Common Ground

My Dad was a collector of pocket knives. I have an eye for flashlights. Being a daily dog park visitor with Kanook, it is the time of the year when the visits are after dark on the weekdays. While there are more visitors to Minooka's dog park, it seems to be empty after the sun sets. Mitchell Park still has some people that enjoy the stillness of the night. We often adorn our dogs with flashing LED lights that clip on the collar. One visitor is using a dog "headlight" that she bought at Cabela's. It straps under the chin and makes the dog very visible and if it's night vision isn't too good, will help it from running into trees, fences and potholes. I bought another blinky light for Kanook. They come with batteries and sell for about $9. When the batteries die out, new batteries will cost about $11. So, I have lots of good blinkies laying around in need of batteries.

 For my use, I long gave up the big "D" cell flashlight. For the last few years I've had various LED flashlights. The batteries last forever, it seems. However, the light that they give off isn't much, until recently. The last few years have seen high output LED flashlights that pack a pretty good light. While at Batteries Plus on Grandview and Silvernail buying a new Blinky for Kanook, I was looking over the wide selection of flashlights that they have. I noticed on the counter one that looked like a cylinder of stainless steel that fit in the hand nicely. It measures about one inch in diameter and about four inches long. I pressed the button and the light it gave off was amazing. Three small AAA batteries power it for over 100 hours and produces 72 lumens. What that means is it floods the area in front of you as you walk around the dog park. I thought that it'd make a great bicycle headlight.

It isn't cheap. It cost $29.95 but I gave up smoking years ago so I treat myself with good stuff once in a while. The associate at Batteries Plus said they have a hard time keeping them in stock. I can see why. If I still fixed furnaces it would be my flashlight of choice because of the bright flood of light it gives. It's name is LED LENSER. The numbers 0089596 are on it but looking at LED LENSER's catalog, I believe it is model 7732.

 See you at the dog parks, even at night!

 While my old Windows 98 computer whirs happily along in Pat's room, my fairly new dual one gig processor multimedia computer had the hard drive crash. This after recently running my frequent system protections and checks, including the "Smart Drive" check with supposedly can warn of immenent failure of the hard drive. I couldn't see how that could work all the time and I was right!  So in the mind of the computer savy, did I have back-ups? Yes, but not as recent as I should. What troubles me is that this computer, a Sony, did not come with program disks. It was all on a partition of the HD.

I had bought the machine from Computer City on Bluemound. They have closed so I took it to Milwaukee PC on Moreland.They're a good sized business started in Milwaukee and also have a computer talk show on WISN Saturday morning. Right now I'm using an old laptop that I bought at a ham radio swapfest. I bought two of them for $10 each to make a point to some of my dealers moaning that computers are needed for many of the heating and cooling building controls. These old door stops still work and run the necessary software to adjust modern digital controlled building management systems.

I am using my super duper LCD superfast game quality computer monitor. the screen on the laptop is adequate but very grainy.

What I'd like to share with you from my experience is the necessity of backing up your hard drive. Windows has a back-up program that comes with it but it is junk in my opinion. Also, backing up your computer usually means only saving data that is in the "My Documents" folders. It does not save your programs! For that you will need an "Image" saving program. You should also have an external hard drive capable of holding everything on your computer. If you can, set it up to automatically save stuff as you use it.  I have disaster recovery disks but in my case they did not work.

So if you are looking for a Christmas gift for yourself or someone, look for a good external hard drive and Back-up/Image software. Milwaukee PC, Inet or most Computer retailers can help you out with what you need.
 

Hey Barack! How about sharing your wealth with John McCain so he can have equal time? No better time to start spreading the wealth!

My trade of heating and cooling is greatly related to plumbing and electrical. It is thus that I have an affinity to the concerns of Joe and also am disturbed but not surprised by the trashing that the great institution of the news media is giving him. It is a sign of the direction the nation is going and it isn't the right way.

I've been in the trade for 37 years. I've trained many men and worked with more. One dream that many of them have had is to own their own business and reap the rewards. It's part of the American dream. I've had it myself. Sometimes it comes to light. Sometimes it doesn't.  Recently I invested in one of those dreams but it was shattered in part due to others with similar dreams but having a head start and more money, partly due to the cost of energy and partly due to government.

Many small business owners struggle to begin and nurture their business. They say if you make it the first year, you're probably doing OK. Not all the time. They say if you are willing to work long hours at low pay, you may reap the rewards. Then again, you may only reap failure and losses.

A very wise man whom I have great respect for says that government needs to get out of the way of business. That can be interpreted several ways. Indeed, government regulations are necessary otherwise some businesses could do bad things. However, one of the obstacles that government imposes are taxes. Should a new business such as a national big box store be exempt from taxes for a while? No! But how about the classic small business person? Grant a elimination of taxes for a time and then gradually begin ramping up from reduced taxes to allow small business to get solid footing. Allow money that would be spent on taxes be spent on business building necessities such as marketing to get the customer base created.

Too much now business is getting treated as being a bad thing but in the next breath politicians talk about jobs. No business, no jobs. Oh, they meant creating GOVERNMENT jobs?  Even Russia and China realized that doesn't work.

From our financial crisis of late, everybody should grab their wallets when so-called experts preach about this or that. Yes, I'm sure that there are true experts, but it is to the point that when Congress want to go one way, we should run the other way.

In Sunday's Crossroads section of the newspaper Jerry Resler makes a very lopsided argument for spending more money on something that people don't want, regional high speed rail. I would be a person that such a system is targeted for. In my business travels, I travel to many of the destinations shown on the map that accompanies the article.  This week I am in Nashville for a conference. I drove there. A coworker flew even after spending thirteen hours at a terminal in his last travel. Had I gone to the same one, I'd have beat him home driving rather than flying.

Both the rail system and flying present the same problem when you get to the last stop. You have to get to your destination from the terminal.  Take a bus? Never! Besides, I usually have a computer, projector and other stuff that you just can't take on a bus and then walk several blocks because the bus doesn't stop near where I'm going.

Cars are going to be the primary people mover for many years to come. Fantastic traffic control systems are being developed that will lead to automobile trains operated by communicating computer systems from car to car. Even today, we have communicating GPS navigation systems being introduced that can reroute other so equipped cars around slowdowns.

Railroads have a place for the future. Rail can move freight better over long distances than trucks. Lets not waste money on passenger trains when personal transportation is where the money should be spent!

I've passed by the crumbling median divider in front of the Super America gas station on Delafield well over a thousand times through the years. Today while waiting for the traffic light that always is red, it made me think about the crumbling economy and who is responsible for it. 

If it weren't for this computer of mine, I'd have a wastepaper basket full of crumpled paper from how many times I've erased what I've written. I've just going to make a few points that I think we all should consider.

• Having been elected to office does not mean one is an expert on anything
• If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.  This is referring to sub-prime mortgages and housing prices before both crashed.
• There used to be a guide that you should only spend 25% of your income on housing
• If you can't pay for a car in three years, you can't afford it.
• If you want something not necessary for daily survival, put the money in a jar and if after two weeks you still want it, then buy it.
• If you buy it on credit, pay it off before using the card again.
• Cash is king
• Gold and silver are worth more than ink
• It takes money to make money
• In economics, if an ordinary educated person can't understand it, it probably is only going to benefit somebody rich.
• Debt is expensive and talk is cheap
• Birds of a feather, flock together. You may have heard that from your parents while in school or from a teacher. It's true for adults too.
• Beware and learn to recognize Confidence Men
• Pelosi, Frank and Dodd should resign
• Keep the system of checks and balances intact this election.

Enough said.

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.