making economic sense. 
   I could cut my electricity use a lot by putting in a propane or natural gas tank, and buying new gas appliances, stove, water heater, refrigerator.  Maybe $2000 for all that.  Plus who knows how much for propane.  Wouldn't help my electric bill much since half the bill is a fixed connection charge, but it might reduce the size and hence the cost of the battery I need to get thru a winter night.  The battery HAS to keep the oil burner running so my pipes (and I) don't freeze before dawn.  Dark lasts 14-15 hours in winter around here.  The oil burner uses maybe 5 kilowatt hours over the night.  The battery is advertised to be good for 7 kilowatt hours.  That leaves 2 kilowatt hours for lights, TV, web surfing, and the like. 

The Sunday Pundits go to Baltimore

I watch 'em all, Beat the Press, Face the Nation, the McLaughlin shouting hour, and Josh McElween on WMUR.  They all did a lot of talking about Baltimore.  They interviewed politicians.  The democratic ones called for an urban agenda, more money, reform of the police,  improved schools.  All in vague terms, no specifics.  None of them talked about getting corporate investment into the cities to provide jobs.  The one Republican, John Boehner, merely said that Baltimore has been run by democrats for the last 50 years, which makes it a democratic problem.  Beat the Press dredged up 50 year old video of Pat Monahan predicting awful things to come. 
   I gotta admit that I don't know Baltimore well, so I'm pontificating from a distance.  But I still think that reasonable jobs in real industry, would solve a lot of Baltimore's problems.  If they really cared down there, they would pass a right to work law.  Corporations won't invest in states that lack a right to work law.  If Maryland became right to work, it would be the ONLY right to work state for a couple of hundred miles in every direction.  Surely some company needing a strategically located facility would brave the crime problem and buy up some cheap empty lots in Baltimore and build something. 

The Supremes

The word "marriage" does not appear anywhere in the US Constitution.  But the Supremes are thinking about changing US marriage law to include same sex marriage.  The Constitution doesn't give the Supremes the right to mess with marriage.  They are going to do it just because they can. 
   Groovy.  Real Democracy that.  Allow nine out of touch lawyers to make new law for the entire country.  Judges love it.  Gay marriage advocates love it,  easier than doing the political campaigning to get the issue thru the legislature.
   New law in a democracy ought to come from the elected legislature, not the courts.  Last time the Supremes made law on a social issue, was Roe vs Wade nearly 40 years ago.  The voters are still sore about that one.  Had abortion law been properly passed by the legislature[s],  there would be a lot less resistance, a lot less hostility, and a lot less name calling, and far greater social cohesion. 
   I am making an argument about process, not substance.  Process is important for the social and political cohesion of the country.  If a thing is done fair and square, in accordance with the rules, people tend to go along with it.  If a thing is done in a sneaky and underhanded fashion, people fight it.  Look at Obamacare..  And, there is no need for the Supremes to dictate new law in this case.  A fair number of states have already passed gay marriage laws, and the polls show enough votes out there to pass it nearly everywhere.