Common Ground

In the 1960's I had unforgettable years of working as a teenager at Capital Drive Airport. One of the early memories that I had was helping to disassemble a WWII trainer, an AT6 that a co-owner of it had hit the engine of a Cessna 140 with it's prop damaging the Cessna and the engine of the AT6. What stays with me is that I had to hold up a wing tip as it was unbolted from the fuselage and that it was very heavy.

 I had shortly before met Alex Herbst, the other owner of it. In my mind, I recall that Alex always and I emphasize always, had a wide friendly smile and seem happy as can be to make the acquaintance of anyone who loved flying as he does. Even as we took his airplane apart, that smile was quick to appear. Alex was frequently at the airport and I learned that he was one of the pioneers of Waukesha aviation. His name was in the list of those that were part of the "in-crowd". Even though I was a teenager, I was a fellow pilot and Alex always had time to talk with me, usually something about aviation or my motorcycle and sometimes about his family. Perhaps because he had a son named Steven, he mentioned him to me. Once when Steven enjoyed his Chevy Nova with a big engine a bit too much and lost his drivers license for a while, Alex would drive it to the airport and once let me drive it around. That was the most powerful car that I ever drove and I was honored to be trusted with it.

Alex didn't talk about his daytime job to me at all. It wasn't until a few years later when I was in the heating and cooling trade that I saw a head pop out of a hole in the floor of a garage and the famous smile glowed when we saw each other. It was then I found out that he was a plumber, a trade in kinship to fixing furnaces and boilers that I had ended up doing.

Raising a family and paying for a house drifted me from the airport and that was the last time I remember seeing Alex. I had heard that he went to California, something that I never confirmed. Soon crime in Milwaukee forced me to sell my house and I moved my family to Waukesha. I always kept an eye open for Alex. I remember him mentioning Barstow St hill for some reason once. Every time I drive on it, which is almost daily, it reminds me of Alex.

Tonight, while reading the newspaper, a picture of an AT6 caught my eye. The name above the plane hit me as it an electrical shock would have. A little piece of my youth died. I hope after orientation and Alex meets with family, that he and the likes of the Breechers, Crites, Bob Huggins and many others can meet together in a flight office along side of some grass runway each Saturday morning. Keep an ear on the unicom radio, Alex. Someday Aeronca 2081 Echo will be asking for winds and active. Come out to the gas pump and surprise me with your smile.

Check out Darryl's Article about Waukesha testing out a new method of removing radium from the water.  I noticed that the process removes calcium which in turn contains the radium. We've long been told that a conventional water softener will remove the radium.

When I bought my house it had an old manual water softener. No timer. I had to turn a lever to different positions every so many minutes. Soon I replaced it with a Sears softener. After a while it failed and to make a long story short, I've contended with hard water, not missing the frequent purchase of eighty pound bags of salt pellets and hauling them down the stairs to the softener. It also reduces the sodium in the water. We all know sodium is to be avoided, especially if you are a conservative stuck with a liberal congress! So this process has health benefits to many of us middle aged people who have been ordered to toss the salt shaker.

If this new process takes care of the radium in the water and softens the water, I'm for it. It would cut business for those selling salt pellets and water softeners, but that's progress. Few people remember the Ice Man delivering blocks of ice for the predecessor to the refrigerator, the ice box. So eliminating the water softener business is just another casualty of progress.

Will it increase our taxes if it is successful? Does the sun rise in the east everyday? If it is cost effective, that is, cost competive with replacing the water softener and dozens of bags of salt and perhaps a little bit thrown in for visits to the chiropractor for a sore back, then let's do it!

It'll help to increase the supply of salt for the roads.

It's another chicken and the egg situation. T.Boone Pickens is promoting CNG (compressed natural gas) powered transportation. Honda is currently the only company making a car running on natural gas. Natural gas is cheap, but a car can't carry much because it is not currently possible to store it in a liquid state. It can only be compressed. So to store enough gas to get around yet have some space for people and luggage, the range of the car isn't much over 200 miles before refueling is needed. The nice part is you can buy your own refueling station for your garage and connect it to your gas meter. The bad part is that it takes sixteen hours to refill and empty tank! Oh, it costs about $8,000 too. There are, however, commercial refueling stations that can refill your tank, actually it's recompressing it, and it doesn't take too much longer than putting $75 worth of gasoline into the the old Ford Explorer. The problem is, where are they?

They can be found at www.cngprices.com . You will see that WE Energies has a station over on West Avenue! It's mainly for thier use but they sell to the occasional consumer that wanders in. The biggest surprise is that the last price for it was $1.46 GGE. What's GGE? It's comparing apples and oranges. It stands for GAS GALLON EQUIVELANCY. So yes, you guessed right. Running your car on natural gas would be like paying $1.46 a gallon for gasoline.

Unfortunately, most CNG refueling stations have limited hours and are not in enough locations that a trip to the cabin in Up North Wisconsin can be done. So it is a chicken and the egg situation. Oil companies won't put in CNG pumps until cars line up for it. Nobody wants a CNG car if they can't get gas for it. What's the solution? I propose that the city, all cities for that matter, should step up and provide a refueling station open at reasonable hours and begin using CNG for government vehicles. If there is a market for the CNG fueled Honda, they will make more and I'm sure Wilde Honda will be happy to sell them. Other car makers will get into the act too. Soon Mega Oil will think about putting in a CNG facility at their local station and the ball will be rolling on it's own.

Lets provide the egg and the chickens will soon hatch!

Ten to the One-hundredth equals a Google. Besides being an actual number, anybody who has an acquaintance with a computer knows it to be the search engine of choice. I’m proud to say that before it was well known and people were using such things as WebCrawler or Dogpile, I heard of these two students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, scrounging up computers and connecting them to create a new, faster internet search engine called Back Rub.

Knowledge is power and I know of nothing that makes so much information so easily available to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection. Even “smart phones” have Google access. All of this technology has reaped great rewards for the creators of Google. That is the American way.

Google is celebrating its tenth anniversary. As part of it, they created the 10 to the One-Hundredth Project. While celebrating their success and fame, they are keenly aware of the people around the planet who face each waking moment as a challenge to contend with. So they have created the project to gather ideas that will improve the world. They show an example called the Hippo Roller. Many of the poor carry five-gallon containers to sources of water and then having to carry them home, usually on the top of their heads causing an accumulation of painful damage. A simple, inexpensive device, the Hippo Roller allows a person to push along five times the water with not too much more effort than one of us mowing the lawn. It is but an example of a step to make some lives better.

Google is looking for ideas to make life better for the poor of the planet. It may be big or it may be small. It may be a product or it may be an idea. Google will narrow the entries down to 100 and then the users of Google will vote on their choices. Google will make substantial venture capital to get those winning ideas moving along.

I’ve submitted an idea of my own. How about you?

Ever since my dad took our 1964 Dodge 880, a huge car with a big V8 engine, to a diagnostic center, I’ve wondered why the need for big engines.

You see, they put it on a dynamometer to do some tests. One of them was a measure of the horsepower at the wheels while maintaining 60 miles per hour. Forty-three horses were all it took to keep the car rolling along. All the extra power was for wind resistance, extra loads, towing a boat and getting up to speed in a hurry.

Soon to be introduced electric hybrids by GM (Volt) and just announce by Chrysler, work along this concept. An electric motor is much more efficient than a combustion motor to propel a car. But when the batteries die down, it doesn’t take too big of a gasoline-powered generator to keep the power coming back to the batteries and then to the motor.

Refueling your electric car by plugging it in at your garage will get you from here to there cheaper than the same amount of gasoline. If it is done in the evening only, this is when the big electric company generators are loafing along. Most businesses are closed and the load of cars recharging overnight will be welcomed and won’t require much, if any, addition of power generators.

So it goes without saying that I’m anxiously anticipating the introduction of the Chevrolet Volt. However, my spirits were largely deflated when I read that the possible price for one will be between $30,000 to $40,000 dollars. I had expected that it would be in line with the Toyota Prius.

From what I read of the Volt, it is probably similar in size to a Cobalt or Malibu, each not getting too bad of fuel economy with a gasoline engine and selling for $20,000 and less. No doubt GM has spent a bundle on developing the Volt technology and wants to recover that investment. How often do we hear that the price of something new will come down as more are sold?

It has been said that the Toyota Prius isn’t cost effective for many people. However it is priced such that most people can afford the novelty of one and fuel savings are just a bonus. In the case of the Volt, that extra $15,000 or so will buy a whole lot of gasoline even at $4.00 a gallon! Spend a lot of money to save a little?

GM had an all-electric car, the EV1, but it failed to catch on due to various reasons. Some say GM discontinued it for no good reason. Perhaps it was before its time. But vehicles such as the Volt are needed this very day. That they sell will depend on cost effectiveness. I can only see that happening if the government gives huge tax credits for purchasing such a vehicle. With the Wall Street mess we have these past few days, the timing for more government subsidies could not have come at a worse time. However, if it helps me and the Joneses next-door move into the next stage of transportation and keeps the American carmakers in business, it will be money better spent.

PSA stands for Public Service Announcement. All levels of government could do a whole lot better in continuing education for the masses. Case in point are the roundabouts that are being mandated by the DOT and meeting heavy resistance from many of the people. I'm finding more of them in the Chicago suburban area and theirs differ from most in that they have a stop sign at the entrance to give people a moment to observe traffic and plan their route. While one of the reasons for a roundabout is to eliminate stop signs, it is a worthwhile consideration and the stop sign can be removed and replaced with a Yield sign in due time.

Colorado has heavy use of them especially along Interstate 70 through the mountains and into ski resorts. Once I encountered three roundabouts connecting each other  while exiting the interstate and looking to take a break. See them here. They do work. However, they are not intuitive and there is a learning curve. Stop signs at the entrance is part of that but a public education program is needed across the state to teach people both the history of roundabouts, why they are being incorporated within the state and how to maneuver through them. I got my first encounter with them in Colorado. It was a bit unnerving but I quickly got the idea.

The DOT needs to get the message out about how to handle yourself in a roundabout. Newspapers, radio and especially television must cooperate with the DOT for the benefit of everyone.

News article about cost of prison and drunk drivers. If you didn't read the news article in the preceding link, please do. It affects every taxpayer in the city and the county.

I cannot express the grief that my son, our family and Jenn and Sophia and Courtney's friends and students have suffered since their death at the hand of a drunk that should never have been driving a vehicle that horrible day. Would it surprise you to know that upon reading that news article that I felt a twinge of shame? It is a double edged legacy that the Bukosky family name will be remembered for. The good edge is that lives of people will likely be saved. One of those lives could be you or someone you know. The bad edge is the cost of dealing with those refusing to drink responsibly.

I've written several blogs about being proactive. In one I expressed my frustration about people not picking up the cause of pro-activeness. So be it. However, I do not feel that you or I or any taxpayer should have to pay for more jail space or people to deal with the irresponsible drinkers. We've already created a precedent of dealing with smokers and the source of their addiction. Heavy taxes on cigarettes. Is the answer to further tax beer and alcohol? Perhaps, but it needs to be looked at further.

We read articles and news reports about drunk drivers. How often do we learn "the rest of the story"? Where did these criminal do their drinking? At home? At a tavern? At a restaurant? I challenge news reporters to ferret out that information. It will help formulate a tax relief policy of who should pay for dealing with drunk drivers. Where does the source of the problem begin? Taverns? Gas stations? Liquor stores? Restaurants? Should the offending type of establishments pay a much higher license fee? A special tax? Should they be shut down entirely if they sold product to a drunk?

I will begin the ante by suggesting a $1 per ounce tax increase on distilled liquors, 25 cents per ounce of wine and 5 cents per ounce of beer and ale products. The proceeds go for paying for increased jail space, enforcement officers and courts.

Never forget.

News item, Drugs found in drinking water. So it has been found that when drinking water is retrieved from the same source that sewage is discharge into, prescription drug traces are being detected. I don't find that fact too surprising. I also don't find it surprising that Milwaukee water only tests for traces of nicotine. Probably from bubba's cigarette that fell into the treatment containers while he was overseeing the processes.

I'm not going to do an analysis of large bodies of water versus smaller reservoirs and rivers, but I do believe that this report has special meaning to us in Waukesha. It is said that our water has been traveling underground for many years. That's one of the reasons that it picks up radium. I have to question now, if this is actually a good thing? It has been argued that the trace amounts of radium have not translated into any increased cancer cases, though so called experts say otherwise, even though there's no evidence showing that to be the case. This might have to be reexamined based on this new information.

I suspect that our water, due to it source and age, would test free of these traces of drugs. That would be a good thing. It would also be cause to reconsider any influx of water from sources that may have contamination in it. This would be any ground water source, shallow wells or Lake Michigan water.

We citizens need to know this as soon as possible before more money is spent that could result in worsening the quality of our water supply!

I am a motorcyclist. So I enjoyed the weekend. The question is, how did the people in the downtown area who are not motorcycle enthusiasts feel about it?

I rode my Gold Wing downtown several times to get a feel for things. I eyed up the bikes parked along the road, looking for non-Harley brands. I'd say it was around 1%. Some of the custom motorcycles are hard to tell. There are so many replica engines available to the custom market that to the untrained eye, what appears to be a Harley may not have so much as a single item from them.

What has changed through the years and I appreciate it, is there was not a single snide comment about my Honda among the crowd. Granted it is made in the USA in Ohio by red blooded Americans, it can stand out like someone walking the halls of the Miller Brewery while drinking a bottle of Budweiser. The only comment I did receive was from a woman sitting on the back of a non-touring model Harley. She blerted out, "That looks comfortable!", refering to the large passenger seat, backrest and armrests on my Gold Wing.

Saturday night my wife, Pat, jumped on back and we rode around downtown. Finding a parking spot, we walked around checking out the people and motorcycles. Certain businesses appeared to be doing very well. I did notice that the trash cans were overflowing, but at least garbage was deposited there rather than scattered about. Cutler Park was loaded with people. It was also very dark away from the food booths. I stumbled a few times on uneven surfaces and I didn't have a beer in me. At home on the northwest side of town, I probably heard less motorcycles than most weekends even though many flooded the parking lots around the Best Western on Grandview by I94. Our weekend activity was not impacted by it. We still got our breakfasts at Christina's. 

So what do you think about it? Do it again in five years for the 110th birthday? 

Being a veteran of riding my motorcycle to out of state gatherings, getting on a computer to check things out is usually not done. However, in the spirit of the weekend activities, I'm going to discuss some of the best motorcycle roads in the area.

While the western side of the city has built up since I first moved here, west is still the direction of where to head when looking for good motorcycle roads. My first favorite was a quick ride in the dead of winter. Long enough to get the mufflers warm but short enough to satisfy the need to ride. I head out Northview from Grandview. A good ride in itself, it's been diminished by development and speed limits below the fun speed. 45 MPH. At Hwy G, turn left. If it's really a short ride you want, go straight to Hwy 18 and back home. Most of the time I turn on Bryn Road. Head to Hwy E and take it back south to Hwy 18. This is one of the nicest, curvy roads near the city. Development again has diminished it's charm but still worth taking a ride on.

In the dead of winter, I'd head home from there. In nicer weather head east back home on Hwy 18 but turn right on Hwy DT past Retzer Nature Center. At Sunset, continue west and join Hwy E. Take it down to North Prairie and then Hwy 59 into Eagle.

Once in Eagle, you have several good choices as to where to go. You are in the heart of the South Kettle Moraine State Forest. There isn't a bad motorcycle road in it! A sure bet is to head north on Hwy 67.  Watch the road snakes around Hwy ZZ! Tar strips for you cagers. (automobiles) You'll probably want to turn around near Dousman and do Hwy 67 at least one more time.

To the east of Hwy 67 is Waterville Road. Another can't miss motorcycle road. Hwy ZZ between it and Hwy 67 is another road that you'll want to do a second time or more. To the west is Hwy N. A favorite of mine at night.

If you have some more time to ride, ride north to Hwy 18 again and out west toward Sullivan. Catch Hwy F (the old 135) and take it north across I94 and into Ixonia. While it's been straighted out some since my beer drinking days there back in the early 70's, it still is a great road to cut some curves. While this is in Jefferson county, it might as well still be Waukesha county.

 From here it's either turn around, enjoy the road back to I94 and home or get on Hwy 16 and head into Oconomowoc and back home.

For my next ride we're heading into North Lake and going to get a little Funky.

News item is that Municipal Judge Joseph L. Cook is asking for a reduction in tickets being written by the police due to his workload, claiming the court is understaffed. My initial reaction is, "Welcome to the private sector"! In business it means do more with less, as in overtime. There's 24 hours in a day. Six or so hours to sleep should be enough. There's also the weekend. You did campaign for the position, didn't you Your Honor?

What ordinances should the police not enforce? Are they to consider who the violator is or who the complaining party is? As in some people are more equal than others? Does this mean that there are ordinances on the books that are not really worthy to be there other than for revenue or to be used for "Gotcha" situations?

Perhaps my kneejerk reaction is not fair to a situation that needs closer analysis but you have to wonder. In the meantime, I'll be careful not to give cause for being giving a citation. I might end up in front of Judge Cook!

Harley Davidson is unlike most any other motorcycle makers in that they market the same basic engine design that they started with 105 years ago. By today’s engineering standards it is archaic. But it is the centerpiece of the entire line of motorcycles because of one reason, the sound of the exhaust. Motorcycle magazines have tried to describe it as “potato potato potato….”  However you try to describe it, it is unique. To the untrained eye, many of the look-alike Japanese cruiser are identical in looks, but an attentive ear will notice that the sound is not the same.

I like the sound. I used to have one of Harley-Davidson’s biggest competitors back in the 50’s and 60’s, a Triumph Bonneville. Incidentally, with “The Fonz” being in the news, I will point out that he rode Triumphs in the show. Otherwise the statue might have him seated on a motorcycle down by the Milwaukee River. Putting him on a Sportster would have been nice but purists would have beleaguered the fact.

Triumph twin cylinder engines sounded neat too, but not the same as a Harley. I remember both my hands and my butt being numb on longer rides so I won’t make an issue of vibration of V-twins versus vertical twins. I also rode it with next to no mufflers. It was loud and I made sure everyone around knew I was there. I was also 18 years old at the time too. Often my rides would center around the Cutler Park area. Waukesha police never stopped me. Milwaukee did once when a Ford had the audacity to challenge me at the stoplight at 51st and Hampton. My choice was either a ticket for speeding or illegal/defective mufflers. Two days later I had factory mufflers on the Bonneville. Suddenly, the neighbors on 44^th street stopped frowning when I rode by. The Cutler Park area became quieter.

More than any brand of motorcycle, the sound of the engine exhaust is a “more is better” thing with many owners. As the Harley’s leave the factory, they are well muffled but have the rumble and syncopation that they are so famous for. Unfortunately it isn’t loud enough for many owners and the mufflers come off entirely or are replaced with something resembling the “glass packs” from the 1950’s.

Milwaukee has a small movement encouraging riders to keep the roar down. It will only lead to intentional throttle blips wherever a sign if seen. I’ll re-offer the solution that I’ve made before. My own favorite motorcycle rally is at Lake George New York.  All brands of motorcycles gather there and are welcomed by the town. But the unmuffled are not welcomed. The rally registration papers make this known and warn that Lake George police will ticket violators. I’ve seen riders pulled over many times for it.

The influx of motorcycles will be an economic shot in the arm for local gas stations, restaurants and taverns. This will be welcomed. But it is no reason for our police to look the other way when it comes to ordinance violations. The message must get out that you and your motorcycle are welcomed, but only if you have factory mufflers installed.

I continue to be open-minded about the Frame Park baseball issue. I'd like to think that there is a way to make it work in harmony with the other park users and the neighborhood but I can't think of one. My biggest objection is about where to park the cars, as it is with many other taxpayers. I've heard that there is plenty of parking within 15 minutes of the park. That's acceptable? "The church is going to rent out parking space." How about church events that coincide with games? Are the church members going to appreciate working around the ballgames?

A very valid concern is that ballgame people will take up parking spaces that park visitors would normally use. This point is voiced by many and needs to be addressed before proceeding with any binding vote.

It seems that no Waukesha resident has driven around State Fair Park during the State Fair. As it has been for as many years as it's been there, the neighborhood residents become entrepreneurs and have junior out by the curb with a flag, waving people to park on any piece of driveway or grass that they can fit a car on. Tolerable, at best, for the week that the Fair is held, but have that done during each of the baseball games and it will turn residential neighborhoods around Frame Park into a circus grounds.

Is it good for downtown? Any increase in business is good for the business, but are people going to leave their cars scattered around Frame Park and walk back and forth to get a snack, push the limits of intoxication, buy a book or critique fine art? Answer that for yourself.

Promises have been made by the promoters that they will be picking things up and so forth. Such promises are frequently broken by less than adequate fulfillment of them.

Already a popular writer within the city has called for people that don't like the soon to happen Harley Davidson party to leave the city for a few days if they don't like it. Is the council going to send a message to residents to give up Frame Park when there is a baseball game?

The signs of fall approaching have come. The lush green leaves have begun to show their age, green lawns have gone dormant and some cooler evenings have arrived. Make no mistake, some warm and humid weather is yet to come and there are some of us that will have air conditioner breakdowns and have to decide on buying a new air conditioner.

There have been big changes in air conditioning and huge changes yet to come. The recent federally mandate increase in air conditioning efficiency made air conditioners more expensive, but was largely invisible to the public. The next big change is coming in about one year and it is huge.

Air conditioners run on Freonâ, or so many people think. Details and facts about it are boring but lets call it refrigerant for this blog. Refrigerant comes in many types and what type is used depends on if we are cooling the air in your home, in your car, in your refrigerator or in a food store freezing things or cooling beer or making ice cubes. There is no one size fits all purposes type of “Freon”.

About ten years ago, in preparation for next year, a new refrigerant that is ozone friendly was introduced. It replaced the old favorite R22, and is called R410A. Some call it Puronâ. Call it anything you like but chemically it is R410A and air conditioners that use it are offered by all popular makers of furnaces and air conditioners.

What does this boring information mean to you? At the end of next year, air conditioners that use the old favorite refrigerant, R22, can no longer be made. R22 is also mandated to be produced less and less. This means that R22 to recharge your air conditioner will become more and more expensive! Supply and demand.

So we have a choice when we need to buy a new air conditioner now. Will it use the soon to be obsolete R22 or the refrigerant of the future, R410A? It’s like buying a car or truck and deciding if it runs on gasoline or diesel.

I work in the wholesale distribution end of heating and air conditioning. We sell several different brands of furnaces and air conditioners in many states so have a good idea of what’s going on out there. Some dealers are selling their customers only R410A air conditioners. Some still sell R22. Often this is because the price of the equipment is still a little less than R410A and because they are not comfortable with the new R410A.

So my first point is if you are going to buy a new air conditioner for your house, buy one that uses R410A. The only reason that I could see to buy R22 equipment is if you are selling your house soon or short-term cost is more important than long-term expense. But wait. There is more!

A recent blog encouraged new building codes to prepare for the increased use of electricity to heat our homes and fuel our future electric cars at home. When you buy a new air conditioner, you can go a step further into the future and buy a hybrid air conditioner that can also heat your home. This is called a heat pump.

Heat pumps have been around for many years but the notion that they are for warmer southern states have held back the popularity of them here, until recently. I won’t bore you with the technical stuff that excites guys like me. The facts are that heat pumps are air conditioners that don’t only work a few weeks in the summer but also work year around heating your house too!

Heat pumps can heat your house at times for less than the most efficient natural gas furnace. The savings can be greater if you heat with oil or propane. True, it won’t keep the house warm by itself at colder temperatures, typically below 30 to 40 degrees, but an often-overlooked fact makes them attractive even in places like Alaska. 

In our area, if you count the number of heating hours spent above the 30 to 40 degree range, you will find that it is around one half of our heating season! That means your furnace would run around half of what it otherwise would.

True, heat pumps don’t create heat for free, but the trend is for fossil fuels to increase in price greater than that for electricity. An air conditioner that you buy now will be there on average for fifteen or twenty years. So think about fuel cost trends and a heat pump installed now makes good sense.

How much will a heat pump save you? Many dealers don’t like to sell them because many customers want a figure written down on this. Energy prices are very dynamic and there is no crystal ball to assure what your savings will be. However, experts agree that buying a heat pump now is a forward-looking choice.

Whatever you decide, make sure it uses R410A instead of R22 refrigerant!

News item; Cornfield raises hackles in Wales. 

I'm not going to argue zoning. I'm going to get a bit religious here and say that land was intended by it's maker to grow things more than it was to build and pave over, no matter what a politician may deem.

Too often I'll see a farm field lay dormant and weedy while a sign is raised exclaimed "Utopia Estates" is coming soon. The loss of farmland is usually permanent yet the government is mandating more corn be used for fuel rather than food. So it would seem that any patch of land that a planter and picker can manuever around on should be planted with some useful crop rather than sprouting lumber and cement.

If tilling the land reduces tax income, tough! A field of corn doesn't need much in the way of police and fire protection or water and sewer. Nor does it diminish water from our deep wells.

On a lighter note than I've been blogging about lately, read on if you have a dog. If you are not already aware, and a surprising amount of people are not, Waukesha kicked in some money to create a dog park within Minooka County Park about a year ago. Read more information here. Somebody has placed a number of official park comment cards by the exit gate of the dog park, with an example of one suggesting that the "seasonal pond" be filled in. If you are the person that put these cards there, please send me an email. We have a common interest!

I noticed that another doggie bag dispenser was put at the garbage container at the far end of the old campground. It's one less excuse for not picking up after Fido.

The more people that speak up, the better our dog park can be. In the mean time the county park system does what they think best. I'm sure improvements will come along but most will count on people's suggestions, donations and stepping up helping to provide these. We need a cool water source for the dogs and for people for that matter. A bulletin board for dog related matters would be nice too. A few improvements to the restrooms that would require the addition of electricity would be welcomed. As the parking lot and entrance to the dog park are at a high point in the area, I suggest a wind turbine would be a good way to get the electricity and showcase some examples of pollution free energy to people. With the energy available, I believe I could get some infrared snow melt and warming devices for the entrance.

A single voice does not carry the weight that many do. Stop by the park and fill out a card!

Since my daughter-in-law and granddaughters were killed by a convicted drunk driver, the flurry of action has diminished. Where I used to pass over news about another death from a drunk driver, I now carefully read it and empathize with the innocent person's survivors. My family's life has changed.

A committee meeting in Madison regarding stiffer penalties for drunk driving was canceled. There were not enough members to form a quorum. The excuse was they had things to do because of the flood. Really? Or was it an excuse to procrastinate and hope that the outrage would subside and they wouldn't have to deal with the matter?

It seems to me that we are like animals watching as one of the herd is taken down by a wolf or bullet or car. We don't understand what happened and continue in our life cycle of existence. As we concern ourselves with what's happening on TV and in Hollywood, sports and business, the drunks continue to kill brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers. They not only take away from unknown victims, they ruin the lives of their own family and loved ones.

Hundreds of people have read my blogs about possible solutions including cheap, disposable breath analyzers. Yet nothing is discussed. Not so much as if it's a dumb idea or a good one. Train horns and the mayor's wardrobe seem to be more important to people. Never the less, my son Mike, his family and in-laws will continue to cry out. Even if it continues to fall on deaf ears.

I do want to praise Fox New Six and Ted Perry for not forgetting and doing a wonderful follow-up recently. Mike has spoken to many reporters, but Ted was concerned about Mike as a person rather than a news item. So much so that he called Mike during a break on the news just to see if he was doing OK after seeing the story. The lead-in to Mike's story was the report of another drunk driver that killed a pedestrian. The drunk was released on bail and ordered not to drive or drink alcohol. Yeah, like that will stop them. Insanity is performing an act over and over but expecting different results. Will judges ever learn that?

All the wriggling and squirming in city hall about who is responsible for the horns blaring from the railroad crossings is almost laughable, but only because I live on the northwest side of the city, far from the railroads. However, when I have the windows open at night, I hear the horns blowing too, so I greatly sympathize with the residents near the affected sections of town. I know that to them, this is far from a laughing matter. Enough with excuses from city hall.

It is clear that the residents in the area are furious. Many calls for the person responsible to be identified and fired have been made. City administrator Lori Luther claims that even if the paperwork would have been done properly, the horns would be blaring. That, would require a temporary suspension of disbelief, I believe is the quote. Democrats make a big thing about accountability and it would seem clear that this current administration has made what is supposed to be a non-partisan government very much an arm of the Democrat party. So it only seems right that someone be held accountable and submit their resignation.

The salary savings might help pay for that survey...and a little road patch!

A few weeks ago there was a news item that the city was spending $50,000 to contract with a consulting firm to do a survey regarding strategic planning for the next five years. If you have had enough caffeine to keep you from dozing off for a while and you have some time on your hands, check it out here. Pardon me, but for $50,000 this outfit better have a mind-reader on staff!

I've take many surveys in the course of business and I've created them using FREE survey software such as Survey Monkey.  A silly name but a fine product that large corporations use. Among the problems with the survey, I see no way of qualifying the respondents. There is one for citizens, one for the council members and one for business people. All do not appear to have any way of proving who the person is. At least the citizen survey that I took did not. I clicked on the council survey and it appeared to start the same as the citizen's and unless there is something at the end of it requiring a social security number, address or something, I suspect there could be dozens of aldermen responding! I did not go through the whole thing. After all, I have to be at work in ten hours.

Past that flaw, the survey is primarily fill in the blanks. This appears to be a one survey fits all cities. That strategy certain cuts the expense of doing a little research and zeroing in on the issues of the city. After all, you can only do so much work for $50,000 and free survey software!

I dusted off my crystal ball and saw the final report. It said, "Judging from the quantity of surveys filled out seriously, the vast majority of the people appear to be satisfied with the way the city has been managed in the recent past. As there were few suggestions for the future, the majority of the citizens must be content with baseball league financing, raucous Harley Davidson parties, road pavement fashioned after the surface of the moon, a public transportation system thats not crowded, a fire station on every corner (these replace the taverns) and radium laced water that is in short supply. (The glow in the dark feature comes in handy after midnight.)

 All joking aside, if I were joking, working people have much more that they'd rather do than attend meetings in the evening. The local media does a great job of informing us about the issues and the editorial pages give some a chance to make their opinion known. Ross Perot, love him or hate him, was in the data business and visioned the people being more involved in government via the Internet. I thought that was a good thing.

The concept of this five year planning survey is a good idea too. There are just too many flaws with it as it is. It should be removed, reworked and then reimplemented. Any kid on a computer at the library could do it better. In the mean time, the old tried and true way of expressing yourself via letters, email and phone calls should be done.

Can we get our money back?

 T. Boone Pickens has been spending his own money on TV commercials inviting people to visit his website and read his energy proposal for America. The man makes good sense and I signed up for his email updates.

One item I'm really fascinated with is some information regarding cars being fueled by natural gas. This is nothing new. Over twenty years ago we had a Ford van converted to run on propane. The gas station was by State Fair Park in West Allis and the oil in the engine never seemed to get dirty. Run out of gas before getting to a propane station? We carried a regular propane barbecue grill tank of gas that could be connected and get the truck another 30 miles or so. Even that wasn't really new technology. My uncle had a farm tractor, a Minneapolis Moline, that ran on propane.

On Boone's website is a link to natural gas fueling stations.  Those prices you see are called Gas Gallon Equivalent which means "CHEAP" as compared to gasoline. The Journal recently had an article on compressed natural gas and it was pointed out that there are home fuel pumps available to hook up to your gas meter. It takes a long time to refuel, but imagine never visiting a gas station again. Notice that a CNG station is here in town at the WE Energies site on West Avenue. The bad news is limited hours, probably due to their trucks being about the only ones using it, but I'm sure longer hours would happen if the public begins using it.

So while natural gas can be used to fuel our cars and trucks, what will the additional demand for it do to the price of it? Will it drive up the cost of heating our homes? There is still the so called "Carbon Footprint" that is left behind by burning natural gas, if you buy into that idea. I still believe that the solution to energy needs will be how we create electricity and the obsolescence of the internal combustion engine.