31 March 2013 One burn done part 2

          No good deed goes unpunished.   No silver lining without a touch of gray.

          Friday we put flame to debris and executed a safe, controlled burn which we carefully extinguished using lots of water. 

          Yesterday morning we noticed that our water pressure was diminished.  A quick check of the filters told us that the system was in regeneration.  Reinforcing our belief that the pressure would return to normal after the regeneration cycle, it did return to normal. 

          Yesterday evening the water appeared cloudy.  This happens a few times a year and regenerating the system normally resolves the problem.  I started another cycle about 1800.  This seemed to help matters. 

          This morning the same pressure drop was evident, perhaps to a greater degree.  The system was also in regeneration. 

          We’re focusing now on the pressure switch that is intended to control the pump activity when the system pressure drops below a set point.  We’ve replace one pressure switch and a pressure tank.  Tomorrow morning, I’ll call the well company that we use.  Hopefully, replacing a pressure switch will solve the problem. 

          We had several things scheduled for tomorrow.  Water is the highest priority. 

30 March 2013 burn one done

Cassi Creek:  We put flame to debris yesterday at 1200.  One or both of us spent the next four hours watching and containing the burn.  The initial hour was uneventful.  By hour two there was an up-valley breeze developing.  This is a common microclimate event that is common to all mountainous areas.  At first, it added air to the section of the pile already burning, increasing the burn rate and demanding greater attention to the up-valley side of the fire.  As that side consumed its fuel, the flames worked back into the pile and ignited the down-valley, up-wind section of the debris. 

          By 1600, most of the pile was burned or was nearly consumed.  At that point, I began to feel rain.  Rather than wait to get drenched I brought the hose into play and extinguished the remaining fuel.  It took about 15 minutes with water and a rake to cool and extinguish the remaining embers.  Burn # 1 safely completed. 

          In addition to the burn, Gloria hauled out about 150 pounds of non-combustible debris.  Our county trashcan is nearly full and will be completely filled by Thursday AM.  Both of us are feeling a bit beaten up today.  By Tuesday, I should be ready to start preparing for burn #2.

We have two large piles and one smaller pile of debris that must still be moved and burned.  Next week is the target for burn #2.  

29 March 2013 Fire in the hole

Cassi Creek:  Today’s primary goal is to reduce the size of the burn pile by burning.  I have to call and obtain permits for today, tomorrow, and Sunday.  Other tasks will take a back seat to this. 

          Time to collect the hose, shovel, rake, and other implements of destruction and to revert to Boy Scout policies. 

Hopefully, no film.

28 March 2013 Strange weather

Cassi Creek:  There is a strange blue color evident in the sky.  There was no new snowfall this morning.  Neither vehicle required windshield and window de-icing.  The decks and stairs are, for the most part dry. 

          There is no wind or winter weather advisory posted by the NWS. 

          We are uncertain as to what to make of these strange physical conditions. 

          On a different note, the spring allergy season is certainly beginning.  

27 March 2013 Saw the people standin' thousand years in chains.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=httQwZK2zlI

Cassi Creek:  The song linked above is one of my favorite Credence Clearwater Revival works.  The expression of futility rings loudly from personal through societal/cultural/political actions and inactions.  Fogarty managed to capture the attitudes and divisiveness of the late 1960s – early 1970s.  The last verse expands the focus to historic references that date back to the period of the Exodus from Egypt.  It’s a fitting piece to listen to during the period of Pesach. 

It is easy to extrapolate forward to the two cases being heard this week by the SCOTUS.  There is only one acceptable ruling that I can see.  However, the bigotry and hatred aimed toward homosexuals is of so immense a concentration that I am uncertain what the Justices will decide. 

Wrote A Song For Everyone (J.C. Fogerty)

Met myself a comin' county welfare line.
I was feelin' strung out, Hung out on the line.
Saw myself a goin', down to war in June.
All I want, All I want is to write myself a tune.

CHORUS:
Wrote A Song For Ev'ryone,
Wrote a song for truth.
Wrote A Song For Ev'ryone
And I couldn't even talk to you.

Got myself arrested, Wound me up in jail.
Richmond 'bout to blow up, Communication failed.
If you see the answer, now's the time to say.
All I want, All I want is to get you down to pray.

CHORUS

CHORUS

Saw the people standin' thousand years in chains.
Somebody said it's diff'rent now, look, it's just the same.
Pharoahs spin the message, round and round the truth.
They could have saved a million people, How can I tell you?

CHORUS
CHORUS
CHORUS

26 March 2013 And miles to go before I sleep

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.”

“

Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening””

Cassi Creek:  It is still snowing.  We picked up another 1.5-2 inches overnight.  Quite a lot of the snow that fell yesterday landed on surfaces still warm enough to partially melt, and then re-freeze on the decks and steps.  I scraped them down this morning but the icy base remains on front and back decks.  The front got a dose of de-icer pellets from a rapidly dwindling supply. 

          This snow is likely to continue until tomorrow.  The higher winds have diminished.  Driving back from Mountain Home yesterday was rather dicey in the usual places where the winds funnel through the saddles and down the valleys. 

          This morning, the trees were all snow-laden on their north-facing sides.  The cars had a heavier build up on the north as well.  In the early morning light, the images were quite beautiful and brought Frost’s poem to mind.  Fortunately, I have no miles to travel today.  We are home, surrounded by songbirds at Gloria’s feeders.  About 0800 the local flock of turkeys wandered in.  The reigning Tom, quite large, was in full mating display, trying to attract the hens in this flock.  The hens were having nothing to do with him, avoiding every advance.  They were much more concerned with finding food. 

          Tonight we will dine on braised lamb shanks and assorted root vegetables.  The house is already beginning to fill with the aroma from the kitchen.  

25 March 2013 Call the doctor woke him up

Cassi Creek:  Up at 0500 this morning for another drive into Mountain Home.  At that time, there were snow flurries and no accumulation.  By 0600, the decks and cars were covered with snowflakes and pellet snow.  The wind was blowing at about 20 MPH, whining in the utility lines and trees. 

          Left home at 0711 after the usual morning ritual.  Presented my body for another blood collection that turned out to be a duplication and unnecessary.   I could have slept another half hour.  Saw my primary care physician 30 minutes after the scheduled appointment time.  There were no abnormal labs, nothing abnormal on physical exam. 

          She feels that there will be no action on my Agent Orange/Parkinson’s claim until after my May neuro appointment.  The neurologist left the DX unresolved.  Since there is no indication of abnormality on MRI, and since both Gloria and I believe that the prescribed anti-Parkinson’s medication is having a positive effect, I think the DX is essentially complete. 

          A brief trip to Fresh Market followed; where I found lamb shanks to fix tomorrow.  We haven’t had lamb shanks for quite a long time.  I’ll braise them tomorrow. 

          It is cold, damp, and windy.  The higher ridges and peaks are snowy again.  Once in a while, the sun breaks through. Today’s high, at 0001, was 42 °F.  Currently, 34 °F at 1320. 

Chag Sameach!

"Doctor, is there something I can take?"

          

24 March 2013 “ Kid can’t read at 17 the words he knows are all obscene”

Cassi Creek:  Obscene is appropriate.  I trekked into Mountain Home last Monday in order to have lab studies drawn so that they would be available to my Primary Care physician tomorrow, to review with me.  Friday I was told that I needed to be in at 0800 instead of 0830 so that I could have studies that were overlooked drawn.  This entails getting up at 0500 in order to drive into Mountain Home. 

          Naturally, as has been the case for much of the past winter, we are under a winter storm watch with snow, high winds, and blowing snow forecast.  It’s been a brutal winter.  I’ve seen good explanations linking the last several years of altered weather patterns to global warming.  They make sense to me.  The huge decreases in the polar ice caps are easily documented, as are the temperature extremes, the deviations in jet stream patterns, and the CO2 concentrations. 

          I fail to understand how anyone can look at this data and deny the reality and the impact of global warming and associated climactic change.  Yet, we have a large percentage of our population that does not read well, that has little or no scientific education, and that considers education to be an “elitist” value.  We’re fortunate that they don’t vote in larger numbers.  They'd be pushing us back to the 18^th century rather than the 19^th.

23 March 2013 Veterans cheap and disposable

Cassi Creek:  From an on-line plea by DAV. 

“Please Write to Your Senators Today!http://bit.ly/YgEcCH

This week the Senate is considering its budget resolution, a bill that would fund the entire federal government, including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, for fiscal year 2014. One provision in this bill would have a long-lasting consequence: it would drastically change the way annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) are added to disability compensation and pension payments to veterans, their dependents and survivors. If adopted, this change will reduce government payments for these obligations by billions of dollars over the next ten years.

The Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, has asked for help from DAV (Disabled American Veterans) in gaining other Senators’ support for his amendment to stop this change from occurring, thereby preserving the current system for calculating COLA additions to payments to veterans and others.

Please use the prepared email in this alert (http://bit.ly/YgEcCH), or write your own individualized email to your Senators to urge their support of the Sanders’ amendment. Veterans and their survivors earned the compensation and pension payments they receive by virtue of their military service to the nation. The federal deficit was not created by sick and disabled veterans, and they do not deserve to be unfairly penalized.

DAV appreciates your use of the Commander’s Action Network in helping DAV communicate our priorities to Congress. Your grassroots advocacy is key to our effectiveness in Washington. With your help, DAV CAN!

Please send your message to your Senators TODAY!http://bit.ly/YgEcCH — at DAV.

Follow up from DAV:

Thank you ALL for the taking such strong action. With your support, the Senate tonight voted to block cuts in benefits for service-connected injured and ill veterans and Social Security.http://1.usa.gov/Z9WVN5 You made a real difference!

The amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) put the Senate on record against changing how cost-of-living increases are calculated in a way that would result in significant cuts.

The amendment opposed switching from the current method of measuring inflation to a so-called chained consumer price index.

The proposed change would affect more than 3.2 million veterans receiving disability compensation benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans who started receiving VA disability benefits at age 30 would have their benefits reduced by $1,425 at age 45, $2,341 at age 55 and $3,231 at age 65. Benefits for more than 350,000 surviving spouses and children who have lost a loved one in battle also would be cut. Dependency Indemnity Compensation benefits already average less than $17,000 a year.”

          This is something to stay atop of.  With less than 01% of our population serving in the armed forces, service men and women, and veterans have become easy to overlook by much of the populace.  Disabled veterans have earned every penny of their compensation, often paying the premiums in blood.  Please demand that your elected officials in D.C. provide a more realistic budget for the VA so that our veterans can receive the medical care they were promised and need.

         

22 March 2013 Desolation Row reprise.

Cassi Creek:  First, Thanks to everyone who helped to make yesterday such a great day. 

          Now, The GOP is donning another set of blinders and adopting, yet again, the Ryan budget – Contract on America rev 2.0.  This budget is intended to roll back the economic system to the days before Teddy Roosevelt.  It, if ever implemented, will savage and destroy most of our social safety network, beginning with Medicare.  Medicare will become a voucher plan foisting grossly inadequate vouchers onto seniors and allowing the insurance companies to run the health care system to maximize profits and minimize health care. 

The Morning Plum: No, the Ryan vision is not a winner for the GOP

Posted by Greg Sargent on March 22, 2013 at 9:13 am

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/03/22/the-morning-plum-no-the-ryan-vision-is-not-a-winner-for-the-gop/

For further elevation of our blood pressures:

Any questions?

21 March 2013 One year done and another begun

Cassi Creek:  22 °F at 0700.  Expected high 36 °F.  Approximately half an inch of snow fell overnight.  The decks and ground are covered but the roads appear clear.  Yes, spring is here! 

          Gloria and I picked up two 30-gallon trash bags of bottles, cans, plastic cups, fast food wrappers, along with used diapers along the road from the top to bottom property lines.   Looking at the refuse and trash, it is hard to understand why people felt the need to discard it in such a manner and in such a location.  However, the entire road out to TN107 is just about carpeted with similar trash. 

          Still, today promises to be a good day. It is one of those landmarks that one knows exist but never visualizes arriving at until smacking into it.  Well, here it is, and here I am.  So many roads!

20 March 2013 Send in the BUFFs

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/19/world/asia/korea-b-52s/index.html?sr=fbmain

(CNN) -- The U.S. Air Force is breaking out some of its heaviest hardware to send a message to North Korea.

A Pentagon spokesman said Monday that B-52 bombers are making flights over South Korea as part of military exercises this month.

“As for the B-52s, they have been in the U.S. arsenal since 1955. Once part of the country's nuclear triad planes, missiles and submarines, the B-52 is now used predominantly as a conventional bomber and as a platform for air-launched cruise missiles. The Air Force said B-52s dropped 40% of all the munitions used by coalition forces during Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s.”

          It is amazing how many of these ancient planes are still flying and are mission capable.  Often the aircraft are older than the combined ages of the AC and Co-pilot.  The aircraft were designed for high altitude bombing.  The development of SAM’s put paid to that plan.  The mission then became low-level high-speed penetration.  The development of terrain-following radar control made this somewhat safer and somewhat more likely to be successful.

          Some of my neighbors in AR were killed in TFR failures.  I encountered a BUFF following I=70 in Eastern Colorado.  I topped a hill heading eastbound and was face-to-face with the plane traveling west.  I could see the faces of the pilot and co-pilot in the brief instant when the plane was still visible.  It passed just above me.  The noise of its 8 engines was disorienting in its volume. Then I found myself in the westbound lanes heading west.  Quite the trip!

          I can recall sitting in an aircraft on Guam when an Arc Light mission was taking off.  We were required to close the window shades so that we couldn’t see the BUFFs take off.  Of course, there was nothing else on Quam that sounded that loud and that big.  I doubt anyone on that flight was going to relay take-off times to the NVA. 

          Today’s hike with Mike was unusual.  We noticed a lot of cars at a neighbor’s house and several people picking up what is normally a trashy yard.  We both made reference to “Jud Fry is Dead” from “Oklahoma.”  As we passed the house, the owner walked out to tell us that one of his sons had committed suicide yesterday.  We’ve been here over 6 years now and I would not recognize his son if I saw him.  Still, the loss of a family member by suicide is always tragic.  We’ll send a sympathy card.  There’s little else we can do beyond extending condolences. 

          

19 March 2013 “If I have my way, I’ll tear these buildings down”

Cassi Creek:  this editorial cartoon truly says all I would try to say if I were more erudite.  I’ve seen many of the social safety nets put into place by previous administrations that believed we have an obligation as a nation to care for our aged and infirm citizens. 

          Sadly, since the Reagan era, a disdain for anyone but the rich and the very rich has taken the place of concern for all citizens.  The facilities that cared for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled have been emptied, creating a new level of homelessness that is truly disgraceful.  Because Reagan his owners got by with that, Subsequent GOP administrations and majorities have followed on by attacking the poor, the aged, the sick, the homeless, and every other aspect of our social safety nets while repeatedly lowering taxes and creating new loopholes for corporations and the ultra-rich.  This must be stopped.  We’ve actually created job losses so severe that Mexican immigrants find more work in Mexico than they do here.

          Sunny, in the 50’s.  Hike with Mike this morning.  Loki was thrilled.  I made it there and back again.  That’s good.

18 March 2013 Batten down the hatches

Cassi Creek:  Up before dawn.  A moderately red sky when the sun made its appearance.   Wind noise indicates an approaching cold front. 

          Into Johnson City for a blood draw at VA. Surprisingly little wait time in the phlebotomy station.  Took advantage of the time to check on any possible action on my Agent Orange/Parkinson’s claim.  Nothing new on that front. 

          A quick stop at Earth Fare then on to Jonesborough for gasoline and to Limestone for Pathfinder repairs.  Unfortunate oversight at Earth Fare required a trip to Wal-Mart.  Finally, home in time to retrieve the mail. 

          The wind is steady at 15-20.  A lot of force coming down off the ridges and across the highways.  It was predicted that we’d have rain this morning.  So far, it has held off.  The air temperatures may be cool enough to lessen the strength of the also forecast thunderstorms. I hope so.  There’s a lot of low-level shear that I’d rather not have in the mix today and tonight.  

17 March 2013 “…Commissars and pin-striped bosses roll the dice

“Any way they fall guess who gets to pay the price.
Money green or proletarian gray, selling guns instead of food today.
So the kids they dance, they shake their bones
While the politicians throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes all fall down…”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-nra-square-off-over-small-arms-treaty/2013/03/16/ae495dae-8d76-11e2-b63f-f53fb9f2fcb4_story.html?hpid=z1

NRA opposes U.N. small-arms treaty

By Peter Finn, Published: March 16

The National Rifle Association, which is battling a raft of gun control measures on Capitol Hill, also has an international fight on its hand as it gears up to oppose a U.N. treaty designed to restrict the flow of arms to conflict zones.

Negotiations open Monday in New York on the Arms Trade Treaty, which would require countries to determine whether weapons they sell would be used to commit serious human rights violations, terrorism or transnational organized crime.

3380Cassi Creek:  Picture Wayne LaPierre atop the Lenin Mausoleum in Red Square.  The former USSR was one of the world’s largest exporters of firearms to dictatorships, failed states, and terrorist organization.  Foremost among weapons sales today, the U.S., followed by Russia. 

          The United Nations is making an effort to reduce and limit firearms exports to areas and nations in armed conflict.  The Obama administration is tentative but favorably disposed to sign the treaty.  The NRA, of course, is vehemently opposed to the treaty, claiming it will be used to abrogate the 2^nd Amendment and to seize firearms owned by U.S. citizens. 

          This is simply more of the same organized paranoia that the NRA spews so widely and, unfortunately, so effectively among its members and minions. 

          One has to wonder how the NRA’s leadership would look arrayed atop the Lenin Mausoleum on May Day.  They would also fit in quite well with the troop review parades held in Teheran, Beijing, and Pyong Yang. 

World's largest arms exporters

The unit in this table are so-called trend indicator values expressed in millions of US dollars at 1990s prices. These values do not represent real financial flows but are a crude instrument to estimate volumes of arms transfers, regardless of the contracted prices, which can be as low as zero in the case of military aid. Ordered by descending 2000-2010 values. The information is from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.^[1]

2001-12 Rank	Supplier	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
1	United States	5908	5229	5698	6866	6700	7453	8003	6288	6658	8641	9984	-
2	Russia	5896	5705	5236	6178	5134	5095	5426	5953	5575	6039	7676[2]	7967[3]
3	Germany	850	916	1713	1105	2080	2567	3194	2500	2432	2340	1206	-
4	France	1297	1368	1345	2219	1724	1643	2432	1994	1865	1834	2437	-
5	China	499	509	665	292	303	597	430	586	1000	1423	1830	2100[4]
6	United Kingdom	1368	1068	741	1316	1039	855	1018	982	1022	1054	1070	-
7	Netherlands	203	239	342	209	583	1187	1326	530	545	503	538	-
8	Sweden	880	191	526	314	538	432	366	454	383	806	686	-
9	Italy	216	426	341	212	774	502	684	417	514	627	1046	-
10	Israel	407	436	368	628	368	299	438	281	807	472	531	-
11	Ukraine	700	311	442	200	290	553	728	330	320	201	484	-
12	Switzerland	193	157	181	243	246	285	301	482	255	137	297	-
13	India	7	120	150	56	108	39	100	235	478	670	1450	-
14	Bulgaria	200[5]	32[6]	48[6]	16[6]	66[6]	5[6]	9[6]	286[7]	198[8]	354[9]	-	-
15	Canada	129	170	263	265	226	226	334	227	169	258	292	-
16	South Korea	165	N/A	100	29	48	94	220	80	163	95	225	-

The information is also from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute or from the national defence commissions where available and is updated at least