do I hear Mid-tearm elections; I wonder what the price will be November 8th

Just a few shot's taken this morning; the wind is kicking out of the NW making it a tad bit cool

Boy it’s been a while since I have been able to sit in front of this computer and do any blogging. Things have been moving at “ludicrous speed” and time has gone by so fast that this whole month no this whole year is a blur. If not for this blog and my day planner I would be hard pressed to remember all that has gone by. So what has been going on lately?

• #3 son is now a licensed driver….. I have mixed feelings about this. When a child drives from home you have no control of anything that happens while that child travels. You hope he or she will remember all you have tried to teach them but you know they are inexperienced and they have not the slight inkling of what it is really like to drive; that only with experience will they be able to drive defensively. As a parent you know that the only way a child will get experience is to let them go. It’s not easy.

• Exercise is getting better. It takes up a bit of time in the morning but I enjoy talking with my friend and I am feeling a bit more energetic. Walking in the morning does help to clear the head and with the weather we have been having here lately it’s a very pleasant start to the day.

• Weather on the Outer Banks right now is great. We have been fortunate (so far) not to have any big storms. Temperatures have been in the upper 70’s during the day and upper 60’s at night. Today I went down to the sound and actually wished I had brought my jacket. Oh I love fall!

Well I will be heading up to the mountains next week. I have to close up my camper and get it ready for winter. I should have done this the last time I was up there but hay if I had done that I would have no excuse for going up now. Oh I can’t wait; I will be up there for 3 night and 2 days. I will be packing my sweat shirts and other cool weather clothes. I love cool weather! I am hoping that there will be some color to the foliage but I am going up a few weeks early and I wont be there for the peak. Who know maybe I’ll get lucky and things will be colorful no matter what I know I will have a good time.

As I have said before I HATE hot weather. During the summer I enjoy my AC. I’m bad; I keep my thermostat at 75 during the day and 70 at night. In the summer I exercise very little (not at all). I don’t take the dogs for a walk, I don’t ride my bike. If I get hot when I do it I don’t do it! Well the weather here on the Banks has begun to cool down so for the past few weeks I have been taking the dogs for an evening walk. Lord knows they need it; Cesar Millan the dog whisper has it right when he says dogs behave better when they have had their exercise. On top of the dog walks today I restarted my daily walk.

My walking buddy called me the other day and reminded me that it was time to get back on the band wagon. “Cindy” she said “I giggle when I walk; we have to start walking again!” I looked at her raised my left eye brow and said “You don’t giggle and on your fattest day you’re not fat but yes we need to start walking again because unlike you I have fat that need’s to be firmed up”

So today we took it easy (her ideal) and just walked 2 ½ miles but add that to the 1 ½ miles I walked this evening with the dogs and my glutes and thigh muscles are not happy. God I hate exercise.

So what do I like? I don’t know you’ll have to ask me later.

Do what is best for America cut back on oil use

In 1978 I bought an Olds Delta 88. Gas was .35 cents a gallon and it cost about $ 7 to fill it up. Later that year I traded it in for a Ford Pinto. A week a week after I bought the Pinto gas went from that .35 cents a gallon to .75 cents it still cost me $7 to fill my tank. Today gasoline prices have started to fall and it concerns me that we Americans being the short sighted folks we are will forget the lessons of the past, even if the past was yesterday so I searched the internet for an easy to understand time line of US oil consumption. I found one directed at children. It is very easy to read and very easy to understand. To see the complete time line go to EIA Kids Page Petroleum Energy Timelines - milestone in petroleum energy history

We Americans can control oil prices. It is our consumption that keeps the price up and our consumption that puts other countries in control of our economy. By continuing to very actively seek and use alternative energy we can make ourselves free again. We Americans have difficulty learning from the past. If we had taken to heart the energy lessons of the 70's our dependency on oil could have been greatly reduced and it is possible that today's oil "crises" could have been avoided.

Excerpts from the above refered web site.

1978-1980: Oil Prices Doubled- The Iranian Revolution, which began in late 1978, resulted in a drop of 3.9 million barrels per day of crude oil production from Iran from 1978 to 1981. At first, other OPEC countries made up for the drop in Iranian production. In 1980, the Iran-Iraq War began, and many Persian Gulf countries reduced output as well. By 1981, OPEC production was about one-fourth lower than it had been in 1978, and prices had doubled.

1980-1985: OPEC kept prices high by producing less oil. Saudi Arabia acted as a “swing producer”, cutting more production than any other OPEC country. But high prices caused less oil to be used. For example, cars became smaller using less gasoline. The drop in oil consumption meant that less oil needed to be produced. Oil production from Saudi Arabia fell from 9.9 million barrels per day in 1980 to 3.4 million barrels per day in 1985.

1986: Crude Oil Price Collapse – In 1986, Saudi Arabia stopped holding back production, and other OPEC increased production. This caused an oil glut and prices were almost cut in half. Oil consumption grew quickly in the late 1980’s because prices remained low.

1993 forward: For the first time the U.S. imported more oil and refined products from other countries than it produced. More and more imports have been needed because of growing petroleum demand and declining U.S. production.

1997-1998 The Asian financial crisis that occurred in 1997 had worldwide economic effects. As the Asian economies shrank, their demand for petroleum products declined. The slow demand for petroleum, along with the reluctance of OPEC to cut its production quotas, led to the plummet of oil prices in 1998.

2001:

· The Nation’s petroleum production measured an average of 11.0 barrels of oil per day per well, 41 percent below the 1972 peak.

· U.S. petroleum consumption reached 19.7 million barrels per day, an all-time high.

· Of every 10 barrels of petroleum consumed in the United States, more than 4 barrels were consumed in the form of motor gasoline. The transportation sector alone accounted for two-thirds of all petroleum used in the United States.

· To meet demand, crude oil and petroleum products were imported at the rate of 11.9 million barrels per day, while exports measured 1.0 million barrels per day.

· Net imports (imports minus exports) of crude oil and petroleum products more than doubled from the 4.3 million barrels per day in 1985 to 10.9 million barrels per day. The five leading suppliers of petroleum to the United States that year were Canada, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Mexico, and Nigeria.

2005 :

· The record-setting hurricane season of 2005 caused massive damage to the U.S. petroleum and natural gas infrastructure. The Gulf of Mexico, one of the nation's largest sources of oil and gas production, was dealt a one-two punch by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, causing destruction and substantial damage to offshore platforms within a four-week period in August and September.

· Gasoline shortages occurred in a some places on the East Coast due to power outages disrupting the flow of gasoline through pipelines from the Gulf of Mexico.

These guys have no qualms about stopping traffic

some folks make their own crop circles

sunset off Colington Island

I have been busy the last few days but not the normal hurried busy that seems to rule my life this has been a I want to do this I want to do that kind of busy. I have been reading a Terry Brooks book for over a month and I wanted to just lay back and finish it, so I did. Pansies are in the stores so I wanted to plant pansy, I’ve bought them now I just have to plant them. I have been listening to Radio Paradise - eclectic online rock radio and watching recorded TV shows. It feels nice to kick back a little after the rush of summer.

* I don’t watch much TV there are only 4 shows I watch regularly and one of those is in its last season (season #10) another one of them is “Dead Like Me” it is a “dark” comedy/drama that I feel is very uplifting and hopeful. I hope it makes it.

* My #3 son will be getting his drivers license by the end of the month. There are advantages and disadvantages, good and bad in everything in life. The advantage to this license is that I don’t have to take him everywhere anymore the bad part is I don’t have to take him everywhere anymore. My sons and I have the best talks in the car. We talk of the world and the events that take place. I give them advice and they tell me what is going on in their world. I will miss these conversations. I realized this last night when my #3 son and I were driving together and the conversation went to the book “Of Mice and Men” and from there to Buggs Bunny. (There is a connection some who read this will know what it is)

In the car there are no distractions, no phone, no TV, no computer; the radio may play in the background but that can be turned off without any problem. The car forces those in it to concentrate on the conversation at hand with the people next to them. I will never have a regular cell phone; I will keep my pay as you go phone. I refuse to allow my car to become anything else but the sanctuary it is. I will hope that from time to time my kids will need a ride because I love the uninterrupted car conversations.

* “The Day the Earth Stood Still” what a great movie; played couch potato yesterday and watched it on AMC.

* This article on an electric car that goes 0 to 60 in 4.5 seconds SCI FI Tech. If oil prices stay high there is hope, as soon as the price goes down I bet the research money dries up.

Oh my what a weekend we had and its Wednesday already. With Ernesto breezing through last Thursday and Friday it was difficult to know how the Labor Day weekend was going to turn out. Work Friday and Saturday was kinda slow which is not a bad thing when you do the type of work I do. I have a feeling this was due to the storm. Folks waited to see what was going to happen before they headed to the beach.

When I got up Sunday afternoon it was a beautiful day and I planed on reading and hanging out around the house, well my neighbors had other plans for me. They live in Northern Virginia and come down whenever they can; this time they brought company. I being the good neighbor accepted their invitation to come over planning to have one beer, visit for a little while and then head on home; well 3:30am and 6 beers later I walked on home. Folks I did not wake up with a hangover but it took me 2 days to recover. I guess this old body can’t handle working 2 night shifts followed by a late night of socializing.

Yesterday was spent doing mom things and just catching up; today my butt is not getting out of the recliner until 3pm when I have to pick my son up from school. Well maybe I’ll finish that load of laundry and sweep up the dog hair ……….

September 1 2006

What do you do after a storm drops 6 or 7 inches of rain and school is canceled? You find a puddle and have blast. This is not a healthy thing to do the water is most likely contaminated with all kinds of runoff but these kid were having such a great time. Ernesto caused some minor flooding but other than that no big deal.