I spent time this morning re-calculating my projected PV payback. I am looking at sixteen years, or until midway through the year 2023.
I had originally estimated sixteen years, before I knew my actual production numbers which were much higher than I expected. But...it's still sixteen years! However, I now include the following assumptions which I didn't consider earlier:
1) PV production will fall 5% in 5 years, and 10% in ten years.
2) A new inverter will be needed in 10 years, at a future value ($1,740) of a present value of $1,068 at 5%.
3) 5% inflation for both energy from my utility and the new future inverter.
So I will have reached payback in about 16 years, and assuming a total PV system life of 25 years, my $7,389 outlay will have returned $17,973.
Because I paid for the system from savings up front, I did not finance this endeavor, so no interest payments. Even assuming that I plow the monthly energy savings right back into savings, I still incur a lost opportunity cost of not having invested my money over that time frame, But look at the markets today, sheesh! I sold high in 2007 to buy my system that today is more expensive from a mutual fund that is devalued. And 5% energy inflation...well, you know my bias towards higher future energy costs, personally I think they will be higher than 5% but I'll be conservative.
I'm coming out ahead in all accounts.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Pray for Relief!
I was reading last week of a group of religious folk somewhere in the east who decided to stage a sit-in at a gas station, praying for lower energy prices. I know the fallacy of taking a group of seven people and paralleling them with 300+ million Americans. But I have to say, there are likely one hundred and ninety five million other Merikans who are desperately wishing for gas to get back to $3.XX a gallon.
I gassed up the Civic today, along with a two gallon lawn mower tank, and it cost me fifty bucks. Fifty bucks. And to be honest, I couldn't give a shit what it costs...if it's twenty or ninety, I'd pay it. I will drive my car regardless. I can afford it. And apparently, Merikan religiosity doesn't care either. Some might pray for lower prices, but in the end, they are every bit as much sucked into suburban sprawl as are secular humanists. The religious in this nation are just as responsible for fuckering up our landscapes as the non-pious. One might argue that they are even more responsible.
And I am one of them! One to argue! I argue the point because I observe it daily. My Lutheran neighbors drive a Nissan Armada, one of the biggest SUVs you can buy. And why did they buy it? SAFETY! Oh yeah! That's it! Nevermind the fact that their SUV contributes to localized pollution contributing to childhood asthma, the children need to be armored! And the environment be dammned! Why care about this earth when you're gonna be raptured up to heaven in any event?
I am so hostile to the religious in this nation because they are more culpable for our untenable living arrangements. The people who are willing to make meaningful changes to our urban landscapes are, almost exclusively, secular humanists. Only white secular humanists drive Priuses. The thing is, religion is going to be even more dominate in the future, in my opinion. People, ever since they crawled out of the primordial mud, have an affinity to worship the unknown, and with an unknown future in a world of energy scarcity, well...
I gassed up the Civic today, along with a two gallon lawn mower tank, and it cost me fifty bucks. Fifty bucks. And to be honest, I couldn't give a shit what it costs...if it's twenty or ninety, I'd pay it. I will drive my car regardless. I can afford it. And apparently, Merikan religiosity doesn't care either. Some might pray for lower prices, but in the end, they are every bit as much sucked into suburban sprawl as are secular humanists. The religious in this nation are just as responsible for fuckering up our landscapes as the non-pious. One might argue that they are even more responsible.
And I am one of them! One to argue! I argue the point because I observe it daily. My Lutheran neighbors drive a Nissan Armada, one of the biggest SUVs you can buy. And why did they buy it? SAFETY! Oh yeah! That's it! Nevermind the fact that their SUV contributes to localized pollution contributing to childhood asthma, the children need to be armored! And the environment be dammned! Why care about this earth when you're gonna be raptured up to heaven in any event?
I am so hostile to the religious in this nation because they are more culpable for our untenable living arrangements. The people who are willing to make meaningful changes to our urban landscapes are, almost exclusively, secular humanists. Only white secular humanists drive Priuses. The thing is, religion is going to be even more dominate in the future, in my opinion. People, ever since they crawled out of the primordial mud, have an affinity to worship the unknown, and with an unknown future in a world of energy scarcity, well...
We're Due Relief
My brother-in-law just bought a bigger spa than their current one, and I was enlisted to wire it up. Apparently, electrical engineers are also electricians. Nevermind the fact I told them electricity rates will see double digit increases in the next few years, but in came the new, larger spa. Energy is, still, dirt cheap.
But as he was driving me to the big-box home center to buy wire, I looked over to see a jacked-up F350 extended-cab truck next to us in the turn lane, with obvious outside tread wear on his front, BF Goodrich Mud Terrain 285-75's. Driving it? A lone alpha male.
Out here in the South Sacramento hinterlands, mudders are apparently needed to negotiate the ratty, hole-strewn collector roads the county obviously neglects in favor of the more favorable Land Park and East Sacramento roads. But this guy's tires were clearly suffering from uneven wear; his back tires were even, suggesting he either doesn't know or doesn't care to rotate them, or that he was completely unaware when he bought them that they'd only last 9-11,000 miles in paved suburbia.
I couldn't see anything obvious in the back of his truck, but likely the only thing he ever carried in the back of it was a 40 lb. bag of dog food. I see this a thousand times a day on the 41st street, highway 99 overpass; a thousand trucks with nothing being hauled in them. They are just commuter rigs.
So I'm supposed to believe that people like this jerkoff are due 'relief' from high gasoline prices? That somehow 'speculators' or 'left-wingers' are perpetrating this whole high gas thing? Or that his wife, whose head barely clears the steering wheel on her Explorer, also deserves relief?
She bought that new Explorer back in '04 because it makes her feel safe, and so that her kids are safe. This is the 'ol bullshit safety mantra.
It's bullshit, because she bought it not because it makes her feel safe, but because it makes her feel powerful. How many of these small women have you seen two and a half feet from your rear bumper on I-5?
But as he was driving me to the big-box home center to buy wire, I looked over to see a jacked-up F350 extended-cab truck next to us in the turn lane, with obvious outside tread wear on his front, BF Goodrich Mud Terrain 285-75's. Driving it? A lone alpha male.
Out here in the South Sacramento hinterlands, mudders are apparently needed to negotiate the ratty, hole-strewn collector roads the county obviously neglects in favor of the more favorable Land Park and East Sacramento roads. But this guy's tires were clearly suffering from uneven wear; his back tires were even, suggesting he either doesn't know or doesn't care to rotate them, or that he was completely unaware when he bought them that they'd only last 9-11,000 miles in paved suburbia.
I couldn't see anything obvious in the back of his truck, but likely the only thing he ever carried in the back of it was a 40 lb. bag of dog food. I see this a thousand times a day on the 41st street, highway 99 overpass; a thousand trucks with nothing being hauled in them. They are just commuter rigs.
So I'm supposed to believe that people like this jerkoff are due 'relief' from high gasoline prices? That somehow 'speculators' or 'left-wingers' are perpetrating this whole high gas thing? Or that his wife, whose head barely clears the steering wheel on her Explorer, also deserves relief?
She bought that new Explorer back in '04 because it makes her feel safe, and so that her kids are safe. This is the 'ol bullshit safety mantra.
It's bullshit, because she bought it not because it makes her feel safe, but because it makes her feel powerful. How many of these small women have you seen two and a half feet from your rear bumper on I-5?
Friday, June 27, 2008
Yoga
As the Franklin Monologues is full of biting commentary on the sorry state of the American tale, I shift gears...sort of.
One activity that garners little attention here in Merika is yoga, but one that your author practices weekly. I think the reason it isn't very well received here is because you don't have to buy anything to make it go...no expensive running shoes, no racquet, can't watch it on television with major endorsers sponsoring the commercial breaks...you just need yourself. I suppose you could argue you need a mat, but that's only necessary to keep you off the cafeteria floor.
Yoga isn't popular here for the same reason soccer isn't. Soccer will never fly in this nation precisely because they can't cut to commercial break the fifty dozen or so times they can while broadcasting basketball, baseball, drag-racing or other 'American' sport. I think baseball was invented with nine defined 'breaks' solely to sell more hot dogs. A 45 minute soccer half without interruption? It's un-American, and it's exactly why it's not popular. I'm not suggesting yoga is a spectator sport, but Indian and Merikan philosophies don't exactly mesh; one of personal introspection and calmness, and the other of wanton-consumption-in-a-rush-to-make-more-money.
I discovered yoga almost a year ago, and it's probably the best thing I've started since riding a bike. It complements the shortening of the muscles that biking aggravates. I've known how tight I am ever since I joined the Army. Bending over to wink the browneye at the doctor in the MEPS recruiting station in Oakland, he commented how tight my hamstrings and calves were, and that someday, I'm gonna get injured because of them. It only took me twenty one years to heed his advice.
Yoga needs nothing except you, and it meshes perfectly with the Monologue ideals; non consumptive, public interaction with co-workers and neighbors. And it can kick your ass.
So yesterday while standing on one leg with the other leg behind my neck, I...well, I won't lie -- I was able to touch my thumbs to the ground in a forward fold! The first time I've ever done that! It will take a few years until I can get my palms on the ground, but I'm pretty sure I can do that with practice.
Love It Or Leave It
Asking why politicians are so eager to pin the rise in energy to speculators, the answer is that it lets them believe that we don't have to adapt to a world of expensive gas.
This isn't my observation, it was Paul Krugman's, but I think he's dead on. If we assume for a minute that this is correct, then what it does is completely validate nearly everything the Monologues has written about over the last 6 months.
Blaming speculation, the people who do this, have the same mindset that promotes the booming Indian gaming industry in the Sacramento region; the same mindset that makes Six Flags an attractive destination instead of our own neighborhoods and communities; the same mindset as to why we can't live without our stuff and we can't live with it either. It's the mindset that we Americans, by birthright, ought to blame others for our own bad behaviors.
It's speculation, not our own consumption. We are entitled to unearned riches with one pull of a slot machine. We incessantly motor about our own communities, turning them into freeway slums and parking lots, and flee to Sea World to walk and socialize at the human scale. We are entitled to so much material wealth that we shuttle a third of it off into personal storage pods.
I completely disagree that we live in the best nation on earth, or that this pathetic mantra of "love it or leave it" somehow dictates that I can't disagree with what I see around me. This is a nation full of overfed, overweight, indebted, entitled, non-sustainable consumptive slobs. Soon, a quarter of the 'finest nation on earth's' population will suffer from type II diabetes. A fifth of this 'great society' won't have access to basic health care. It's son's and daughter's will be conscripted into service to wage resource wars against future economic terrorists.
This thing is, almost everything I decry, everything I want to see different, everything! can be rectified through energy scarcity. So if this be due to speculation; play on.
This isn't my observation, it was Paul Krugman's, but I think he's dead on. If we assume for a minute that this is correct, then what it does is completely validate nearly everything the Monologues has written about over the last 6 months.
Blaming speculation, the people who do this, have the same mindset that promotes the booming Indian gaming industry in the Sacramento region; the same mindset that makes Six Flags an attractive destination instead of our own neighborhoods and communities; the same mindset as to why we can't live without our stuff and we can't live with it either. It's the mindset that we Americans, by birthright, ought to blame others for our own bad behaviors.
It's speculation, not our own consumption. We are entitled to unearned riches with one pull of a slot machine. We incessantly motor about our own communities, turning them into freeway slums and parking lots, and flee to Sea World to walk and socialize at the human scale. We are entitled to so much material wealth that we shuttle a third of it off into personal storage pods.
I completely disagree that we live in the best nation on earth, or that this pathetic mantra of "love it or leave it" somehow dictates that I can't disagree with what I see around me. This is a nation full of overfed, overweight, indebted, entitled, non-sustainable consumptive slobs. Soon, a quarter of the 'finest nation on earth's' population will suffer from type II diabetes. A fifth of this 'great society' won't have access to basic health care. It's son's and daughter's will be conscripted into service to wage resource wars against future economic terrorists.
This thing is, almost everything I decry, everything I want to see different, everything! can be rectified through energy scarcity. So if this be due to speculation; play on.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Energy <> Technology
Even if in our lifetimes we don't run into any liquid fuel shortage, every single forecasting entity, no matter how Conservative, forecasts permanent depletion in thirty years' time. Not one, not one!, forecasts that the current rate of extraction can continue beyond when my son is my father's age. Of course, by permanent depletion I'm not implying we'll have no oil, just that our extraction rate will, year over year, be less and less.
The expectation is that technology will ride to our rescue by then. But avert your eyes, children! for technology may take on other forms: fusion, nanosolar, horizontal drilling, algae-diesel, hybrid and all electric motoring, clean coal...
But the Monologues know, from every past example, that greater efficiencies in the production of energy have only led to more energy production, not less. And every example of greater efficiency in consumption has only led to more consumption, not less. You can say what you want about selling the Denali and buying a Yaris, and how much less fuel you're using and how much a better planet saver you become, but the planet doesn't give a shit about your fuel economy: the earth responds to gallons, not miles per gallon.
This mantra of technology is a guise. It's cloaking the underlying energy consumption that feeds it, and by masking it with terms like 'efficiency' and 'conservation', we don't change the fact that the energy source driving it still reigns. Technology is not energy.
What we have done is squandered every bit of efficiency gain we've made in the past thirty years. Cars are more efficient than in 1978, yes, but now they accelerate faster and we drive them farther. Computer monitors are more efficient, yes, but now we use 20" flat screens instead of 16" CRTs. Toy manufacturing is more efficient, yes, but now we ship the raw materials 9,000 miles to be manufactured by cheap foreign labor then ship them 9,000 miles back and deliver them by truck to the box store, where we drive by private automobile to buy them. Refrigeration is much more efficient, yes, but now we have one fridge in the house, and the spare and a chest freezer in the garage. Technology is only important if we can use it to consume less energy, never more. And we have failed in every respect.
The expectation is that technology will ride to our rescue by then. But avert your eyes, children! for technology may take on other forms: fusion, nanosolar, horizontal drilling, algae-diesel, hybrid and all electric motoring, clean coal...
But the Monologues know, from every past example, that greater efficiencies in the production of energy have only led to more energy production, not less. And every example of greater efficiency in consumption has only led to more consumption, not less. You can say what you want about selling the Denali and buying a Yaris, and how much less fuel you're using and how much a better planet saver you become, but the planet doesn't give a shit about your fuel economy: the earth responds to gallons, not miles per gallon.
This mantra of technology is a guise. It's cloaking the underlying energy consumption that feeds it, and by masking it with terms like 'efficiency' and 'conservation', we don't change the fact that the energy source driving it still reigns. Technology is not energy.
What we have done is squandered every bit of efficiency gain we've made in the past thirty years. Cars are more efficient than in 1978, yes, but now they accelerate faster and we drive them farther. Computer monitors are more efficient, yes, but now we use 20" flat screens instead of 16" CRTs. Toy manufacturing is more efficient, yes, but now we ship the raw materials 9,000 miles to be manufactured by cheap foreign labor then ship them 9,000 miles back and deliver them by truck to the box store, where we drive by private automobile to buy them. Refrigeration is much more efficient, yes, but now we have one fridge in the house, and the spare and a chest freezer in the garage. Technology is only important if we can use it to consume less energy, never more. And we have failed in every respect.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The Boon He Gives
Global warming, the 'most serious threat to ever confront mankind,' has certainly morphed into a red-headed stepchild, now hasn't it? Democrats in the Senate two weeks ago couldn't even manage to make it back to Washington to advance any climate change legislation this year. So...mitigating the looming catastrophic global meltdown that's going to kill us all will just have to wait until 2009, at the earliest.
Meanwhile, McCain is asking Congress to open up ANWR to produce more oil to combat global warming, while promising a future green energy revolution founded on nuclear power. Energy is not his foe in this election; as four dollar and three cent gasoline trumps mankind's greatest threat of annihilation, Americans are 'warming up' to more drilling and burning.
I mean, seriously. The American public will say "kiss my ass" if the costs of carbon sequestration or carbon taxing are ever passed on, or if conservation is legislated, of if consumptive choices are restricted. We collectively hover just to the right of center -- high energy costs are a boon for McCain. Republican energy policy is 1) drill domestically, 2) refine domestically, 3) tap into the extraordinary potential of domestic oil shale (which to date hasn't produced shit). This policy will be 'warmly' received in the face of four dollar and four cent gasoline.
He can, and will, promise a green energy revolution. Absolutely, at some time in the future; but in the short term, the American economy is run largely on oil, so increasing supply is a must! Beyond domestic drilling, add green nuclear energy to the fold. It doesn't add to warming! Wa-hey! Nuclear can be a tough row to hoe, though. But with looming four dollar and five cent gasoline, we will accept some ancillary nuclear 'warming'.
Conservation -- that's tantamount to pain. Pain bad. Pain hurt. Pain hurt real bad. Conservation bad. Conservation hurt real bad. Leave conservation to the third world who'll be priced out at four dollars and six cents. Forced conservation by others! If they can't buy oil at this price, hey, it's not as if they weren't given the chance. If they can't escape rising sea levels, hey, it's not as if we didn't give them the chance. And if they can't market their hardscrabble drought intolerant crops against freighterloads of cheaper American corn, hey, it's not as if they didn't have the chance.
Meanwhile, McCain is asking Congress to open up ANWR to produce more oil to combat global warming, while promising a future green energy revolution founded on nuclear power. Energy is not his foe in this election; as four dollar and three cent gasoline trumps mankind's greatest threat of annihilation, Americans are 'warming up' to more drilling and burning.
I mean, seriously. The American public will say "kiss my ass" if the costs of carbon sequestration or carbon taxing are ever passed on, or if conservation is legislated, of if consumptive choices are restricted. We collectively hover just to the right of center -- high energy costs are a boon for McCain. Republican energy policy is 1) drill domestically, 2) refine domestically, 3) tap into the extraordinary potential of domestic oil shale (which to date hasn't produced shit). This policy will be 'warmly' received in the face of four dollar and four cent gasoline.
He can, and will, promise a green energy revolution. Absolutely, at some time in the future; but in the short term, the American economy is run largely on oil, so increasing supply is a must! Beyond domestic drilling, add green nuclear energy to the fold. It doesn't add to warming! Wa-hey! Nuclear can be a tough row to hoe, though. But with looming four dollar and five cent gasoline, we will accept some ancillary nuclear 'warming'.
Conservation -- that's tantamount to pain. Pain bad. Pain hurt. Pain hurt real bad. Conservation bad. Conservation hurt real bad. Leave conservation to the third world who'll be priced out at four dollars and six cents. Forced conservation by others! If they can't buy oil at this price, hey, it's not as if they weren't given the chance. If they can't escape rising sea levels, hey, it's not as if we didn't give them the chance. And if they can't market their hardscrabble drought intolerant crops against freighterloads of cheaper American corn, hey, it's not as if they didn't have the chance.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Recreational Oil
I was discussing energy with co-workers this morning, as we walk to either Savemart, Fourbucks, or McDonalds. My co-worker's coffee cost more this morning than last week; inflation strikes again.
Caffeine is one commodity that will always require large energy inputs to get to our veins, as it doesn't grow locally. We have the luxury of choosing between Ethiopian or Kenyan, but I think most coffee is grown in Brazil. In any event, the Danes, Canadians, and Americans will give up an awful lot before giving up java.
These choices we make, and the energies behind them...too often they aren't sync'ed. We don't usually think of the 11,000 mile trip a bag of grounds makes to get to the espresso machine, but it's there. All that oil that's used is recreational, to deliver a non-essential product. Recreational oil.
And so it is with me, as I'm going to gas up the boat and truck to wakeboard and camp. I was trying to think about what people would do if they were, say, limited to 20 gallons per month. I'm going to guess that they'd absolutely find other ways to conserve and still allow themselves some opportunity to use it for recreation. Some would be demonized for doing so: When you boat alone, you boat with Bin Laden!
I only barely overheard the RV dealers discuss gas prices with their clients on Friday. More or less, I think I heard them say it's not really an issue for them...perhaps fewer people are buying RVs these days, but they have such a massive untapped retirement boom underway, and so many with so much discretionary income that those who are able to RV will RV.
Baby boomers will continue to spend over the next two decades, and as 70% of what we have is due to spending, this will drive the economy for quite a while. But after that, as I turn 55, comes my generation who never saved shit, whose members will still owe prodigious amounts on their mortgages. RV'ing just might suffer then, what with my expectation for long term oil scarcity and three generations of people who have never managed to plan for anything beyond the end of the month.
What will happen to recreational oil? Really, do you think there will ever be hybrid wakeboard boats or battery powered dune buggies and ATVs? I mean, come on. It's been said that the stone age didn't end for lack of stones, and so the oil age won't end for lack of oil. Perhaps my grandson's boat will be powered by Mr. Fusion, just drop in a few table scraps and coffee grounds and off he'll go. But until then, I'll be burning oil to recreate.
Caffeine is one commodity that will always require large energy inputs to get to our veins, as it doesn't grow locally. We have the luxury of choosing between Ethiopian or Kenyan, but I think most coffee is grown in Brazil. In any event, the Danes, Canadians, and Americans will give up an awful lot before giving up java.
These choices we make, and the energies behind them...too often they aren't sync'ed. We don't usually think of the 11,000 mile trip a bag of grounds makes to get to the espresso machine, but it's there. All that oil that's used is recreational, to deliver a non-essential product. Recreational oil.
And so it is with me, as I'm going to gas up the boat and truck to wakeboard and camp. I was trying to think about what people would do if they were, say, limited to 20 gallons per month. I'm going to guess that they'd absolutely find other ways to conserve and still allow themselves some opportunity to use it for recreation. Some would be demonized for doing so: When you boat alone, you boat with Bin Laden!
I only barely overheard the RV dealers discuss gas prices with their clients on Friday. More or less, I think I heard them say it's not really an issue for them...perhaps fewer people are buying RVs these days, but they have such a massive untapped retirement boom underway, and so many with so much discretionary income that those who are able to RV will RV.Baby boomers will continue to spend over the next two decades, and as 70% of what we have is due to spending, this will drive the economy for quite a while. But after that, as I turn 55, comes my generation who never saved shit, whose members will still owe prodigious amounts on their mortgages. RV'ing just might suffer then, what with my expectation for long term oil scarcity and three generations of people who have never managed to plan for anything beyond the end of the month.
What will happen to recreational oil? Really, do you think there will ever be hybrid wakeboard boats or battery powered dune buggies and ATVs? I mean, come on. It's been said that the stone age didn't end for lack of stones, and so the oil age won't end for lack of oil. Perhaps my grandson's boat will be powered by Mr. Fusion, just drop in a few table scraps and coffee grounds and off he'll go. But until then, I'll be burning oil to recreate.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Solstice!
Not much to offer to anyone interested in their own solstice celebration today. I will not be doing much, no naked offerings, or any of my offerings of the past, because that damn sun is making things around here quite miserable. Today I curse the Gods.
The heat, combined with shading from the two trees leads to only 7.5kWh of daily solar PV production during the summer months. I think the shading is the most serious of the two, but I can't see myself eliminating a decent tree for 1.5kWh a day...I should be at work looking for other ways to reduce my consumption of 1.5kWh a day and spare the tree. The tree provides a lot more than what that lost PV energy could provide me, but you can't necessarily put a price on it. If you did, then the tree would have to be destroyed.
But that's exactly what we do on a macro scale every day...we commodotize nature, determine it's near-term potential for profit, and methodically exploit it till it's consumed. Take the Japanese and bluefin tuna...they will fish this fish to extinction before they stop their consumption of sushi. Price will go up until only the privileged can eat it, then only the wealthy in the black market, then one day it will all be gone and that will be that. When? 2075? 2243? Who knows, but one thing is for sure...few speak for the bluefin.
The heat, combined with shading from the two trees leads to only 7.5kWh of daily solar PV production during the summer months. I think the shading is the most serious of the two, but I can't see myself eliminating a decent tree for 1.5kWh a day...I should be at work looking for other ways to reduce my consumption of 1.5kWh a day and spare the tree. The tree provides a lot more than what that lost PV energy could provide me, but you can't necessarily put a price on it. If you did, then the tree would have to be destroyed.
But that's exactly what we do on a macro scale every day...we commodotize nature, determine it's near-term potential for profit, and methodically exploit it till it's consumed. Take the Japanese and bluefin tuna...they will fish this fish to extinction before they stop their consumption of sushi. Price will go up until only the privileged can eat it, then only the wealthy in the black market, then one day it will all be gone and that will be that. When? 2075? 2243? Who knows, but one thing is for sure...few speak for the bluefin.
Blueteeth and Bluehairs
Yoli and I went to a Monarch's basketball game last night, where we enjoyed the game via a box suite. She won a drawing at the LaMesa RV dealership in Davis a few weeks back, when she went with her mom to buy some part for her RV.
So here I was, with a number of other RV owners, sitting in a private suite eating coconut shrimp and imported fruit and drinking all the alcohol I could take in. At first I resist the pampering, but after the beer loosens me up, I become a spoiled patron. I have my own, private restroom, so I can refuse to eliminate in the public trough with the commoners. How unsanitary their conditions must be! My seat is adjustable and comfortable, I can see the game entirely without having to adjust over the commoner's heads, whose seats are of hard, fixed, phenolic plastic. How their backs must hurt afterwards! My beer was freeflowing and I paid nothing to get it. How much money the common man must have spent for each beer! My coconut shrimp was delectable. The commoner's limited choice of hamburger or hot dog must have been awful!
It really was surreal. Almost all the things the Franklin Monologues decries was starkly evident here. The author sitting amongst codgers, bluehairs and geezer RV owners, whose wealth trumps any gas price, enjoying the complements from an industry that epitomizes a total lack of environmental stewardship and excess consumption...and as I get buzzed, I sink straight in.
An interesting side observation: bluehairs with bluetooths...a technology that apparently passed right over me from twentysomethings to seventysomethings...they all had these things dangling from an ear, talking to their grandchildren about the game no doubt. Hands free is something I think the older generation embraces, eliminating all that bothersome neck craning and forearm cramping a commoner's phone entails.
I totally enjoyed the game, even as the Monarch's were stung with a humiliating double digit defeat. Additionally, getting a taste of the exclusivity of wealth shows me just how much I'm missing out on by riding the bus, bicycling for errands, and trying to conserve. I should be striving for more...
So here I was, with a number of other RV owners, sitting in a private suite eating coconut shrimp and imported fruit and drinking all the alcohol I could take in. At first I resist the pampering, but after the beer loosens me up, I become a spoiled patron. I have my own, private restroom, so I can refuse to eliminate in the public trough with the commoners. How unsanitary their conditions must be! My seat is adjustable and comfortable, I can see the game entirely without having to adjust over the commoner's heads, whose seats are of hard, fixed, phenolic plastic. How their backs must hurt afterwards! My beer was freeflowing and I paid nothing to get it. How much money the common man must have spent for each beer! My coconut shrimp was delectable. The commoner's limited choice of hamburger or hot dog must have been awful!
It really was surreal. Almost all the things the Franklin Monologues decries was starkly evident here. The author sitting amongst codgers, bluehairs and geezer RV owners, whose wealth trumps any gas price, enjoying the complements from an industry that epitomizes a total lack of environmental stewardship and excess consumption...and as I get buzzed, I sink straight in.
An interesting side observation: bluehairs with bluetooths...a technology that apparently passed right over me from twentysomethings to seventysomethings...they all had these things dangling from an ear, talking to their grandchildren about the game no doubt. Hands free is something I think the older generation embraces, eliminating all that bothersome neck craning and forearm cramping a commoner's phone entails.
I totally enjoyed the game, even as the Monarch's were stung with a humiliating double digit defeat. Additionally, getting a taste of the exclusivity of wealth shows me just how much I'm missing out on by riding the bus, bicycling for errands, and trying to conserve. I should be striving for more...
Friday, June 20, 2008
Laws and Sausages
I've followed with earnest the US sentate two days ago blocking debate of the same energy tax credits that helped me to build my solar system. They are set to expire at the end of this year. Their expiration would mean, for someone building my PV system, an immediate 17% hike in price. I love how the senate went about this...to delay the debate, they had a clerk read the entire 700+ page 'Energy Independence and Tax Relief of 2008' bill on the floor.
I don't know how laws and sausages are made; I obey them and I eat them, and that's about all I want to know. I really doubt that Congress, really, would allow these credits to expire. There will almost certainly be some action taken before the end of the year to keep them going.
The larger issue is that we do not maintain a long term view on anything in this nation. Not urban layout, formal tree plantings, building design, the environment, exponential growth (even 1% a year is exponential), and most obviously, energy. How can the renewable energy crowd possibly invest in the face of soon-to-expire credits, then later-to-expire credits, then expired credits, then...in fact, how can anyone plan anything in energy for a long term -- a nuke plant, drilling rigs, hydrogen production, in the face of ever changing policies?
So assume the credits expire...not only will there be a lot less demand for wind turbines and PV panels, there's a growing domestic labor market that will also be impacted, uncertainty of manufacturers to commit to expansion plans, and of course, we'll be no futher along toward that modern Valhalla of energy INDEPENDENCE...ha! Like we were really ever going to get there anyway.
Instead of a continuation of renewable energy credits, fuck it, let them expire, and let's just drill more. Fuck it, we say! To cure our addiction to oil, just feed us more domestic oil! We know we've got trillions of barrels of the stuff right underneath us.
I don't know how laws and sausages are made; I obey them and I eat them, and that's about all I want to know. I really doubt that Congress, really, would allow these credits to expire. There will almost certainly be some action taken before the end of the year to keep them going.
The larger issue is that we do not maintain a long term view on anything in this nation. Not urban layout, formal tree plantings, building design, the environment, exponential growth (even 1% a year is exponential), and most obviously, energy. How can the renewable energy crowd possibly invest in the face of soon-to-expire credits, then later-to-expire credits, then expired credits, then...in fact, how can anyone plan anything in energy for a long term -- a nuke plant, drilling rigs, hydrogen production, in the face of ever changing policies?
So assume the credits expire...not only will there be a lot less demand for wind turbines and PV panels, there's a growing domestic labor market that will also be impacted, uncertainty of manufacturers to commit to expansion plans, and of course, we'll be no futher along toward that modern Valhalla of energy INDEPENDENCE...ha! Like we were really ever going to get there anyway.
Instead of a continuation of renewable energy credits, fuck it, let them expire, and let's just drill more. Fuck it, we say! To cure our addiction to oil, just feed us more domestic oil! We know we've got trillions of barrels of the stuff right underneath us.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Daily Dour Dosing
The shutdown of I-5 in the southbound direction, again, proves to be a non-issue. Sure, a little discomfort for a few thousand people, but nothing they can't deal with. Come on...people accept congestion and they are willing to accept a whole lot more of it rather than the alternative: Alternative Transportation.
But I'm boarding the homebound bus on Tuesday, and this week it's more packed than ever. I usually take the time to walk up to an earlier stop to ensure a better position on the bus, but mostly, I really don't mind if I stand...it's only a 20 minute drive down the freeway to the first exit, where most people get off anyway.
The vast majority of the new people on the bus do not live on the bus route. They are foreigners, aliens, and outsiders. They drive to the supermarket parking lot and catch the bus there, because low density sprawl also means low density bussing, which doesn't exist. So they don't have the option of walking to a stop. I would guess that I'd have been thrown out on my ass back in 2003 if I asked the sales representative at the new 250 home Wispy Pines development if there was a bus stop anywhere near it. First of all, I guarantee not a single inquiry was ever asked by anyone to anybody about bus service for the first 15 years of this sad suburban experiment. But now! These same fuckers are driving to the bus stop and climbing aboard.
I'm not complaining...in fact, this is the sort of thing I wish for. Fewer cars. But I'll tell you, these new people are not at all enthused about taking the bus.
In northern Colorado, out near Milner Glade (I think on Glade Rd.), you'll find the Land of the Gloomy People. Some sorta enclave of people willfully closed off from the rest of society. As we drive by, the people outside never smile, never move with any purpose -- they are just there. I can't be sure what they are thinking, or even if they are thinking, but they look to be as depressed a group of folks you ever might come across.
And that's almost exactly what all these new bus people look like! Not only pissed off about four dollar gas, they are even more pissed when they see the bus coming and it's packed or standing room only! There's a hesitancy when they board; wishing for a moment that it just can't be for real. And when they get on, here we go! Act two of the performance -- you'll hear big sighs, you'll see folded arms and thin, crooked, dour smiles, and no chattering from these people, other than to grumble about the conditions...it's too hot...the driver doesn't know what she's doing, etc. Guys will steal the seats and not offer them up to even the most obvious candidates for relief. Oh, the debauchery!
And, yes, in your mind's eye, you already assumed these were white people. You were right.
But I'm boarding the homebound bus on Tuesday, and this week it's more packed than ever. I usually take the time to walk up to an earlier stop to ensure a better position on the bus, but mostly, I really don't mind if I stand...it's only a 20 minute drive down the freeway to the first exit, where most people get off anyway.
The vast majority of the new people on the bus do not live on the bus route. They are foreigners, aliens, and outsiders. They drive to the supermarket parking lot and catch the bus there, because low density sprawl also means low density bussing, which doesn't exist. So they don't have the option of walking to a stop. I would guess that I'd have been thrown out on my ass back in 2003 if I asked the sales representative at the new 250 home Wispy Pines development if there was a bus stop anywhere near it. First of all, I guarantee not a single inquiry was ever asked by anyone to anybody about bus service for the first 15 years of this sad suburban experiment. But now! These same fuckers are driving to the bus stop and climbing aboard.
I'm not complaining...in fact, this is the sort of thing I wish for. Fewer cars. But I'll tell you, these new people are not at all enthused about taking the bus.
In northern Colorado, out near Milner Glade (I think on Glade Rd.), you'll find the Land of the Gloomy People. Some sorta enclave of people willfully closed off from the rest of society. As we drive by, the people outside never smile, never move with any purpose -- they are just there. I can't be sure what they are thinking, or even if they are thinking, but they look to be as depressed a group of folks you ever might come across.
And that's almost exactly what all these new bus people look like! Not only pissed off about four dollar gas, they are even more pissed when they see the bus coming and it's packed or standing room only! There's a hesitancy when they board; wishing for a moment that it just can't be for real. And when they get on, here we go! Act two of the performance -- you'll hear big sighs, you'll see folded arms and thin, crooked, dour smiles, and no chattering from these people, other than to grumble about the conditions...it's too hot...the driver doesn't know what she's doing, etc. Guys will steal the seats and not offer them up to even the most obvious candidates for relief. Oh, the debauchery!
And, yes, in your mind's eye, you already assumed these were white people. You were right.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
This Ain't Calcutta
SMUD subsidizes transportation for its employees, as do a large percentage of state agencies in downtown Sacramento. It works. I am blessed to work for an outfit that has two light rail stations on either end of its campus, close to the 65th St. bus station, and RT bus fares are discounted at 25% face value. It costs me (my direct cost) a whole dollar and a quarter to commute round trip from Elk Grove. I board the bus a 1/4 mile from home, and exit light rail 1/16 of a mile from my office. Not only do subsidies free up traffic congestion, there is always always! an issue with parking.
People mostly fail to identify the costs associated with free parking. It ain't free, and it's a lot more destructive to the urban landscape than it might appear. Parking and building codes...where do I begin? There is always an acre of parking outside every supermarket, all to handle the Wednesday before Thanksgiving capacity crush. The codes require enough lighting so that a dime can be seen anywhere on the ground at 2AM. You will never again find a store front butted up against the street as parking in the rear is forbidden, so on the street front we have all these sidewalks, three hundred feet from the store entrance, where no one walks. You can't get anywhere on the sidewalk! A concrete and steel ribbon from nowhere to nowhere. And on-street parking is impossible or illegal in any event.
There are oceans of parking available here at SMUD...but employees always conclude that there isn't enough. The real issue, however, is that there isn't enough close-in parking. That's the problem. If they have to walk an eighth of a mile from their car to their door...Oh! The humanity! Is there no justice in this world?
SMUD tore down an old building early last year to allow for the construction of a steel supported photovoltaic array, used to provide power for a hydrogen fueling station. In the process, 53 new parking spaces were created. And shaded! Here in the summer months, people are willing to park under the array and walk...the eighth of a mile...to their offices. Otherwise, it's too remote.
You know what parking issue is really plaguing SMUD? A shortage of bicycle lockers. There are probably 60 scattered across the campus, and all are used (I claim mine about 20 feet from my office door). There's a waiting list, but no! We can't add any more! The transportation coordinator can't find enough real-estate for any additional lockers.
The thing is, we could easily confiscate just two parking spaces, just two, and add eight bike lockers in that space. But my gut feeling tells me there is something illegal about doing that. Codes might require a minimum number of parking spaces for the size of the buildings...codes might not allow for obstructions in parking locations...vehicles might crash into them...painted-yellow anti-ram steel pillars might be required...additional lighting requirements might be needed...employee safety might be jeopardized by proximity to hurtling vehicles...fire codes might be violated. I've asked her to look into this for over a year, but so far, no action, and so far, no more bike lockers.
When I walk for coffee in the morning to the Savemart, they recently posted a sign on their entrance: "For everyone's safety, do not bring bicycles into the store. Please use the bike rack located outside the Blockbuster."
So...it's all about safety now! Boy am I relieved to know Savemart is the vanguard of human safety! Never mind the fact that the Blockbuster is in the middle of the stripmall and not adjacent to the store. Now, I'm not advocating I should be able to park my bike in the store, but to suggest that safety is the issue is mendacious. The sign should read, "We don't want your fucking bike in the store and we won't sacrifice space outside for you to park it. Drive your damn car if you want to shop here, this ain't Calcutta."
People mostly fail to identify the costs associated with free parking. It ain't free, and it's a lot more destructive to the urban landscape than it might appear. Parking and building codes...where do I begin? There is always an acre of parking outside every supermarket, all to handle the Wednesday before Thanksgiving capacity crush. The codes require enough lighting so that a dime can be seen anywhere on the ground at 2AM. You will never again find a store front butted up against the street as parking in the rear is forbidden, so on the street front we have all these sidewalks, three hundred feet from the store entrance, where no one walks. You can't get anywhere on the sidewalk! A concrete and steel ribbon from nowhere to nowhere. And on-street parking is impossible or illegal in any event.
There are oceans of parking available here at SMUD...but employees always conclude that there isn't enough. The real issue, however, is that there isn't enough close-in parking. That's the problem. If they have to walk an eighth of a mile from their car to their door...Oh! The humanity! Is there no justice in this world?
SMUD tore down an old building early last year to allow for the construction of a steel supported photovoltaic array, used to provide power for a hydrogen fueling station. In the process, 53 new parking spaces were created. And shaded! Here in the summer months, people are willing to park under the array and walk...the eighth of a mile...to their offices. Otherwise, it's too remote.
You know what parking issue is really plaguing SMUD? A shortage of bicycle lockers. There are probably 60 scattered across the campus, and all are used (I claim mine about 20 feet from my office door). There's a waiting list, but no! We can't add any more! The transportation coordinator can't find enough real-estate for any additional lockers.
The thing is, we could easily confiscate just two parking spaces, just two, and add eight bike lockers in that space. But my gut feeling tells me there is something illegal about doing that. Codes might require a minimum number of parking spaces for the size of the buildings...codes might not allow for obstructions in parking locations...vehicles might crash into them...painted-yellow anti-ram steel pillars might be required...additional lighting requirements might be needed...employee safety might be jeopardized by proximity to hurtling vehicles...fire codes might be violated. I've asked her to look into this for over a year, but so far, no action, and so far, no more bike lockers.
When I walk for coffee in the morning to the Savemart, they recently posted a sign on their entrance: "For everyone's safety, do not bring bicycles into the store. Please use the bike rack located outside the Blockbuster."
So...it's all about safety now! Boy am I relieved to know Savemart is the vanguard of human safety! Never mind the fact that the Blockbuster is in the middle of the stripmall and not adjacent to the store. Now, I'm not advocating I should be able to park my bike in the store, but to suggest that safety is the issue is mendacious. The sign should read, "We don't want your fucking bike in the store and we won't sacrifice space outside for you to park it. Drive your damn car if you want to shop here, this ain't Calcutta."
Where's Loki?
I heard this morning that the SMUD vanpools, every one of them, have a waiting list! I considered this an a fifth option to get to work. Only twenty bucks a month to join the pool. Here in the Grove, the vanpool leaves the parking lot at Franklin and Laguna, with only one additional stop before work. It's an excellent option, but I personally don't need it.
I think particularly because Franklin and Laguna is about a mile and a half away. That's a bit too far to be hoofing to catch it. Really, if I'm like everyone else, if I have to get in the car, why not just take it all the way to work? Then I have all the freedoms due me by my American birthright...a private vehicle within one hundred feet at all times. And when gas was two bucks, most did just that.
At four bucks, whoa! A different set of priorities come into view. While carpooling this morning, my neighbor said they gassed up their Yukon Denali earlier this week. She only wanted to fill the tank half-way, but her husband said no, fill it all the way, just to see how much is costs. $103. No wonder I was being driven in their Honda! They can't use the vanpool because of their children.
Because all children, by law, are forbidden to walk or bike to school, and their school shed-jools don't coincide with that of their parents, both of whom have to work to service their multiple vehicles and 3,200 square feets, alternate transportation is not an option for their twenty odd years of child rearing.
As I understand things, if I were an electrical engineer in 1958, I could have comfortably provided for my 2.3 kid family while the wife serviced the home. I could come home to a waiting meal, then the chaise lounge, a seasoned pipe, and the daily Bee. Loki the dog played ball with the kids in the half-acre backyard until supper, then they'd come in and do their schoolwork until Gunsmoke.
So its 2008...fifty years later. Loki the dog is chained up in the zero-lot-line, still unfinished 200 sq ft backyard, barking all damn day for attention. The family left in an awful rush that morning, what with shuttling the kids off to dayca...oh shit, did you remember to pay Doris the Daycare Lady this month? The Dodge was shimmying a bit to the left during Hank's 26 mile commute to the office, better have that checked out. Martha's day at the Christian book store wasn't much better, what with nearly getting wrecked by that errant red light runner and also having learned her hours were going to be cut even further. How much more can I accept, she thinks. But she has to get home to pick up the kids one way or the other. By then it's 5:30 and dinner...well, fuck it...I know Hank likes Chinese take-out, but the kids...a frozen pizza for them, perhaps. But the price of pizza these days, jeez! Hank arrives late and a bit befuddled...traffic was at a standstill and for no reason! As least give me a flaming tanker-truck or some guy being hauled off in handcuffs he says, not this phantom wreck bullshit! Martha doesn't quite know how to approach Hank about his drinking...he sure seems to be more distant, it seems. But perhaps it's the collectors causing all this grief...if only they'd stop the harassment! The kids play their videos and watch their 24-hour cartoon networks, they are heard but not seen. And where's Loki?
I hardly think 1958 was paradise. Adults then lived out their lives in an alcoholic fog just as they do today. To cope. But a decade and a half later, along came political oil shocks and runaway inflation, and to cushion the blow was the wide scale introduction of women into the workforce. Thankfully the North Sea and the North slope also came on stream to help support all the additional vehicles and carriageways needed to get them to their jobs for the next 30 years.
So where do we go from here, if we suppose for a minute, that energy costs and inflation continue their upward arc? Most families, the ones who always seem to have too much month at the end of the money, already have two wage earners -- there cannot be a third. Unless Bucky gets on at the UA theater.
I think particularly because Franklin and Laguna is about a mile and a half away. That's a bit too far to be hoofing to catch it. Really, if I'm like everyone else, if I have to get in the car, why not just take it all the way to work? Then I have all the freedoms due me by my American birthright...a private vehicle within one hundred feet at all times. And when gas was two bucks, most did just that.
At four bucks, whoa! A different set of priorities come into view. While carpooling this morning, my neighbor said they gassed up their Yukon Denali earlier this week. She only wanted to fill the tank half-way, but her husband said no, fill it all the way, just to see how much is costs. $103. No wonder I was being driven in their Honda! They can't use the vanpool because of their children.
Because all children, by law, are forbidden to walk or bike to school, and their school shed-jools don't coincide with that of their parents, both of whom have to work to service their multiple vehicles and 3,200 square feets, alternate transportation is not an option for their twenty odd years of child rearing.
As I understand things, if I were an electrical engineer in 1958, I could have comfortably provided for my 2.3 kid family while the wife serviced the home. I could come home to a waiting meal, then the chaise lounge, a seasoned pipe, and the daily Bee. Loki the dog played ball with the kids in the half-acre backyard until supper, then they'd come in and do their schoolwork until Gunsmoke.
So its 2008...fifty years later. Loki the dog is chained up in the zero-lot-line, still unfinished 200 sq ft backyard, barking all damn day for attention. The family left in an awful rush that morning, what with shuttling the kids off to dayca...oh shit, did you remember to pay Doris the Daycare Lady this month? The Dodge was shimmying a bit to the left during Hank's 26 mile commute to the office, better have that checked out. Martha's day at the Christian book store wasn't much better, what with nearly getting wrecked by that errant red light runner and also having learned her hours were going to be cut even further. How much more can I accept, she thinks. But she has to get home to pick up the kids one way or the other. By then it's 5:30 and dinner...well, fuck it...I know Hank likes Chinese take-out, but the kids...a frozen pizza for them, perhaps. But the price of pizza these days, jeez! Hank arrives late and a bit befuddled...traffic was at a standstill and for no reason! As least give me a flaming tanker-truck or some guy being hauled off in handcuffs he says, not this phantom wreck bullshit! Martha doesn't quite know how to approach Hank about his drinking...he sure seems to be more distant, it seems. But perhaps it's the collectors causing all this grief...if only they'd stop the harassment! The kids play their videos and watch their 24-hour cartoon networks, they are heard but not seen. And where's Loki?
I hardly think 1958 was paradise. Adults then lived out their lives in an alcoholic fog just as they do today. To cope. But a decade and a half later, along came political oil shocks and runaway inflation, and to cushion the blow was the wide scale introduction of women into the workforce. Thankfully the North Sea and the North slope also came on stream to help support all the additional vehicles and carriageways needed to get them to their jobs for the next 30 years.
So where do we go from here, if we suppose for a minute, that energy costs and inflation continue their upward arc? Most families, the ones who always seem to have too much month at the end of the money, already have two wage earners -- there cannot be a third. Unless Bucky gets on at the UA theater.
A New Machine
I took a SMITH defensive driver training class last week. Excellent road course. Among other things, they recommend leaving a four-second space cushion behind the car ahead of you. I always thought two seconds (what the DMV suggests), but when I drove up to Fresh Pond last week, I used their recommendations. Safety first! Be safe and aware...take time to prepare! Safety is not a job...it's a way of life! Safety is the light...let it shine! (all these slogans I found in less than 5 minutes here in my workplace).
So I'm in a carpool with my neighbor this morning, and learned she also took that course! What a coincidence! So here she was tailgating traffic in the fast lane on I-5 at 78 mph leaving less than half a second in front of us with a tractor-trailer in the right lane blocking any possible out options while telling me the things she recalled from the course. Unbelievable! Her husband drives about the same. I find it unnerving as a passenger...but what to do? This happens a hundred million times a day in this nation, so they aren't doing anything different than everyone else, and they've been through defensive driving training! What of the other hundred million who haven't?
So I'm thinking of the thousands of dollars of incremental vehicle costs to accommodate SAFETY...anti-lock brakes, side impact air bags, front airbags, supplemental restraint systems, crash-resistant door pillars, child seat tethers, electronic stability control, back up cameras, crumple zones, traction control...we have to be safe! It's too hard to governor a car, or too hard to design better urban layouts, or too hard to modify personal behaviors, so instead, make all cars meet some arbitrary and capricious set of standards, jack up the price, and exclude all 45+ mpg foreign cars because...they don't meet these standards!
Just like adding more freeway lanes inevitably leads to just more congested freeway lanes, the more these safety features become 'standard equipment,' the more drivers will modify their behaviors to defeat their effectiveness. They become more dangerous drivers. Our friend in San Diego bought a Nissan Murano, and she's got a backup camera. She said it took her only about a week and a half to 'lose' her ability to check over her shoulder when backing up. No need to do that anymore! And what a relief! Such a chore! Besides, you risk throwing out something in your neck or back with all that bothersome movement.
I want to be clear, it's behavior I'm addressing, not any particular individual. What's the incremental increase in my insurance rates because I'm pooled in with all these people? What unnecessary risks am I taking by riding a bicycle next to these people? We have a hands-free cell-phone law coming in two weeks -- and on the Hwy 99 overpass last Wednesday, I'm looking down into all that stalled traffic, and one in five drivers are on the phone. Seeing how I'll also be violating that law...I'm hardly holier than thou.
I see the futility in all this. I'm a cog in a giant machine and I'm being rolled up everyday. I observe and comment, but I know the deal...I'm at peace with our insanity.
So I'm in a carpool with my neighbor this morning, and learned she also took that course! What a coincidence! So here she was tailgating traffic in the fast lane on I-5 at 78 mph leaving less than half a second in front of us with a tractor-trailer in the right lane blocking any possible out options while telling me the things she recalled from the course. Unbelievable! Her husband drives about the same. I find it unnerving as a passenger...but what to do? This happens a hundred million times a day in this nation, so they aren't doing anything different than everyone else, and they've been through defensive driving training! What of the other hundred million who haven't?
So I'm thinking of the thousands of dollars of incremental vehicle costs to accommodate SAFETY...anti-lock brakes, side impact air bags, front airbags, supplemental restraint systems, crash-resistant door pillars, child seat tethers, electronic stability control, back up cameras, crumple zones, traction control...we have to be safe! It's too hard to governor a car, or too hard to design better urban layouts, or too hard to modify personal behaviors, so instead, make all cars meet some arbitrary and capricious set of standards, jack up the price, and exclude all 45+ mpg foreign cars because...they don't meet these standards!
Just like adding more freeway lanes inevitably leads to just more congested freeway lanes, the more these safety features become 'standard equipment,' the more drivers will modify their behaviors to defeat their effectiveness. They become more dangerous drivers. Our friend in San Diego bought a Nissan Murano, and she's got a backup camera. She said it took her only about a week and a half to 'lose' her ability to check over her shoulder when backing up. No need to do that anymore! And what a relief! Such a chore! Besides, you risk throwing out something in your neck or back with all that bothersome movement.
I want to be clear, it's behavior I'm addressing, not any particular individual. What's the incremental increase in my insurance rates because I'm pooled in with all these people? What unnecessary risks am I taking by riding a bicycle next to these people? We have a hands-free cell-phone law coming in two weeks -- and on the Hwy 99 overpass last Wednesday, I'm looking down into all that stalled traffic, and one in five drivers are on the phone. Seeing how I'll also be violating that law...I'm hardly holier than thou.
I see the futility in all this. I'm a cog in a giant machine and I'm being rolled up everyday. I observe and comment, but I know the deal...I'm at peace with our insanity.
Friday, June 13, 2008
All Summer in a Day
One of the interesting side effects of bus and bike commuting is that I hardly ever listen to conservative talk radio anymore.
Today I was out working on the car rotors and listening to Hannity, who I don't really enjoy as a host...it's not his opinion on things so much as it is how he presents them. He's not all that entertaining. No flair. Anyway, he's convinced that demand has absolutely nothing to do with high energy prices, and that supply is, obviously, constrained by above ground factors. Resource scarcity is not at all an issue because the earth's core is a creamy caramel center full of oil just waiting to be drilled and released.
An English caller suggested to Hannity today that perhaps demand in the U.S. should be questioned, and he was immediately dismissed. Again, Conservatism, in my view, is all about each individual's right to control as large a slice of the resource pie as possible. Government has no (or little) responsibility to maintain equity in its distribution. So when we limit the drilling of oil, we are limiting certain individuals of control over that resource. This is a restriction of choice; in this case, the choice to burn up as much damn oil as you want anytime you want. Limit choice, and Conservatives go apeshit. They will be the very last group of people on the Walk of Shame...up to the door on the bus, because private automobile ownership epitomizes freedom, choice, and personal preferences.
However, it is a powerful philosophy. Most people in the US see themselves just to the right of center. Some days it seems I subscribe to it, but those days are as infrequent as a sunny day on rainy Venus. I cannot pinpoint exactly when I was unlocked from the closet...perhaps late 2005. I blog to archive my thoughts, to see how I evolve. What will I be blogging about in 2015? Will I be the same person in seven years?
Today I was out working on the car rotors and listening to Hannity, who I don't really enjoy as a host...it's not his opinion on things so much as it is how he presents them. He's not all that entertaining. No flair. Anyway, he's convinced that demand has absolutely nothing to do with high energy prices, and that supply is, obviously, constrained by above ground factors. Resource scarcity is not at all an issue because the earth's core is a creamy caramel center full of oil just waiting to be drilled and released.
An English caller suggested to Hannity today that perhaps demand in the U.S. should be questioned, and he was immediately dismissed. Again, Conservatism, in my view, is all about each individual's right to control as large a slice of the resource pie as possible. Government has no (or little) responsibility to maintain equity in its distribution. So when we limit the drilling of oil, we are limiting certain individuals of control over that resource. This is a restriction of choice; in this case, the choice to burn up as much damn oil as you want anytime you want. Limit choice, and Conservatives go apeshit. They will be the very last group of people on the Walk of Shame...up to the door on the bus, because private automobile ownership epitomizes freedom, choice, and personal preferences.
However, it is a powerful philosophy. Most people in the US see themselves just to the right of center. Some days it seems I subscribe to it, but those days are as infrequent as a sunny day on rainy Venus. I cannot pinpoint exactly when I was unlocked from the closet...perhaps late 2005. I blog to archive my thoughts, to see how I evolve. What will I be blogging about in 2015? Will I be the same person in seven years?
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Paved Over
Perhaps prices are up these days because importers are bidding up declining net oil exports. It might just be that simple. However, supply doesn't appear to be the issue. I can drive the Pacer to any gas station anywhere in the world and buy as much as I want. No limits...except my maxed out credit cards.
I had to drive a SMUD car up to Fresh Pond (up in the mountains) this morning and looking around Highway 50, you'd never know anything was different today than in 2004: huge capital projects, (restaurants, muffler shops...) still being built in Folsom; highway expansion and bypass projects in Placerville; and still enough traffic to mire existing commuters, let alone those projected from the build-out of the 18,000 home Sunrise-Douglas area. We are in just a transitory condition. Home prices will rebound, gas will fall, the dollar will rise, and we'll soon be again off and building, hurriedly trying to pave over the entire Sacramento county by 2050.
I asked a friend at lunch a few months back how he would like it when the entire county is paved over. He didn't answer directly, only to say that as he flies between SMF and LAX, he sees a shitload of undeveloped land down there. And he's right. There's a lot, and it'll be 2400 before we even come close to running out of dirt to develop. But he didn't answer my question...what would it be like if we eliminated all Sacramento county farms, fields, row crops, dairies, and the like, and built more strip malls, low density housing enclaves, drainage canals, and office parks?
To be sure...I wouldn't even notice. All I see daily is Franklin Blvd. and it really wouldn't affect me, personally, if there's 26 million more people in my county occupying all the other vacant land. If I have to pass another 400 subdivisions on top of the current 150 to get to Lake Camanche, what difference is it really? Perhaps I should simply accept it. We will get to alternative transportation soon enough, we will develop better ways to extract usefulness from all energy sources, and we'll all start telecommuting. We don't have to physically gather together anymore as we don't manufacture anything in Sacramento county, certainly not when we pave over formerly marginal farmlands, so bring on telecommuting.
If I don't concern myself with such things, I can focus all that energy elsewhere -- into woodworking, sailing, camping, family travel, personal relationships, on and on. There will always be enough wood to work. Always enough energy to get me to other destinations in the manner that I choose. Why should I be at all concerned about all the things that define the Franklin Monologues...if I can't control them...
I had to drive a SMUD car up to Fresh Pond (up in the mountains) this morning and looking around Highway 50, you'd never know anything was different today than in 2004: huge capital projects, (restaurants, muffler shops...) still being built in Folsom; highway expansion and bypass projects in Placerville; and still enough traffic to mire existing commuters, let alone those projected from the build-out of the 18,000 home Sunrise-Douglas area. We are in just a transitory condition. Home prices will rebound, gas will fall, the dollar will rise, and we'll soon be again off and building, hurriedly trying to pave over the entire Sacramento county by 2050.
I asked a friend at lunch a few months back how he would like it when the entire county is paved over. He didn't answer directly, only to say that as he flies between SMF and LAX, he sees a shitload of undeveloped land down there. And he's right. There's a lot, and it'll be 2400 before we even come close to running out of dirt to develop. But he didn't answer my question...what would it be like if we eliminated all Sacramento county farms, fields, row crops, dairies, and the like, and built more strip malls, low density housing enclaves, drainage canals, and office parks?
To be sure...I wouldn't even notice. All I see daily is Franklin Blvd. and it really wouldn't affect me, personally, if there's 26 million more people in my county occupying all the other vacant land. If I have to pass another 400 subdivisions on top of the current 150 to get to Lake Camanche, what difference is it really? Perhaps I should simply accept it. We will get to alternative transportation soon enough, we will develop better ways to extract usefulness from all energy sources, and we'll all start telecommuting. We don't have to physically gather together anymore as we don't manufacture anything in Sacramento county, certainly not when we pave over formerly marginal farmlands, so bring on telecommuting.
If I don't concern myself with such things, I can focus all that energy elsewhere -- into woodworking, sailing, camping, family travel, personal relationships, on and on. There will always be enough wood to work. Always enough energy to get me to other destinations in the manner that I choose. Why should I be at all concerned about all the things that define the Franklin Monologues...if I can't control them...
Whistlin' Dixie
I discovered this weekend that racism is alive and well. It was made clear by several more Latino relatives and how they presented their preferences for McCain this fall. There is no way they would vote to put a black man in office, no matter what he stands for...and no matter that he's half white.
Ruben Navarette wrote today that it's preposterous to assert racism pervades the Hispanic voting bloc. And this is exactly why I blog -- because my local observations directly counter arguments such as these.
He could never admit in a public op-ed that racism is almost the sole component as to why Obama cannot claim the Latino vote. But the Franklin Monologues can admit it. I could also provide names and addresses. To even suggest a casual link between weak Obama support and racism is impossible for him -- so he changes the argument to suggest that the same charge isn't often levied against older white women. Uh-uh. Sure it is. Perhaps older white women aren't nearly as overt about their aversion to a black man in the oval office...but within a matter of minutes with my grandma, you'd find that argument falls apart as well.
I don't see any reason to hold back on presenting my observations, no matter how personal or controversial they might be. There are certain interpretations, of course, that might best be left off the blog, and I'm wondering about how to handle them going forward. But I'm all about criticizing others, and no one is spared, not even myself.
Three weeks ago I was biking home on Franklin, just about a mile north of home. The two miles closest to home are the best I have on my commute, because the road is wide and smooth and there are much fewer cars. With the fewer cars, however, comes a situation I don't want to be in -- alone at an intersection with only one other car with three black men inside.
For sure, I'm also worried about the lone white alpha male who had earlier been inconvenienced by my slowness, or three Asian gangbangers, or two Hispanic women. But this white boy on a bike is a helluva lot more concerned by a car with three black guys. Why? I don't really know. It's not a crime for me to worry about this. The point is, I have an aversion to that situation more than any other...and the hairs on my neck will attest. And any black bicycle commuter, if I ever come across one, will likely have a completely different take. A blue truck flying a Dixie flag comes to mind.
So this situation appeared out of nowhere, I didn't have any time to react...not that I could react either way. All I think about is an exit, how not to be crushed. I am best left to avoid any confrontation, but ignoring their presence also has its drawbacks.
As a kid on Greenwood Avenue, at Wyman, I was chased down and intentionally hit by a green Honda CVCC. It was early evening, I thought they were just taunting me until the last moment. I ignored them, and I didn't expect to be hit. I very easily could have been crushed then and there. The bike was thrashed. And for weeks, months! afterwards, I became much more aware of my surroundings, worrying about some damn green car.
So is racism a component of why I fear three black guys in a car more than anything else? Perhaps. I don't live in a black neighborhood, and I have no intention of living in or near a black neighborhood. Racism? Perhaps.
Ruben Navarette wrote today that it's preposterous to assert racism pervades the Hispanic voting bloc. And this is exactly why I blog -- because my local observations directly counter arguments such as these.
He could never admit in a public op-ed that racism is almost the sole component as to why Obama cannot claim the Latino vote. But the Franklin Monologues can admit it. I could also provide names and addresses. To even suggest a casual link between weak Obama support and racism is impossible for him -- so he changes the argument to suggest that the same charge isn't often levied against older white women. Uh-uh. Sure it is. Perhaps older white women aren't nearly as overt about their aversion to a black man in the oval office...but within a matter of minutes with my grandma, you'd find that argument falls apart as well.
I don't see any reason to hold back on presenting my observations, no matter how personal or controversial they might be. There are certain interpretations, of course, that might best be left off the blog, and I'm wondering about how to handle them going forward. But I'm all about criticizing others, and no one is spared, not even myself.
Three weeks ago I was biking home on Franklin, just about a mile north of home. The two miles closest to home are the best I have on my commute, because the road is wide and smooth and there are much fewer cars. With the fewer cars, however, comes a situation I don't want to be in -- alone at an intersection with only one other car with three black men inside.
For sure, I'm also worried about the lone white alpha male who had earlier been inconvenienced by my slowness, or three Asian gangbangers, or two Hispanic women. But this white boy on a bike is a helluva lot more concerned by a car with three black guys. Why? I don't really know. It's not a crime for me to worry about this. The point is, I have an aversion to that situation more than any other...and the hairs on my neck will attest. And any black bicycle commuter, if I ever come across one, will likely have a completely different take. A blue truck flying a Dixie flag comes to mind.
So this situation appeared out of nowhere, I didn't have any time to react...not that I could react either way. All I think about is an exit, how not to be crushed. I am best left to avoid any confrontation, but ignoring their presence also has its drawbacks.
As a kid on Greenwood Avenue, at Wyman, I was chased down and intentionally hit by a green Honda CVCC. It was early evening, I thought they were just taunting me until the last moment. I ignored them, and I didn't expect to be hit. I very easily could have been crushed then and there. The bike was thrashed. And for weeks, months! afterwards, I became much more aware of my surroundings, worrying about some damn green car.
So is racism a component of why I fear three black guys in a car more than anything else? Perhaps. I don't live in a black neighborhood, and I have no intention of living in or near a black neighborhood. Racism? Perhaps.
Monday, June 9, 2008
The Boulevard at Dawn
After a week of northbound I-5 lane closures, it's exactly what I predicted; a non-event. There was more congestion 1,500 feet above the construction zone by all the news choppers than vehicular traffic on the ground. This region's commuters...survived. We survived! Now the freeway is back open for a week and we can get back to the serious work of commuting again.
Whew.
Indeed, the closures modified my behavior as I didn't take the bus at all this week, and instead opted to ride all five days by bike. I thought it a good thing to try, to see if I could do it, and yes, I did it, but it was pure drudgery. There is no way I could exist by bicycle alone.
I was featured in an article on the SMUD intranet last week with a bike photo, as someone who commutes regularly. I became a SuperStar. I got hit with numerous e-mails from other employees looking for their own way to commute by bike -- "what kind of bike should I get?" "I also live in the Grove and want to commute in, too...What route do you take?" "Can you help me find bus service where I live?" "How long does it take you?"
It's actually kinda cool to hear people finally see biking and bussing as viable modes. What I would like to see, but will not in my lifetime, is a decision by our local leaders to take away one, just one, north-south road and convert it into a scooter/horse/bike/jogging path. Convert just one of these damn roads and with sustained high energy prices you'd see thousands, thousands! of people use it. The single biggest thing people want is an area free of automobiles.
When you get away from it all, on holiday, on a weekend or whenever, I'd bet you get away to an environment free of vehicular traffic. The beach, a festival, Disneyworld, Great America, an airshow, hiking, a riverboat cruise, a casino, the mall, a concert, museums, historical points of interest. The one thing all of these have in common -- no automobiles. We need all these places to escape to, to flee from the environments we live in.
When you go to an art display, how often do you see cars and freeways present in any of the work? People never paint cars, always something else: flowers, fields, animals, other people, barns, sailboats, sea creatures, farm implements, mountains, and outdoor cafes. Even the Boulevard of Broken Dreams doesn't have a car in it. You might find a motorcycle from time to time, but not cars and freeways. For something that dominates all our living environments, you'd think we'd have them more developed in our culture -- in song, in sculpture, in theatre, in literature, and in art. Nope. Nowhere to be found.
So I'm gonna start posting photos of my own environment to make up for this apparent oversight by our nations artists. Franklin Blvd. at sunset. Highway 99 at dawn. The Laguna Pavillions parking lot with a fresh winter's frost.
Whew.
Indeed, the closures modified my behavior as I didn't take the bus at all this week, and instead opted to ride all five days by bike. I thought it a good thing to try, to see if I could do it, and yes, I did it, but it was pure drudgery. There is no way I could exist by bicycle alone.
I was featured in an article on the SMUD intranet last week with a bike photo, as someone who commutes regularly. I became a SuperStar. I got hit with numerous e-mails from other employees looking for their own way to commute by bike -- "what kind of bike should I get?" "I also live in the Grove and want to commute in, too...What route do you take?" "Can you help me find bus service where I live?" "How long does it take you?"
It's actually kinda cool to hear people finally see biking and bussing as viable modes. What I would like to see, but will not in my lifetime, is a decision by our local leaders to take away one, just one, north-south road and convert it into a scooter/horse/bike/jogging path. Convert just one of these damn roads and with sustained high energy prices you'd see thousands, thousands! of people use it. The single biggest thing people want is an area free of automobiles.
When you get away from it all, on holiday, on a weekend or whenever, I'd bet you get away to an environment free of vehicular traffic. The beach, a festival, Disneyworld, Great America, an airshow, hiking, a riverboat cruise, a casino, the mall, a concert, museums, historical points of interest. The one thing all of these have in common -- no automobiles. We need all these places to escape to, to flee from the environments we live in.
When you go to an art display, how often do you see cars and freeways present in any of the work? People never paint cars, always something else: flowers, fields, animals, other people, barns, sailboats, sea creatures, farm implements, mountains, and outdoor cafes. Even the Boulevard of Broken Dreams doesn't have a car in it. You might find a motorcycle from time to time, but not cars and freeways. For something that dominates all our living environments, you'd think we'd have them more developed in our culture -- in song, in sculpture, in theatre, in literature, and in art. Nope. Nowhere to be found.
So I'm gonna start posting photos of my own environment to make up for this apparent oversight by our nations artists. Franklin Blvd. at sunset. Highway 99 at dawn. The Laguna Pavillions parking lot with a fresh winter's frost.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
The Curse of Woe
I mentioned before that ANWR would be developed. And to be honest, I'm hoping we start tomorrow.
We start tomorrow -- drill the shit out of it and extract all the gas and oil we can get our hands on. It will likely add another 780,000 barrels a day to the current world production of 84,000,000 barrels a day...a massive one percent. Excellent. A massive influx of new oil like this would do wonders. And we will drill sensitively. We won't harm the arctic ecosystem. And we will finally have no other direct domestic resource to exploit so we can remove all discussions about how environmental liberals such as myself are the curse of woe.
I fully expect us to suck ANWR dry before my son reaches my age. Well, not dry, but I'd bet than in 25 years' time it will have been started, developed, brought on stream, reached its peak, and started its decline by then.
Where else, oil?
As a kid I remember Exxon commercials on TV showing a scientist swirling around a half flask of oil and speaking of expansive future oil production from oil shales. Excellent. Now even with today's historically high oil prices, the total amount provided by shale is precisely dick. Not a drop. I wonder why.
I chatted with two neighbors on this just last night, as I capped off my first ever 5-day bike week (I've never before rode all five days in both directions, and I'll never do it again) My neighbors both know, know! that it's our refusal to drill at home that's causing all this fuss. She drives a 4-runner to Rancho Cordova daily, and he a full-sized truck to Lodi to fly a helicopter. No. Their two-car, two-motorcycle commuter based lifestyles have absolutely nothing to do with it. They both said, almost in chorus, that our refusal to drill is at fault. All I can do is egg them on about how much money they must be spending to service their lifestyles. And I enjoy doing it.
In this screwed up nation, it will never be about climate change, local air quality, walkable communities or depleting salmon fisheries. Only that it costs $79 to gas up the Gremlin.
We start tomorrow -- drill the shit out of it and extract all the gas and oil we can get our hands on. It will likely add another 780,000 barrels a day to the current world production of 84,000,000 barrels a day...a massive one percent. Excellent. A massive influx of new oil like this would do wonders. And we will drill sensitively. We won't harm the arctic ecosystem. And we will finally have no other direct domestic resource to exploit so we can remove all discussions about how environmental liberals such as myself are the curse of woe.
I fully expect us to suck ANWR dry before my son reaches my age. Well, not dry, but I'd bet than in 25 years' time it will have been started, developed, brought on stream, reached its peak, and started its decline by then.
Where else, oil?
As a kid I remember Exxon commercials on TV showing a scientist swirling around a half flask of oil and speaking of expansive future oil production from oil shales. Excellent. Now even with today's historically high oil prices, the total amount provided by shale is precisely dick. Not a drop. I wonder why.
I chatted with two neighbors on this just last night, as I capped off my first ever 5-day bike week (I've never before rode all five days in both directions, and I'll never do it again) My neighbors both know, know! that it's our refusal to drill at home that's causing all this fuss. She drives a 4-runner to Rancho Cordova daily, and he a full-sized truck to Lodi to fly a helicopter. No. Their two-car, two-motorcycle commuter based lifestyles have absolutely nothing to do with it. They both said, almost in chorus, that our refusal to drill is at fault. All I can do is egg them on about how much money they must be spending to service their lifestyles. And I enjoy doing it.
In this screwed up nation, it will never be about climate change, local air quality, walkable communities or depleting salmon fisheries. Only that it costs $79 to gas up the Gremlin.
Friday, June 6, 2008
The Speed of Darkness
Oh, if only we could return to the heady days of ought three!
GM made so much profit in 2003 in SUV's & trucks that they could afford to lose on their fuel-efficient offerings. And I bet they made even more from their side job -- GMAC. Screw selling cars they said, the real money to be made was in the abstract world of finance. GM likely made more money via GMAC than they ever did actually producing vehicles. Hey, we're a service economy -- we get along plenty good enough by managing the elsewhere production by the elsewho.
But now that four domestic production plants are closing, holy shit! We're at world's end!
Another little ancedote. We bought my wife's Stratus from the Elk Grove Dodge dealer in 1996. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to get the salesman or his manager to provide me the fuel economy data on that car? It wasn't posted, they didn't advertise it, didn't even know who to talk to or where to go to find this information out. If it wasn't on the sticker posted on the little window (and it wasn't), it didnt' exist!
To be sure, I had a nearly similar problem at the Honda dealership several months earlier buying the Civic. But the Dodge salesmen...they could care less about some lowly fuck buying a used 4-cylinder Stratus and asking about 'efficiency'. No, their prize was the thirty-something service-economy spoiler eyeing the fastest production truck ever built, the Dodge Ram SRT-10. Sixty two thousand, I recall, taking up the choicest spot in the showroom. And it did
look good, if I say so myself.
While these two were in the back room fumbling about for the info I wanted, I remember noticing how that truck, with a single digit city mpg rating (either 9 or 7, I can't remember) wasn't subjected to the same gas guzzler tax or federal mandated fuel efficiency CAFE standards that the Magnum faced...because trucks were exempted! And SUVs, too, because they are based on a truck chassis! Durangos and SRT-10's were rolling out the door faster than the speed of light.
But my oh my, how fast has the darkness ascended over Dodge! Not only did they recently raffle off the very last SRT-10 produced (as a celebration, mind you)...they're now offering a $2.99 gas guarantee! Most excellent! Having thus fuckered away any ability to survive a 4-dollar-a-gallon-paradigm, they can only offer inefficient vehicles whose prices now subsidize feigned 3 dollar gas.
This should be GM or Dodge's slogan -- Movin' Merika at the Speed of Darkness-- Like A Rock or Ram-Tough ain't got nothin' on that one.
GM made so much profit in 2003 in SUV's & trucks that they could afford to lose on their fuel-efficient offerings. And I bet they made even more from their side job -- GMAC. Screw selling cars they said, the real money to be made was in the abstract world of finance. GM likely made more money via GMAC than they ever did actually producing vehicles. Hey, we're a service economy -- we get along plenty good enough by managing the elsewhere production by the elsewho.
But now that four domestic production plants are closing, holy shit! We're at world's end!
Another little ancedote. We bought my wife's Stratus from the Elk Grove Dodge dealer in 1996. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to get the salesman or his manager to provide me the fuel economy data on that car? It wasn't posted, they didn't advertise it, didn't even know who to talk to or where to go to find this information out. If it wasn't on the sticker posted on the little window (and it wasn't), it didnt' exist!
To be sure, I had a nearly similar problem at the Honda dealership several months earlier buying the Civic. But the Dodge salesmen...they could care less about some lowly fuck buying a used 4-cylinder Stratus and asking about 'efficiency'. No, their prize was the thirty-something service-economy spoiler eyeing the fastest production truck ever built, the Dodge Ram SRT-10. Sixty two thousand, I recall, taking up the choicest spot in the showroom. And it did
look good, if I say so myself.
While these two were in the back room fumbling about for the info I wanted, I remember noticing how that truck, with a single digit city mpg rating (either 9 or 7, I can't remember) wasn't subjected to the same gas guzzler tax or federal mandated fuel efficiency CAFE standards that the Magnum faced...because trucks were exempted! And SUVs, too, because they are based on a truck chassis! Durangos and SRT-10's were rolling out the door faster than the speed of light.
But my oh my, how fast has the darkness ascended over Dodge! Not only did they recently raffle off the very last SRT-10 produced (as a celebration, mind you)...they're now offering a $2.99 gas guarantee! Most excellent! Having thus fuckered away any ability to survive a 4-dollar-a-gallon-paradigm, they can only offer inefficient vehicles whose prices now subsidize feigned 3 dollar gas.
This should be GM or Dodge's slogan -- Movin' Merika at the Speed of Darkness-- Like A Rock or Ram-Tough ain't got nothin' on that one.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
LES GILT
Nice to know SMUD ratepayers are subsidizing our efforts at greening up the place. I drove a hybrid Escape up to Loon Lake a while back, and I drove it home as I biked in that day and I worked late.
I took in the owners manual on the Escape and read up on how it works, and was better armed when I drove it back to work. As you might expect, I tried to accelerate slowly to delay the gas engine assist, turned off the max-AC which keeps the gas engine running at all times, and experimented with braking to see how the regenerative action worked when I either braked hard or slow. I modified my behavior based on feedback from the car.
I also got my first drive in a Prius the other day, as a passenger. No, Amy, the vanity license plate didn't read LES GILT -- it was a SMUD car. I read the manual out-loud to the driver and I monkeyed with the controls...and I tried to explain how her driving habits have as much to do with fuel efficiency as the battery assist. She wanted none of that. Annoyed with my persistence, she drove it like she drove her Lexus; fast accelerations and fast speeds. She's my neighbor who I carpool with. I have an exceptional ability to irritate anyone.
But for me, it didn't take long for the novelty to wear off. I see why Al Gore Jr. drove one 105 mph last year -- after 20 minutes in it, it's just another damn car. But there is one key difference; in electric-only mode, the car is quiet.
I want to dovetail an additional thought on roadways with hybrids -- without engine noise, a slow-moving hybrid or an electric at any speed on an open grade rubber asphalt road is a silent killer. When we start migrating towards all electric Volts and other such cars, I think there's going to be a spike in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities that we aren't yet prepared for.
Well, 'prepared for' is incorrect. We're not really going to do shit about it one way or the other. We're going to chalk up every death due to 'inattention', or 'distracted driving', so in the end we really won't do anything to re-design our urban environments that correctly separate human traffic from vehicle traffic. Without noise, I have a hard time biking and feeling sure there's no car behind me.
The good news for me is that Elk Grove and Franklin Blvd. is devoid of hybrids. My city is populated by the Entitled, who assume that energy will someday again be cheap enough to dispel any notion of hybridism. The Elk Grove Compulsory Motoring Program hasn't changed much with $4.25 gas. I never see a hybrid on my route. Well, infrequently to be sure. The only hybrid drivers I do see are when I'm on the bridge on 41st overlooking highway 99 -- and...there they are! All single drivers in the carpool lane with their precious little yellow badges of superiority on their bumpers. This state in 2004 passed an asinine law allowing single occupant hybrid drivers to drive in high occupancy highway lanes. Unbelievable. The car runs on straight gasoline when operating at freeway speeds! And it does nothing, nothing! to curb the development of sprawl. Make a more efficient car, and people will drive more to make up for it. Certain people bought the car for the express purpose of that yellow pass, to allow them the right to drive solo in any lane at any time. Now, with less guilt! It's congestion pricing by any other name -- but it's only offered to a handful of rich white pseudo-environmental suburban liberals who can't divorce themselves of the convenience offered by private vehicle.
LES GILT?
Please.
I took in the owners manual on the Escape and read up on how it works, and was better armed when I drove it back to work. As you might expect, I tried to accelerate slowly to delay the gas engine assist, turned off the max-AC which keeps the gas engine running at all times, and experimented with braking to see how the regenerative action worked when I either braked hard or slow. I modified my behavior based on feedback from the car.
I also got my first drive in a Prius the other day, as a passenger. No, Amy, the vanity license plate didn't read LES GILT -- it was a SMUD car. I read the manual out-loud to the driver and I monkeyed with the controls...and I tried to explain how her driving habits have as much to do with fuel efficiency as the battery assist. She wanted none of that. Annoyed with my persistence, she drove it like she drove her Lexus; fast accelerations and fast speeds. She's my neighbor who I carpool with. I have an exceptional ability to irritate anyone.
But for me, it didn't take long for the novelty to wear off. I see why Al Gore Jr. drove one 105 mph last year -- after 20 minutes in it, it's just another damn car. But there is one key difference; in electric-only mode, the car is quiet.
I want to dovetail an additional thought on roadways with hybrids -- without engine noise, a slow-moving hybrid or an electric at any speed on an open grade rubber asphalt road is a silent killer. When we start migrating towards all electric Volts and other such cars, I think there's going to be a spike in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities that we aren't yet prepared for.
Well, 'prepared for' is incorrect. We're not really going to do shit about it one way or the other. We're going to chalk up every death due to 'inattention', or 'distracted driving', so in the end we really won't do anything to re-design our urban environments that correctly separate human traffic from vehicle traffic. Without noise, I have a hard time biking and feeling sure there's no car behind me.
The good news for me is that Elk Grove and Franklin Blvd. is devoid of hybrids. My city is populated by the Entitled, who assume that energy will someday again be cheap enough to dispel any notion of hybridism. The Elk Grove Compulsory Motoring Program hasn't changed much with $4.25 gas. I never see a hybrid on my route. Well, infrequently to be sure. The only hybrid drivers I do see are when I'm on the bridge on 41st overlooking highway 99 -- and...there they are! All single drivers in the carpool lane with their precious little yellow badges of superiority on their bumpers. This state in 2004 passed an asinine law allowing single occupant hybrid drivers to drive in high occupancy highway lanes. Unbelievable. The car runs on straight gasoline when operating at freeway speeds! And it does nothing, nothing! to curb the development of sprawl. Make a more efficient car, and people will drive more to make up for it. Certain people bought the car for the express purpose of that yellow pass, to allow them the right to drive solo in any lane at any time. Now, with less guilt! It's congestion pricing by any other name -- but it's only offered to a handful of rich white pseudo-environmental suburban liberals who can't divorce themselves of the convenience offered by private vehicle.
LES GILT?
Please.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Open Grade
Two years ago the signs went up on all the streets in my neighborhood -- they were going to repave our roads.
Yeah!
Soon thereafter, they had marked all the areas in the existing roadway that held standing water or were otherwise in worse shape than the rest of the roadbed. I say they because they are an ambiguous them. I have no idea who was going to do the work -- the county? The city? A contract outfit for either?
Well, whoever they were, the only thing those fuckers did was chipseal the surface. The patch in front of my house that was marked off as a standing water area...still today pools water in the exact same manner as it did before. The only difference is that now it has a chipseal, a thinly sprayed layer of sealant mixed with aggregate; aggregate that is now shedding itself off the surface, into the gutters, by the bucket load. I'm out there sweeping up rock along with my sycamore leaves. And chipseal is about as noisy a road surface as you'll come across.
So. They, last Thursday, were shutting down lanes on Franklin Blvd. and were tearing up the existing surface. I stopped on red at an intersection and chatted with the flagman. Funny...he didn't seem like one of 'those' fuckers. I asked what kind of surface they were putting down...open-graded rubber asphalt, the kind that sticks to his shovel.
Yes.
This is the best surface to ride on (although more expensive). And they did a good job of it, for the .8 miles in both directions that they repaved (with nice, marked bike lanes!). He did not know about the other sidewalk tear outs going on a mile to the north, but I'm hoping that at the end of all this Franklin work, I have a nice, striped, smooth, open graded surface to ride on. Everyone who drives on it, rides a bike on it, or who has to live in earshot of it, loves this surface. Even if you aren't familiar with the different surfaces that are used, you know this one the instant you get on it. It's quiet. This roadcrew were most definintely not like the fuckers that did my neighborhood! They were...human beings!!! People with wives, husbands and children, with feelings, hopes and desires!
Asphalt (or bitumen), however, is just the residual product in the petroleum cracking chain...it's residual after you've refined all the other good shit (gasoline, jet fuel, etc.) out of the oil. But with the current prices fetched for refined products, refineries are rushing to install cokers that can convert these residuals into more valuable refined products other than asphalt (e.g., kerosene, diesel). Cokers are capital intensive, but the economics now are right for installation, and they can be used to process heavier and sour-er crudes which will become more and more the norm as all the light sweets deplete faster. Heavy, sour Canadian or Venezuelan crudes. Not your daddy's Brent, Saudi, or West Texas Intermediates.
So...what we're likely gonna find is that as we divert more residuals to refined products, asphalt will have nowhere to go but up in price. And you can bet that CAL DOT will respond by reverting back to the older, cheaper, rougher, and louder dense grade asphalts and...chipseals.
Fuckers...
Yeah!
Soon thereafter, they had marked all the areas in the existing roadway that held standing water or were otherwise in worse shape than the rest of the roadbed. I say they because they are an ambiguous them. I have no idea who was going to do the work -- the county? The city? A contract outfit for either?
Well, whoever they were, the only thing those fuckers did was chipseal the surface. The patch in front of my house that was marked off as a standing water area...still today pools water in the exact same manner as it did before. The only difference is that now it has a chipseal, a thinly sprayed layer of sealant mixed with aggregate; aggregate that is now shedding itself off the surface, into the gutters, by the bucket load. I'm out there sweeping up rock along with my sycamore leaves. And chipseal is about as noisy a road surface as you'll come across.
So. They, last Thursday, were shutting down lanes on Franklin Blvd. and were tearing up the existing surface. I stopped on red at an intersection and chatted with the flagman. Funny...he didn't seem like one of 'those' fuckers. I asked what kind of surface they were putting down...open-graded rubber asphalt, the kind that sticks to his shovel.
Yes.
This is the best surface to ride on (although more expensive). And they did a good job of it, for the .8 miles in both directions that they repaved (with nice, marked bike lanes!). He did not know about the other sidewalk tear outs going on a mile to the north, but I'm hoping that at the end of all this Franklin work, I have a nice, striped, smooth, open graded surface to ride on. Everyone who drives on it, rides a bike on it, or who has to live in earshot of it, loves this surface. Even if you aren't familiar with the different surfaces that are used, you know this one the instant you get on it. It's quiet. This roadcrew were most definintely not like the fuckers that did my neighborhood! They were...human beings!!! People with wives, husbands and children, with feelings, hopes and desires!
Asphalt (or bitumen), however, is just the residual product in the petroleum cracking chain...it's residual after you've refined all the other good shit (gasoline, jet fuel, etc.) out of the oil. But with the current prices fetched for refined products, refineries are rushing to install cokers that can convert these residuals into more valuable refined products other than asphalt (e.g., kerosene, diesel). Cokers are capital intensive, but the economics now are right for installation, and they can be used to process heavier and sour-er crudes which will become more and more the norm as all the light sweets deplete faster. Heavy, sour Canadian or Venezuelan crudes. Not your daddy's Brent, Saudi, or West Texas Intermediates.
So...what we're likely gonna find is that as we divert more residuals to refined products, asphalt will have nowhere to go but up in price. And you can bet that CAL DOT will respond by reverting back to the older, cheaper, rougher, and louder dense grade asphalts and...chipseals.
Fuckers...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
