Pumps' Perplexities

Reports by the Australian news services indicate
that there was NO noticeable reduction in the
consumption of electric power in the City of
Sydney during their "Earth Hour"......Pumps

Well it seems that "Earth Hour" has come and
gone.......I suspect until next year.......

Have to admit that I fell asleep after my
dinner......Oh well......Woke up after it was
over and did not notice anything different.....

Maybe next year I will try to stay awake and
see if there is a "climate change" or something...

Did they have one in Beijing?.......Pumps

I have just received this week's issue of "Time".....
The front cover shows an "ear of corn" and the
caption reads - "The Clean Energy Myth"......

I have yet to read the full article but the cover
implies that the Politicians and Big Business
are the problem.....

WHERE THE HELL DID THEY GET THE
IDEA?........The Environmentalists......

Once again a group of people do not fully
"think out" a problem and their proposed
solution.......The price of corn is going
through the roof and the price of rice is
following......Has anyone seen the price of
gasoline containing bio-fuels GO DOWN?......

To all the people that are intelligent, the
WORLD is driven by MONEY not saving
a tree.....(Which is a renewable source, by
the way.).....

Going unnoticed is the story about a BioTown,
Reynolds, Indiana which is trying to prove
that MAN can produce electric power by
using methane gas from his own "Schite"......

I suspect that if MAN could live off his own
human byproduct, some one would have
found that out by now........

GET A LIFE, PEOPLE, and just LIVE.....Pumps

It seems that the United States is to have an
"Earth Hour"......I must admit that I have not
heard or seen anything about it on my local
TV......

The purpose of an "Earth Hour" is to "Go
Green" and conserve electricity......Just shut
your light off for an hour and you are a nice
person........

There are many of us out here that remember
the early WW II "Earth Hours".....But then,
they were called simply what they were,
"Black Outs"......

The sound of those "rumbling" plane engines
in the sky could mean BOMBS......So blacken
your windows, shut off all unnecessary lights
and wait for the planes to go away or, if a
test, until the test was over.......

Like I have said before, Grandma and
Grandpa "know from Green"......We lived
it.......Pumps

To every olde man, the word "gout" is something
he does not want to hear or much less experience....

This little medical condition is not life
threatening but it sure does HURT a lot.......

As a arthritic condition it can effect any bone
joint in the body......And to some, like me,
it does try them all......From big toe, to ankle
to knee and elbow.....

It can be treated with prescription medication
and even with over-the-counter pill such as
Advil or Aleve.......BUT an attack still will last
two to three days and for those days,
it HURTS........Pumps

Last night Brian Williams "delivered" a story
regarding the proper disposal of the new type
fluorescent bulbs due to their mercury content.....

Back in the mid-50's, I was a foot messenger
for the American Cable and Radio Company.....
On many occasions it was my job to deliver
a "printed copy" of a ship-to-shore radio
message to a night office of the Standard
Oil Company (Esso-Exxon) regarding the arrival
of an incoming oil freighter to the New York
City harbor......

Back then, as it is today, Rockefeller Center
and all its offices were lit by fluorescent bulbs.....
They are still the common 4 foot, 6 foot or
8 foot straight bulbs used in every commercial
office building......

My question is, how much mercury has seeped
into the building of Rockefeller Center in the
last 50 years with the disposal of the burned
out fluorescent bulbs.....In case you do not
know this, maintenance people just love
breaking these 6 to 8 foot glass "tubes" by
throwing them into a "garbage dumpster"....

Due to the pristine area of Rockefeller
Center, all garbage disposal areas are inside
the buildings and out of site to the local
tourist......Garbage removal is done "under
the cover of darkness".......

Poor Brian did not even mention the GE,
the parent company of NBC, is making a
fortune by producing the CFLs and other
light bulbs in China.......Pumps

It is the Wednesday of Easter week......

When I was growing up, there was a NAME
to "this" Wednesday........

After all, we have "Holy" Thursday, "Good"
Friday and "Holy" Saturday.......Poor
Wednesday has now gotten lost in the
"shuffle" of time and history......

I was taught that Wednesday was "Spy"
Wednesday......The day that Judas
Iscariot did his dirty deeds......

So let's hear it for SPY WEDNESDAY......
Pumps

It appears that the people of the United States
want CHANGE......They want their lives to be
different......

But will they be willing of accepting CHANGE
that makes their daily lives a bigger struggle
then they currently think they are living in
now?.......It comes down to the same olde
question that has been asked for generations,
will the CHANGE be for the BETTER or
WORSE?...........

For some people, who may have forgotten,
the change to ethanol gasoline has caused
the food prices to increase......The change
in light bulbs, which save money, will cause
your KW hour rate to go up because the
electric company is losing money......

The greatest change is Newton's Third
Law of Physics......"Each action has an
equal and opposite reaction"......

One good thing about being an "olde fart",
CHANGE is nothing NEW........Pumps

It seems that Boulder City, Nevada is the site of
a big experiment in the development of
alternate energy.....The use of solar power for
future needs and the survival of the planet......
Enough said.......

Last night, March 13, 2008, NBC News did
a report on this facility......And expounded
its development for the future of the world.....
The only problem NBC mentioned, with
regard to the experiment, would be the
lack of sunlight.......

A week prior to this NBC report, Fox News
had a reporter, on the site, with a stick full
of marsh mellows.....It seems Fox News
could not prove the experiment, with the
use of the marsh mellows and its generated
heat, because the wind was blowing.
The wind currents reduced the amount
of heat produced by the solar panels......

Conclusion, solar panels do not product
heat if the wind is blowing......Seems us
olde folks do not sit on a "summer porch"
if there is a "chill" in the air either.....
Pumps

I am posting this because the originator does not have direct access to comment on the previous blog posting.......

"Just read your 'Depression' blog. Yes, it was a hard time for all. We arrived by boat in Sept. 1930 on a very cloudy and foggy day. The statue scared the life out of us. Like a Frankenstein movie. You saw nothing and then suddenly this
odd shape appears out of no where and no one could make sense of it. In the daytime she looked like a saint. We had a place to live. Was in a house in
Woodlawn cemetary that even the banks didn't want. A brick 4 family house
all to ourselves, rent free. Just the gas, water and electric was on. My father
had a job, $18.00 a week and we never went hungry to without the necessities,
he even saved money to buy a $50.oo car. He spoke not one word of English
but getting a license those days was easy. And we even had a dog. I doubt that
we ever knew we were poor. Didn't feel any different then we do today. Always had food cooked from scratch, no fancy stuff then. Even make chocolate pudding the hard way...no powder to add milk to and that is it. We had to cook
it, watching the pot that it didn't boil over was my job. I did a good job I tell
you. That training (living thru that Depression made a dent in me). To this
day things recycled, re-used, thought over to make sure we need it, never
waste anything and so on. I often wonder what our grands (grandparents)
would do if all the fast food joints would close, the cell phones are taken away and they can't run to Wal-Mart for stuff one just has to have because it is on
sale....hope I love long enough.....would enjoy it immensely."

And all the younger people, of today, think they have things so bad and
as a result just complain.......How many are even willing to leave their
foreclosed house, which they could not afford in the first place, to live
in a cemetary?.....Even for free?........Boy has time changed so many
things, but if you read carefully not everything.......Pumps.......

This famous event in October of that year has
effected the lives of many people.....
Unfortunately these people are now senior
citizens....A "class" of people to whom no
one ever listens to any more......

This generation of people still hold to the
belief that "in a second you can be broke"...
No money......So they save and do not
spend what they can not afford.......

Post war WWII changed all of that.....And
the result is now people "live on money
they do not have"......But "HOPE to have".....

HOPING that the rain will make your seeds
grow or HOPING that you will make more
money does not make things happen......

There is currently a whole society of people
in America which HOPE they will get rich,
have a better house, enjoy more nights out,
get a bigger TV........

If you want HOPE these days, you better
SAVE for it.......Just watch a squirrel.....
Have you ever seen one that HOPES for
nuts......Pumps

I just love the problems which are occurring in
the Presidential campaign of 2008.....

Years ago, politics was conducted in smokey
back rooms by men with cigars.....It may have
been a little crooked but it did manage to
advance a country during 200 plus years of
its history.......

As of late politics has been molded by media,
and "spin machines"......All "policies" and
"statements" are well crafted and presented to
the voting populous in a nice tidy neat package
with a pretty bow on it........

Not this time around.......It is back to the smoke
filled rooms, "in-fighting", "back-stabbing" and
all that other nice "legal" stuff that is approved
by the United States Constitution......

There will be winners and losers but after all
that is what politics has always been about in
the first place......Remember Hamilton-Burr?.....

Enjoy the political theater, my friends....Pumps

Well it is that time of the year again for the
first of many requests by PBS-TV.....Good Olde
Public Broadcasting.......For $$$$$.......

They get money from the US Government (via
taxes), various "foundations" and then they
want you to also TO contribute to their
TV station.......

If "I" were to send them any money, all I would
get is a "tote bag" a "CD" and the promise
that they would ask me again for money in
12 t0 18 weeks or so.......THAT MEANS,

All "I" am doing is sending them money so
they can ask me for money.......

I also do not like the fact that the people
running these PBS TV stations "do not have
an honest job".....They are getting paid by
some Federal Subsidy System, other
benefactors and personal contributions......

Sounds like living on Home Relief or Welfare
to me.....Their job depends on the Government
or people sending them money.....Rubbish.....
Pumps

My Sunday paper is full of articles about the
forthcoming (if not here already) recession.....
A sharp down turn in the United States
economy......

I look at it this way......The recession is
effecting the construction of new housing,
landscaping and remodeling of existing
homes.....Employers are cutting back on
their "blue collar" personnel......But who
will be the first to go?.....

Perhaps the illegal immigrant who installs
sheet rock, applies paint, installs roofing
and plants shrubs and trees.......There is
still no reduction of personnel in meat
processing plants, but who knows......

What will become of the illegal when there
is no longer any money to be made in
America, due to a recession?.....Just a
thought.......Pumps