I watch the commercial by the “organic snack bar” woman and I think…so throw a little flour in there…voila..no tax…geez. I want to slap these people and their “untruths”….
Kerosene heaters are listed in emergency preparedness info, BUT a huge caveat. Do NOT use them, or fireplaces or wood burning stoves without having a smoke alarm and a carbon monoxide detector installed near the area where they are going to be used. Folks need to be attentive to ventilation with these sources. And, obviously, folks should NEVER use bbq’s or grills inside homes, but you can count on somebody doing it this winter out of desperation.
And as for closing off unused spaces, I have a newer efficient gas furnace. I did not mean to imply one was to shut the door and never open or heat it over the course of the winter season. It is more a matter of suggesting that folks identify a few of the most frequently used spaces and strategize ways to seal those up as best as possible and focus on heating those so the *people* in the house can remain comfortable for longer at less cost.
The unused spaces, of course, would get cold, but presumably people have identified the room as being “low-priority” to heat. Periodically heating up the space to dry out and mitigate any potential condensation or a perceived concern about it, would be prudent, but to heat unused spaces on a regular basis costs 5-20% more than to not heat them, according to a couple of energy conservation sites I’ve perused. I can only attest to what is nothing more than mere perceptions of my own use, but it simply does not take as long to heat up a smaller area and in my mind, that translates as less gas being purchased from PSE and therefore less $$. Again, I have a very efficient gas heater that is well maintained and serviced annually. I avoid having it “work hard”. I am more interested in having it work smart. I also use a thermostat time for specific at-home hours and keep it at a 68 maximum – another strategy to save bucks – over time.
And those window coverings can work, but if the edges are not thoroughly sealed to the window, they have little impact. I remember many, many years ago, in a super funky old QA apartment, I stapled visqueen to my humongous single-paned windows. Then I taped over the edges to seal them. Then I put up curtain panels. Didn’t do much for the awesome view I had of the Olympics and West Seattle, but It helped keep the electric heat in and that’s what it’s all about when you are cold and broke.
dobro, i’ll second the election predictions. i think MSM and republicans have a nasty shock coming.
republicans/conservatives/”independents” (yeah, right)/teabaggers keep asking, “when are you going to stop blaming bush?”
answer: until it’s no longer true that republicans broke the economy. i.e. never.
i’m going to paraphrase an anecdote that obama told the AFL-CIO rally on labor day that sums it up:
so after 14 years of controlling congress and 8 years in the white house, they’ve driven the economy into the ditch. democrats get out of the car, and we’re pushing and grunting and sweating and working, and we finally get the car up on the road again. it’s got dents and dings and scratches. mud all over it. the republicans are standing on the shoulder, in clean clothes, drinking a slurpee. and they’re yelling, “look what they did to your car!”
who are those two red dots? I want to donate to them!
and by the way, the concentration of wealth has become even more concentrated in the past decade. It’s a crying shame that some (too many) working people buy into their own enslavement. It never fails to amaze me that people will work passionately against their own interests.
The case for Obama?- pretty simple really- he’s not a washed up, flip-flopping, trophy-wifing,bought and paid for wingnut septugenarian, which is what our other choice was.
He’s done many good things in spite of the mess handed to him and I think he would have done more in not for the Rescumlicans treasonous obstructionism. I’m hoping we surprise the conventional wisdom types again and retain the majority after this election and he has a chance to introduce more of his own agenda instead of just cleaning up the trail of slime left by Cheney/Bush and their flying monkeys.
I think it was a BMW or a FVR?
Anyway, first let me apologize for losing my temper for a moment there. I was close-passed one too many times today and you were unfortunately the last one to do so.
Regarding our discussion about sharing the lane…I know you are on a motorcycle which has a narrower profile than a car. However, on the narrow street, 36th, which passes by Alki lumber, the Y and the body shop, it’s generally not a good idea to pass anyone, even a cyclist when there is oncoming traffic.
Maybe what you didn’t realize is that I was moving left as you approached to avoid the large truck (Ford F350 or Dodge Ram or something else huge) that was parked partially into the street. I had to slow down to yield to your pass, while the oncoming van passed in the other direction, to avoid both you and the truck. You failed to yield to my right of way as the overtaken vehicle. Note that you would have still beat me to the stop sign and it only took what, 1 second for the van to pass? You wouldn’t have even had to put a foot down, just eased up on the gas a bit.
As for your comment about “share the road” that’s exactly what that means. Share the road; respect other’s rights to be in it and use it, yielding to other vehicles who have the right of way. It does not mean “share the lane at the same time no matter what the circumstances may be.” When you passed me on Fauntleroy, that was fine. It’s a nice wide street, there were no barriers, there are Sharrows indicating that it is a shared roadway (although sometimes a cyclist may choose to take the lane if they feel circumstances require it) and you passed wide.
Now you rode off shaking your head, likely thinking to yourself, “crazy cyclist!” No, I’m not crazy, I just would like to remain in one piece thank you. You seemed like a nice guy, hope you had a good ride home.
We have a lot of clothing (women’s T-shirts, long sleeves, pants, designer apparel & misc along with some limited men’s wear) along with a variety of other goods including DVDs, books, speaker sets & more that we’d like to find new homes for.
We’ll be outside from 10am until 3pm both Saturday & Sunday and hope to see you there!
2217 42nd Ave SW
Seattle 98116
re: Clearwire: ‘make do’ is probably a strong way to put it, as we haven’t had the extent of problems that JoB had. when we called tech support they got us the help we needed very quickly, the first time. I’ve also found the folks at the Westwood storefront helpful. the trouble we experience with Clearwire seems to coincide with trouble from our DTV converter, so sometimes I blame it on the ‘atmosphere’
another note on the internet speed from Clearwire. before we got a new laptop, I blamed the speed on the internet service. on the old computer, it could take 1.75 hours to download an episode of Mad Men from iTunes. With the new computer it takes 15-20 minutes. same Clearwire service, different computers.
re: Qwest: yeah, that is what we thought too after talking to the Qwest people at Southcenter. when their “up and running in 2 weeks” time limit ran out, we called to find out the deal. They said, sorry, guess we don’t have DSL there after all. we are in Puget Ridge.
re: Comcast, I don’t want to do business with them, similar sentiments to post # 20.
Just got the newsletter from Tuxedos and Tennis Shoes Catering and Events (a new WSB sponsor BTW) and noted the official word on their website about the annual free Thanksgiving dinner. A West Seattle tradition. Adding to the Events calendar but also mentioning here:
http://www.tuxedosandtennisshoes.com/catering-team/current.php#thanksgiving
comcast is our provider at work and we had issues all day yesterday.
re:Qwest DSL- they told us they couldn’t provide DSL service at our house which seems ridiculous; it’s Seattle after all. we make do with Clearwire at home.
as long as approval translates into sending in those ballots i will be a very happy camper.
Here’s some more poll news showing Obama’s approval ratings rising- also Murray over Slimeball 50-47. Now, if we use Rich’s math, Murray’s lead becomes 50-22!!
http://horsesass.org/?p=30337
I ranted a while back about my neighbor and their dogs and things had gotten much better for a while. But The young girl that lives there just started slacking off and it was getting miserable again. I asked her repeatedly to please get a handle on the dogs and she just didn’t get it.
Finally I wrote a letter to animal control in the hopes that they would let her know what was up.
Well, they came and informed them, charged them for licenses they didn’t have.
Well the guy who lives there came out and started calling me every name in the book trying to get me to fight him. It really makes for a peaceful home environment. I called the SPD to see what my options were as I haven’t fought since I was a freshman in High school, and though I won that fight me fighting would be comical as I have a bad back and bad discs in my neck. They were going to come out but I decided to wait and see if it was just an initial blow off of steam or not. If he continues to be an A-hole I’ll take other options. It does make me just a bit angry that the guy who owns the house can rent rooms to every low life on the planet and I have to deal with them…..The last bunch were meth heads…and I’m beginning to miss them…….
What would you guys do?…..
have Qwest DSL here…never goes out ….
sporadic and slow service, AGAIN, the last couple days. today they told me it has to do with my splitter. whatever. comcast stinks.
I get online mostly in the evenings and have been so fustrated lately. I will be checking my email and I can read two or three and then it will read “contacting the server…” and when I try to watch one of the shows I like to watch online the screen freezes but the audio will continue. Then the screen will catch up to the audio so I miss what is happening. Sometimes it feels like it takes hours to watch a show that is about 45 minutes.
I thought about switching to clearwire but wasn’t sure how that would work since I have both a hardwired computer and a laptop (wireless).
I do wish that the city would open the bidding and invite other companies to provide coverage.
Why is only one company allowed to provide high speed?
When we were on dial-up there were many choices for internet providers.
I can’t/won’t do DSL.
Back up for me too. Every time we have an outage like this, I get a little more frustrated at my lack of options. Remind me again why Comcast is allowed to have a cable monopoly in Seattle? I’m too far away from the telco station to get fast DSL, so my only option for fast internet service is Comcast, the worst company in America (http://consumerist.com/2010/04/congratulations-comcast-youre-the-worst-company-in-america.html).
Same here – unusually slow service and sporadic outages for a couple of days. Called yesterday, they did a remote reboot of some type and it came back up. Down again this morning. Called and got an automated message that my address is part of a “known outage” that they are working on. Thank god for 3G!
As I made what felt like my 50 billionth school lunch for my kids this morning I started thinking it would be cool if I could hear what other people make for their kids that is new and different. Dinner too for that matter – I get SO tired of thinking about what to make for dinner every night!
I was thinking of a cookie-exchange format meet up where everyone came with a dozen ideas – we could pick the ones we liked and each walk away with some new great tricks and ideas!
Or if that sounds too much – share here??
Today’s lunch was open faced bagel with cucumber herbed cream cheese (pretty much all I had in the veggie bin), sliced oranges and a yogurt. I’m not talking complicated – my kids are older but kind of picky – nor am I only interested in super healthy, though I am pretty opposed to junk food at school…maybe I’m just so sick of it I’m goin a little cRaZy!!
and there’s the rub..
rhetoric translated into programs often kills people.
HMCRich..
if the choice between more government vs less governement were clear..
you would be voting democrat…
since the government grows by leaps and bounds during republican administrations and shrinks during the reign of democrats…
or is that just another slogan?
Does anyone know why they made this change and if it is permanent?
This is kind of annoying, we already have to accommodate trucks going in and out of the neighborhood, now we have to slow down left hand turns as well? Grrrrr. . .
I was in last week. The owner was commenting that they owe a big thank you to the fire dept. Supposedly their landlord had refused for years to fix the leaks inside the front wall (between the brick exterior and the building itself) despite many complaints and a lot of water damage.
The fire dept happened by, and noted that the brick facade “would fall down at any moment” because they’d become detached from the building. 88 owner suspected that it was caused by a combination of the earthquake a few years back and all the water damage, and said that once the fire dept got involved, the LL was required to fix it.
Apparently the workers pulled off one brick and much of the wall came crashing down. It was all holding together with hope and a little cracked mortar. And once they got inside the wall it was completely destroyed by water. What was supposed to be a replacement of the facade turned into a major remodel job.
So, kudos to the fire dept. Their awareness prevented someone from getting seriously hurt if the wall had been allowed to continue to crumble!
scare me? damned straight she does. She’s ignorant – she has no clue as to the realities of things. And the fact that people actually think she’s capable scares the hell out of me , too.
Rich, do you honestly think that Mr. Rossi won’t become an “insider”? Honestly? Like I said before, I have a bridge, an island…cheap…
