Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Going Green


A poll published in our local rag.


POLL
Would you ever consider buying an electric vehicle?
·         Only when Gov. Polis pays for mine. (32%, 178 Votes)
·         No. I like a combustion engine. (26%, 144 Votes)
·         Maybe when the technology gets better. (25%, 142 Votes)
·         Yes. They're great. (17%, 98 Votes)

In other news, I will be tied up for the next two days moving my worldly possessions.

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Old Friends


Nice evening meal with old friends and my sister. He was a year behind me in high school and I’ve always liked his wife.

They are successful ranchers.  Few know how many ‘town jobs’ they worked to save the ranch he inherited. In her case, thirty years in public education.

They are nationally prominent in the American Legion and cattle originations. In their local community they have contributed to such diverse organizations as the cemetery board to the local library.

Now in their seventies, they have their health and wealth and are enjoying their lives. New house (the old one was 100 years old), new car, and travels to wherever they want to go when they want to go.

Still, they remain humble. I am happy for their success and have zero feelings of jealousy. They have earned every bit of it. I am proud they consider my sister and I good friends.

Friday, January 25, 2019

Foreign Intervention



Haven’t put up a political rant for awhile. If you are easily offended, just move on.

Here we go again, getting involved in the internal affairs of another country, Venezuela.

This isn’t a defense of the wretched despotic socialists currently ruining the lives of their citizens.

It is for the citizens of Venezuela, or Iran, or China, or any other country whose values we don’t share to make changes. How many lives of our military do we continue to spend in stupid interventions? How much treasure do we give to the military industrial racketeers? Do we ever learn?

The cost of the Vietnam debacle was such we could have given every Vietnamese $1,000,000 some folks estimate. What cost was the 50,000+ American citizens who died?

I know many of the arguments about keeping shit away from our borders by influencing (read, active intervention) the affairs of those who may, or may not, be our enemies. We have every right to defend our borders. As a nation, we’ve let the racketeers make intervention the norm. Not just acceptable, but praiseworthy. Fuck that! We need to mind our own business. Can’t solve our own problems? Whee, create a crisis, or some noble endeavor, to keep the deplorables distracted.

YMMV  

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Cold Weather



Seems several bloggers are writing or commenting on cold weather. Guess I will jump in.

After leaving the Army in 1966, I was determined to earn a pilot license. I tried to get in the Army aviation program but a couple of evaluation rides showed I was unlikely to become adept at hovering a helicopter. There were even fewer slots for fixed wing training.

While visiting my parents, I was alerted to a company conducting an experiment to see if seeding clouds would increase snowfall.

A component was a string of recording devices strung along thirty miles of the Continental Divide at 10,000 to 11,000 feet. They wanted local people who knew how to operate in harsh conditions as the equipment needed to be operational while it was snowing. One of the people hired along with me had been a year ahead of me in high school. In high school we loathed each other. A few years later our feeling hadn’t changed. That said, we both knew how to work and survive in blizzard conditions.

These storms could be intense. We used a snow cat to go from site to site. Often the visibility was so bad one of us would go ahead on cross country skis to find the way. The other would drive the machine following the skier.  The temperature would always be below zero and the wind was gusting so hard the skier would nearly be blown over. We never calculated the wind chill. Fear!

The wonderful part of the job was I only was required to work when it was storming. That left clear days for flying. My father had always wanted to fly and we went in together on a 1939 Piper J-4, known in the family as the Puddy Four. We both got our Private rating in her. I went on to get a Commercial and Instrument rating.  He later bought a Cessna 182.


This seeding experiment was a large effort. To the West on a high ridge was a decommissioned Nike Ajax radar setup for tracking the chaff filled weather balloons. Further East on a high peak was the seeders. Sodium iodine was mixed with acetone and fed into small fan devices with propane burners. During a storm, the burners would run for thirty minutes, shut down for thirty minutes, etc. The data from the recorders along the divide was analyzed to see if there was a pattern.

This project ran for four years. I don’t think anything was proved but the people doing it were meticulous in their efforts. As an aside, several marriages with local girls were a byproduct. Those long cold winter nights, don’t you know?

The time spent with the asshole from high school didn’t change our feeling towards each other. There was a mutual, if grudging, respect for each other’s skill set. Our literal survival depended on it. That job was far and away the most dangerous one I’ve done. As I understand, he worked there all four seasons. Tough man to be sure, but an asshole’s asshole. A good friend from high school who still lives in the area and is friendly with him assures me his feelings toward me are about the same. Oh well.


Monday, January 21, 2019

Wildfires



Business today took me to the Red Feather Lakes region of the Northern Front Range area of Colorado.
With a little snow on the ground, you could see the stark contrast of last summer’s fires and the areas that escaped.




Many nice expensive homes in the area. People living their dreams. I saw very little fire defense preparations around their homes. Sad.

Saturday, January 19, 2019

Pleasant Day




If you need to work on a Saturday, today was about as nice as it gets.

Nice herd of Pronghorns about six miles from Wyoming this morning. Too far away for good pictures. Light traffic on I-25 and even less on US 85.

Breakfast is served.


Nice drive. No significant  traffic. No damn fools. No revenue generators.

We are having a mild winter. The down side of that is scarce water this summer. My route is 418 miles+- and there is not one patch of green.

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Is Colorado Toast?


Weld County, CO isn’t (P)regressive country. Nearly 100% GOP in the last election. Even the local rag endorsed the GOP candidate. They have an ongoing poll, What should Gov. Jared Polis focus most on this year. Current results?

Leave us alone. (52%, 318 votes)

Fixing transportation. (26%. 161 Votes)

Creating a single-payer health care system. (22%, 133 Votes)

In other, predictable news.


That repeal will complete the Californication of the state. Will it make the ballot. For sure. Will the voters go for it? Depends on how much energy is left in the “Blue Wave”.

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Perverse Pleasure


Contemplating the Democrat capture of the House, I’m taking perverse pleasure in the go along get along pols dealing with the newly elected (P)regressives who have no respect for political norms. 

Have fun, Nancy.

Saturday, January 12, 2019

Jowl Shaker


Last night the fringe of Winter Storm Gia brushed the I-25 corridor north of Denver. People coped.

After a nice warm day that dried out the roads, we have these messes.


Each one of those sites have clear sightlines – no blind spots. You can only shake your head. Idiots!

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

5G Unicorn Dreams


Slick article says Colorado will be money ahead shutting down coal fired generating plants, like immediately.


Sounds like fantasy to me but maybe I’m not smart enough to grasp their wonderful logic.

It will give fuel to our $30 million cuckoo governor and blue wave Legislature.

Already the ecothugs are rearing to go:


While the national elites have their “fly over country” our Colorado (P)regressives have their “drive by country”, rural Colorado. So long as the roads are plowed, they could give a shit about the residents.

On the surface the State isn’t a California or Illinois basket case. Close examination will lead prudent investors to run for their lives.

I will stay in Colorado for the time being but COLOEXIT is in the forefront of my thinking.  I expect things to get ugly.

Sunday, January 6, 2019

Wolf Creek Pass


While I no longer use this road on a regular basis, this CDOT link is worth watching, IMO.


In the video you see the truck finally stop short of a curve to the left. About fifty feet in front of the truck, this is the view.


US 160 Walsenburg – Cortez is a visual treat with a variety of scenery. Just don’t drive it with your head up your ass, just saying.

Current conditions?
Travel safe!

Friday, January 4, 2019

Mean Woman




My sister has an ornery streak a mile wide. Plus, she knows everybody.  Recently she noticed someone had dumped a hobby horse in a city park. Not letting this opportunity pass, she called the man responsible for the park.

“George, you’ve got a horse loose in XXXXX  park”.

She waits as George goes into panic mode before telling him it is a hobby horse.

“Damn you, Colleen”, says a somewhat relieved George.

The karma train has left the station. That hobby horse will probably end up duct taped to the roof of her truck.

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Infantry Load Out


Once again WSF goes charging into a subject he knows little. When has that ever stopped me?

A few years ago at my son’s home outside Ft. Carson, I picked up his vest and helmet. “Damn, that is heavy”, I exclaimed. My son just laughed. Said he would add ammo, water, and his medic kit plus weapon before he went to the field. Well over 120 lbs.

When I was a 12B some 50+ years ago, our load out went about 60 lbs. with ammo, entrenching tool, canteen, poncho and sleeping bag. No body amour. None was issued 1964-1966 in Germany that I ever heard of.

Stud Marine Infantry officers must pass a grueling test. The requirements vary depending on the source. My question is, how effective can you be after humping 120 lbs. at a high rate of march? 

Over time the wear and tear can be debilitating. We humans aren’t built to be pack animals and, over time, no amount of guts and determination will change that.

All kinds of mechanical devices have been used or proposed. 

One problem, the logistics trail.

Some special operations have gone old school.

Anyone who has ever used pack animals knows it isn’t simple. Think only soldier’s have attitudes?

Is one answer been around for centuries? The Asian wheelbarrow.




My guess one of these per squad would allow a lower load out weight while still having all the necessities close at hand.

 Some tactical training would be required. Not having nearly exhausted troops in a firefight would be the gain, IMO.


YMMV