Tea Party Reflections

My friend Paul, his family, & I attended the Tea Party in Manchester NH yesterday afternoon. Lotsa signs & such, but what has hit me most is this: I’d like to have the folks that were present there as my neighbors.

Listening to talk radio over the last 24 hours, the re-occuring theme of callers seems to be the honesty, politeness, & HONOR of the attendees. No pushing, no rudeness; if accidental contact was made, there was the inevitable “excuse me” or “may I go through”? This is not normal to our contemporary society.

There I found people who not only held the United States Constitution in the highest regard, but also conducted their lives in a manner that I thought long extinct- living by the Golden Rule.

I don’t know what will come of this phenomenon that was the Tea Parties, but I detect a spark of Liberty that can be fanned into a new understanding of the principles of our Constitution & a reclamation of our government as one for the People, by the People.

I’ll try to do MY best…

Tea Party News Blitz...

Wow.
Did you see all the coverage the Tea Parties are getting on Google news?
...
...

::crickets::

Not a WORD.

This is up to us people- see you there!

Feelin’ Horny…

While I futzed around the house today, Mrs. DT took a walk to check on possible “ice damage” on one of the horse trails she rides & maintains. She did find a few limbs that will need the attention of my chainsaw, but she also found these:

Sheds, deer horns (I know they’re antlers, but around here they’re just called horns, or more accurately, “hawns”). Now while finding sheds is not a big deal on its own, finding both horns in the same location is something of a find. But the really remarkable thing about this is here:


If you’ll look closely, you’ll detect that the sheds that the Mrs. found used to belong to the critter in the picture taken 15 January. I recognized them because of the broken tine on his right side that may have been the result of a battle earlier in the rut, & the nub of the fourth tine. That broken tine is worn nearly smooth now.

Izzat cool or what?

A.N.M.A-O.A.

Phew.
I hate it when batteries get all 'splody like that.

Annnyway- how 'bout this?

The
AMERICAN NETWORK MONITORING ANTI-OBAMA ACTIVITIES!!!

It's a real, actual website. Really. Go see.
Can you believe this crap?

Please excuse me while I go report myself...

Solar Powered Blogging

Does this look all GREEN? I’m posting this “off grid”, powered by a sunshiny April morning with a little help from a grungy battery.

I’ve been fooling around with solar panels for a year or so in an effort to decrease my dependency on the grid in an emergency situation. No, it’s not to reduce my “charcoal paw print” or some such foolishness; it’s just that it’s good to have some juice when you need it.

My reader will hopefully remember my post of the AAR following the December ice storm. One of the things that worked out so well was having LED lighting to use instead of oil lamps, candles, etc.

Since then, I’ve bought more LED lighting fixtures, so I can light up this place like Vegas. Accordingly, I had to increase the generation end of the setup, so I bought three more panels as well. So now I’ve got 60 watts of panels that will charge my batteries wicked fast.

After I had all that power (which, BTW, is next to zilch in the eyes of a real solar power geek), I needed something to do with it when not in emergency mode. Sooo, I cobbled up the necessary adapters & gizmos to charge all my rechargeable devices (phone, hand held radios, GPS, et al), and purchased a neat 12v powered box that will charge all sizes of regular rechargeable batteries (AAA, C, 9v, etc.).

Still, I was generating more power than I was using. Lessee, what have I got around here that I use regularly, but doesn’t use more power than I can supply via the small battery group & the cells? Yep- this here computer rig.

Picked up a small 400w inverter to power this beast & here we are. The panels don’t supply enough power to fire it all up directly, but the drain on the battery is minimal, & it recovers within a few hours if I limit my time “off grid” to about a half hour. Still, in an urgent situation, I wouldn’t be surfing or blogging (emergency blogging?- heh), but using the web to gather information on the weather, news, or the like. So the time limitation won’t be much of a factor I’m guessing.

I’ve probably spent less than $400 & not a little time on this equipment & set up, but it’s nice to have the fallback option should it become necessary. One never knows when the grid will drop its connection (especially here in the woods), or for how long. The cool thing about this self-contained option is that if my equipment is here I cannot lose powe

'Nuff Said...

In The News...

Pirates take ship flying the American flag.

The White House is poised to analyze & monitor the situation.

American crew retakes ship.

It is reported that one pirate is in custody, & the others have fled (read “floating in the ocean”).

Thank you for the decisive action Mr. President (although I expect a stern warning forthcoming…).