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...
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
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...
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