Today our son was out in the
garage playing with the mig
welder and tripped a circuit.
No problem we think.

Since we have circuit breakers,
all we have to do is grab a
flashlight, go to the basement,
and reset the breaker.

Welll….. That part was easy,
but then we had to reset all the
digital clocks, wait for the
satellite TV receivers to boot
back up, wait for the computer
to boot back up, and wait for
the wireless router to boot up.

It didn’t seem to hurt the
microwave, or the Bunn coffee
maker, the alarm system seems
to functioning, and everything
appears to be working again.

Could be time to rewire the
garage as we ran the feed wire
out in the late 1960′s. When
it was wired it wasn’t on a
separate breaker so it may be
time to change that also.

Nobody was hurt and after a
short break things were back
to working like they did
before the blackout.

We may not have had as many
modern conveniences back in the
day, but the stress level had
to be a lot lower when the
power went out.
Comments are always welcome.

While our son was still in grade
school we faced such a problem. A
bully seemed fixated on our son. We
went and spoke with the teacher who
proclaimed she hadn’t seen any problems
but would keep an eye open.

When it happened again said teacher
stopped just short of calling our son
a liar. We were told if she didn’t see
it, it didn’t happen.

Out of kindler, gentler, politically
correct ways to resolve the issue, I
came up with something I knew would
work.

I told him the next time the bully
got close to just haul back and punch
him in the nose. I also told him that
if word got back that he backed down
he would receive free boxing lessons
in the back yard. Honestly, at the
time, I never expected it to go any
farther.

Something like that is a huge fear to
overcome. Our son did act on the advice
though and I was called at work to come
remove the ‘threat’ from the school
grounds.

There was no talking to the principal
who seemed to believe our son was a
‘thread to other students’. After a heated
exchange we left.

Out in the car our son told me he
was scared to death, but when he hit
the bully in the nose, said bully
cried like a baby!

After a couple of whoops and high
fives in the 48′ we cruised over to a
McDonald’s for a celebratory Big Mac
and fries.

While we don’t recommend this course
of action for all who have problems
with bullies, we can say in our case
it worked.
Comments are always welcome.

If you don’t have the dates for the
NorthPark cruise-ins, here thy are:

June 16
July 28
Aug 25
Sept 22

The River Valley Classics hosts these
events, there is usually a $2 suggested
admission, and more good times than a
person should legally be allowed to have.

——————————

On the Jim Fisher Show today, he talked
a bit about the city budget. We also
noticed that wages and retirements were
a large portion of the budget.

Passing the buck isn’t going to get it
this time. Yes, the state cut back on
their contribution to the retirement
fund, but the city is responsible for
its’ employees.

And back when there was talk about a
raise for the Mayor, the City Council,
and the Administrator, they knew this
was coming.

Commercial property taxes really took
off, along with their sewer rates, and
the business licenses. With some of
hikes we’ve seen suggested, it would
have to mean an increase in the cost
of the final product for these businesses
to continue.

The increase could also raise rents
for those who choose not to own their
homes. We believe a better answer is
out there, it just wasn’t looked for.
Comments are always welcome.

The Republican debates are
turning into a bad dream that
just won’t go away.

You know the kind, you nod off
into deep sleep, then the Calliope
music starts and a spotlight hits
the center of the big top floor.

A garish little car zooms in,
turns and stops under the spots.
The door creaks open and a horde
of clowns that look like they
came from the mind of Steven
King come spilling out.

They shamble directly towards
you with grins that show their
rows of pointy teeth.

You jolt awake and tell yourself
it was only a dream and go back to
sleep. But once you hit the land
of nod, the Calliope music starts
and a spotlight hits the center of
the big top floor…….

AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! It’s like the
Twilight Zone and we know it will
never go away. The dream will keep
recurring, and the debates will
continue almost daily until November.

Just once we wish they could find a
moderator who asks relevant questions.
If you honestly believe the debates
are an intelligent use of the
candidates times, we can’t explain
it to you.
Comments are always welcome.

To summarize the 2013 budget:

the storm water fee will increase
by $.25 per ERU

garbage fee will increase by $.50
per small and medium bins, and
$1 for the large.

business license fee will raise by
about $25

building permits will go up by 25%

a new fire false alarm fee will be
$75 for the first 2 calls and $150
for every one after

police false alarm will be $75 for
the first 2 and $150 for all after

the sewer tax will go up by about
$2.34 a month for homeowners

and property taxes will raise about
$8 a month for the average home.

Bus fares, park fees, pool fees,
golf fees, and parking costs will
remain the same.

The 2014 budget mentioned an
additional $1.21 per month hike for
sewer fees

an additional $.50 per month increase
for garbage collection for all size
bins

and an additional $.25 per ERU for
the clean water fee.

These figures are from the city
website and we assume them to be
worse case scenarios, but commercial
takes and even bigger hit.

The City Council meeting is Wednesday,
January, 25, at 5:30 pm in City Hall.

The information can be found here- budget
budget1
Comments are always welcome.

If you are one of the above, you
have been warned. This is a post
that is biased, and opinionated.

The president will give his State
of the Union speech soon and you
don’t have to have a crystal ball
to know what it’s going to be like.

He’ll get up and spew his bold-face
lies, the drive-by media will accept
them as gospel, and the GOP will be
chastised for calling him on them.

We’d guess he is going to mention
how he has lowered our dependence
on foreign oil while upping production.
Wrong. We are not producing more,
hence we are importing less.

The constantly high gas prices do
nothing to increase demand for more
gas either.

We bet he mentions the 1% who
aren’t paying their fair share
of taxes. Funny how the actual
numbers don’t prove that.

We’re reasonably sure he will cite
the over 2 million jobs he brought
to the green energy sector and how
healthy that industry is.

The green sector recently took a
25% fall due to several different
things. Germany announced that the
Feed-In Tariff on green energy
should be adjusted monthly instead
of annually, prices of solar panels
and other green supplies have dropped
like a rapper’s pants, and the
profit margin has narrowed.

We also find it humorous that the
top 5 solar panel companies are so
diverse. Sun Tech has it’s headquarters
in China, First Solar has headquarters
in Arizona and plants in Germany and
Malaysia, Sharp Solar is headquartered
in Japan, Vingli Solar is based here,
and Trina Solar has headquarters in
China.

That sure proves the president is all
for American jobs to us. After all it
only costs $4.8 million per employee
to install Chinese solar panels hooked
up to computers made in the Philippines
and then monitored by Americans.
Comments are always welcome.

While we haven’t found any on the Expo Show we did
find some for other recent events you may not have seen.

They all come from the same site, which we will link to
at the end of the post.

We found three pages of pictures from the 41st Annual Barrett-Jackson Auction at Westworld of Scottsdale in
Scottsdale, Arizona, held January 15-22,2012.

Here are two pages of pictures from the 52nd Annual koi Auto Parts Cavalcade of Customs that was held at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati, Ohio on January 13-15, 2012.

And two pages of pictures from the Mutt and Jeff’s Holiday Car Show & Pinup Contest held at Mutt & Jeff’s Classics in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 1, 2012

These are just a few of the many shows covered all the way back to 1999 at Hot Rod Hotline car show page.

Here is a one page spread on the 2009 Rod & Custom Auto, Motorcycle & Product Show at the Expo Center in Rock Island, Illinois on January 13-15, 2009.

This may help you rid yourself of your garage fever, for a while
anyway.
Comments are always welcome.

Here are the charities and what
they got after the gavel came down.

$31,000- Chip Miller Foundation
35,000- Austin Hatcher Foundation for
Pediatric Cancer
79,000- Smile Train
50,000- Purple Heart Services Foundation
250,000- Paralyzed Veteran’s of America
75,000- Wounded Warrior Project Inc.
100,000- Make A Wish of Arizona and
Cox Charities
150,000- Darrell Gwynn Foundation
115,000- Childhelp and Victory Junction
Gang
160,000- St. Jude’s Research Hospital
1,000,000- Armed Forces Foundation
535,000- Fisher House Foundation
300,000- JDRF
120,000- TGEN Foundation
350,000- Camp Debbie Lou Foundation
50,000- Solid Rock Foundation
37,000- The Mad Girls Inc.
50,000- Roar on the Shore
150,000- Ironman Foundation
175,000- Achilles Foundation

First, someone had to donate the vehicle,
and get transportation to the auction,
all to give it away. The people who
bought the vehicles gave more than the
vehicles are worth to help the charities.

The $1 million that went to the Armed
Forces Foundation was for a ’64 Ford
that the man who bought it last year for
$700,000 donated back. Makes us proud
to be gearheads.
Comments are always welcome.

Since we didn’t go, we have no pictures
of the event to share. If we locate some
online we will post a link to them.

We did however get an answer about a
rumor we had heard. It was said that
the drive-by media was going to try to
do a story on Obama every day.

Well, in today’s QC Times in the
Nation/World section was a half-page
article titled ‘Obama is not the 1st
musical president’. I know we’ll
sleep better tonight knowing that.

Since we are talking of our Poser in
Chief, we are still wondering why he
stopped the Keystone XL pipeline deal.

Obama says he wants ‘a full assessment
of the pipeline’s impact, especially
the health and safety of the American
people, as well as our environment’.

The main argument is that the oil
from the pipeline could leak into the
Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska, and
others. Problem is 2,000 miles of
pipeline are already up and running
in Nebraska.

These pipelines currently push more
than 100 million barrels of oil per
year through Nebraska. We haven’t
heard of anybody having a problem with
these, just a new one.

It seems Obama can no longer dazzle
us with brilliance and has resorted
to trying to baffle us with bullshit.
Comments are always welcome.

We went out early this morning
to get groceries and run a few
errands. The surprising thing
to us was that we got everything
we needed and stuck to our
budget.

To help everyone feel a little
warmer, we present the following
events for your consideration.

Barrett-Jackson will be in
Scottsdale until Sunday. We’ve
watched 2 days worth of coverage
on the Speed channel and plan
to watch more.

The 29th Annual Rod & Custom Auto, Motorcycle, & Products
Show is going on through Sunday
at the QCCA Expo Center in Rock
Island, Ill. We usually attend
this show but likely won’t this
year.

If you will be travelling west
soon, you may want to check out
the Grand National Roadster Show. Held at
the Fairplex in Pomona, California,
January 27-29, 2012.

There are more events, but we
have to get our shovel ready for
the white stuff that is going to
hit us later today.
Comments are always welcome.