Winter is definitely coming. Photos.

Sunset From my Deck

First Snow of 2017-2018. A half an inch. 

Mount Lafayette in Franconia Notch

Making snow on Cannon Mt.  They have a ways to go before opening for skiing.

More Cannon snow making.

What about this Roy Moore flap?

Far as I know, it's a one source story from the Washington Post.  The Post claims that Moore molested some teen age girls 35 years ago.  Moore, in case you don't remember, won the Alabama primary for US Senator.  There will be a special election in December to fill the Senate seat left empty when the incumbent accepted Trump's appointment as US attorney general.  He is also the judge who was kicked off the Alabama Supreme Court for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments statue from his courthouse.  That gave him pretty good name recognition down in his district. 
   A number of US senators, including John McCain, have called for Moore to resign (if he wins) and if there is any truth in the WaPo's accusation.  The Constitution allows the Senate (and the House for that matter) to expel a member, and "Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections,Returns and Qualifications of its own members,"  (Article I section 5).  That ought to mean that the Senate can declare an election rigged, ballot boxes stuffed, or the electee is a scumbag, and refuse to seat that member.
   Question:  Is the Washington Post telling the truth?  How can a story from 35 years ago be checked?   We used to have a statute of limitations, but the lawyers have pretty much repealed it by now. 

Winter is coming.

I got a half and inch of snow up here in the White Mountains.  Enough to make the ground white.  And it's cold, 20F. 

Is it a middle class tax cut? Or a taxcut for "The Rich"???

Who knows?  The Democrats claim it's a tax cut for "The Rich".  Republicans say it's a tax cut for the middle class.  Who to believe?   The bill is still secret, and is probably 1000 pages long and written in deep gobble-de-gook, so even if I found it on the Web, it wouldn't mean anything to me.  I only read English.  I cannot focus on 1000 pages.  The Journal favors the bill, but it prints a chart showing that a few classes of taxpayer will be paying more ten years from now. 
   The Journal says that a lot of its provisions have time limits of less than ten years.  That hurts economic growth.  Lots of projects, even just buying a home, let alone building a new factory, take more than ten years to pay off.  And the payoff always depends upon the tax burden laid on the project.  If we don't know what the tax burden will be ten years out, we are less likely to do the project. 
   
   Living in NH, which fortunately lacks a state income tax and state sales taxes, I'm all in favor of ending the deduction for state and local taxes.  My mortgage is paid off, so the mortgage interest deduction does me no good.  My children are grown up, married, living in their own homes, so child deductions don't do me any good. 

   The Republicans have to pass something or they get voted out of office next year.  They already failed to repeal Obamacare, failure to pass tax reform will confirm voter belief that the Republicans are a bunch of blow hard RINO's, no different from Democrats.   And they deserve payback at the polls for failing to live up to their promises to reform taxes and repeal Obamacare. 

  

Nobody uses hammers anymore

At least not on "This Old House".  I watch an episode of the antenna day before yesterday.  Which was nice, the cable doesn't carry "This Old House".  What caught my eye was nobody was using hammers and nails anymore.  Not even air powered nail guns.  Everything gets fastened with drywall screws, driven in with battery drills.  No pilot hole drilling, just drive right into the wood.   As fast as hammering in a nail, not quite as fast as a nail gun. 

Daylight Savings Time, the biannual hassle

So I have to reset all my clocks today.  Antique Tiffany mantle clock, bedside clock radio,wristwatch, car clock, celery phone, VCR, and two Windows computers.  I have been told you should never push the hands of antique clocks backward, it will confuse the striking mechanism and other badnesses.  So I open the back, stop the pendulum, wait an hour, and then restart the pendulum.  The bedside clock radio has a straight forward "Set Clock" button, no problem.  Celery phone, bless its little silicon heart,  handles the time change automatically, so does Windows.  The car clock is so confusing that I have to dig out the car instruction booklet and re read how to set clock.  The human factors department at Buick was out to lunch when they designed that car clock. 

Hand Tools. Round Handles

There oughta be a law against round handles.  When you set the round handled tool down on your bench, it promply rolls off the bench and bangs on the floor.  Unless your bench is dead level.  Few people level their work benches.  Tool companies out to put hexagonal or square or triangular handles on tools, any shape that won't roll of the bench.

Xacto, the hobby knife company is a prominent offender.