Heaven

To discuss heaven you first have to establish a belief in God. If there is no God then it is pointless to even talk about heaven. I readily admit that I want to believe in God. For if there is a God then it follows that He must care about us. Belief in God however is not the topic for today. God’s existence is accepted for today’s discussion. I personally believe in Him with both my head and my heart. Emotionally I need God and the science leads me to conclude that something can’t be made from nothing. Thus the mystery of the Big Bang. But we’ll do that another day. Is a Heaven any harder to merit than multi-universes? Many of the allegedly smartest people on earth-therotical physicists-and the like posit quite seriously that possibility based on science. Per those experts there could be another universe with another you somewhere out there in the ether. Once you have even one additional universe then the barn door is open to thousands of them or some number without limit.

When I was about 10 or so I remember a Sunday School teacher telling us that in heaven we would get to sit around in a park like setting and sing hymns and praise God without end. Even then my young mind didn’t accept that notion. I mean that sounded so incredibly boring. Of course there are some who buy into the pearly gates and streets of gold idea of heaven. I don’t criticize that notion but it has no appeal for me. I am more interested in my experiences in heaven and who my friends, family members and others who will be there with me.

I liken our time and experiences in heaven to a kaleidoscope type existence. It will be forever changing in time, geography, activities and our companions, family and friends and maybe even strangers. Some experiences there may last only minutes others may last for years. One moment we may be 6 years old and the next reliving times from our middle life. I believe you may experience a favorite Christmas morning with your parents when you were little and just as likely a Christmas with your children or brothers and sisters. Some heavenly episodes will last for only minutes some may last days or even months. God and you have plenty of time and opportunity. It will always be evolving, changing to fit your personal heaven. Guys you may finally shoot that 69 two below par in a round with your best buds. Gals you may have the special shopping spree for antigues with friends or a day at the spa. It will be all the experiences you can imagine and more, much more. God knows you and knows how to make that Heaven that fits your desires. You may go on a three day deer hunt with your family or friends or experience an heroic moment on the sports field. Some of these may last a few mintues maybe some for days. You will glide from one to another without effort and with the leading hand of God.

Will you see deceased family members? Old friends? Pets? Sure. You will see them all. Sometimes it will be when you and they were younger before the deaths and also you can visit with them at an older age and existence that even death cannot thwart. If you were married more than once who will you see in Heaven? Well Jesus answered that one by saying you were asking the wrong question because we are all like unto angels in heaven. I don’t predict which of your spouses you will be with in heaven but it will be “right”. Maybe all three. God knows your heart and desires and He can figure out what is best for your version of heaven. God is the only thing that can go to and beyond infinity and his unique heaven for you is without limit. So maybe none of them or all of them in sequence and for indefinite periods of time. God will make it the best for you. There is no circumstance too complicated or knotty for God to handle.

God will provide in Heaven as he can do on earth. In heaven though He can relax with you some because you have already met the challenges of life. I believe the goal of our life in the simplest terms is to live a life with meaning and not be one of the bad guys. I have no idea about earning our way into heaven. I don’t think you can buy or earn your way into heaven. I know about grace and not works as the entry ticket along with faith being the price of admission for heaven. You endeavor to figure that out for yourself. I personally think an honest effort is as important as results. Priesthood of the believer does demand effort.

Some heavenly experiences may last only for seconds while others will seem to stretch to eons. Your heaven will only be limited by your imagination, not by God’s ability to create. Certainly there is no limit to God’s ability to make it happen. There will be no boredom, no repeats unless that is what you want. It will be forever changing but forever stable and secure. All those complicated relationships you had on earth will be simple and enjoyable up there. You may enjoy a fresh snowfall on Christmas eve or take a solitary stroll on a beautiful south sea beach.

Will you have those health problems in Heaven that tormented you on earth? Again God will do what is best for you. So maybe, maybe not. If you had health issues I can assure you that their effect on your life there in heaven will be completely different than on earth. Whatever will give your heavenly adventure the best results.

Relationships are truly the bedrock of all our happiness. Shared experiences cement and form those relationships and the existence of the bond between us humans is the very fabric of our being.

You will be kind, considerate to all. You will not be short tempered, mean or base in your behavior.

Heaven will be the real never-ending-story with countless denouements and subplots.

God bless you all and someday hope to see you across the Jordan.

Ukraine/Russia, A redux from the past

The current war raging in Ukraine has understandably captured our attention and sympathies. I don’t predict how things will eventually turn out but some observations do come to mind from this dust bin of history. Perhaps there are some events from long ago that provide insights to the war we are seeing unfold daily.

First this is a real war. Not a peace keeping mission or incursion or limited scale operation. This is a true zero sum game situation. You either win or you lose. When the chips really get down you notice there are no “woke” policies by either side. The women and children are fleeing where and when they can but the men remain to fight. Indeed the Ukrainian men 18-60 can’t leave. That is the norm in most wars where losing is considered the same as slavery or death. Likewise in these battles to the death it is pointless to talk of war crimes unless they have some propaganda value. The winner will determine what happens to the losers as it has always been since Biblical times. I do completely agree that evil people should be punished and severely. For those that have gone beyond the pale take them out and shoot them against the wall. If we start harping too much on that war crime issue then Leipzeig, Hamburg and Dresden will come back to haunt us. We targeted German civilians and killed them in the hundreds of thousands. That didn’t make us the bad guys. We were fighting in spite of those actions for ultimate decency. If the Ukrainians or their allies ever have it in their power they should punish the invader leaders as they see fit.

The Russian military forgot several fundamental lessons of warfare or else they thought they had a better idea but if so it doesn’t appear to be working well so far. First they ignored the concept of concentration of forces. That is creating a large mass of troops to provide a strong punch to go to the most strategic or vital enemy locale. You notice from those maps on TV that they attacked from all over rather than gathering a really big combat group to strike directly at Kiev for instance. They had all the time they needed to plan this however they wanted and went with broadly dispersing their army around Ukraine. No one attack lane had the overwhelming force to crush any opposition. As a result they have been slowed everywhere. We didn’t land on 20 different sites on D-Day from Calais to Cherbourg but concentrated our force on relatively few miles of the Normandy coast.

Incredibly they forgot what contributed to Napolean’s defeat in 1812. The sheer size of the enemy territory. Ukraine is a big place. Unless the Ukrainians completely collapsed at the outset that is an enormous chunk of land to fight through and conquer. Napolean’s victory at Borodino still did not seal ultimate victory; the Russians just kept on fighting from a distance and then the Napolean’s retreat was a complete disaster. Will Kiev be the Moscow for the Russians? Remember that Napolean did “take” Moscow but there was nothing there anymore. Will the Russians “take” Kiev but then wonder what to do with it if the populace and the rest of Ukraine merely stand mute, distant and hostile.

The current round of sanctions is quite reminiscent of the Continental System imposed by Napolean during those wars that bear his name. Almost all Europe was required to ban any imports from Britain and barred from shipping anything to Britain. The Brits responded by creating naval blockades on many of the major ports of Europe so they could not trade with America or the rest of the world. Incidentally we Americans did pretty well for a while with that mutual embargo system because we could trade with pretty much everyone even though our ships had to slip in and out of harbors sometimes.

The casualties are really heart breaking but to keep some perspective remember that just during one year’s time from May 1940 to June 1941 about 44,000 Brits were killed during the Blitz. The destruction of homes, businesses and factories was so grievous that it took into the 1960’s before most were rebuilt.

I admire the courage and tenacity of the Ukrainians and unabashedly hope they kick Russian fannies and win. They do have some historical lessons on their side but that doesn’t assure victory. Battlefield wins will have to do that.

Last one to bed turn out the lights.

G

.

Fill In The Blank

There are some markers in our life where we take stock of ourselves. The most common time perhaps would be New Year’s but there are many others during our lifetimes. It normally doesn’t occur with some of the momentous events in our lives like a wedding for example. The event itself is so emotional that we are locked in on that particular occasion and don’t normally have the capacity for a broader view of our lives at that tick of the lifespan clock.

At those moments of reflection you ponder what you are and what you want to be. You consider how someone who knows you would fill in the blank when asked to describe you. “Old Joe” says you are….what? How you would like to see that blank filled in will vary quite a bit as the years roll past your quickening journey down the road of life. Maybe early on it is a mostly riches, power, glory and fame we seek regardless of the size of our societal world. We are social animals and do seek the approbation of our fellow man. You can fill in your own blank about yourself but how close do you really think it would be to the opinions of your family and associates? Man likes to be thought of in glowing terms. Just look at those ancient monuments to pharaohs, Roman emporers, Babylonian Kings, Napoleon, etc. they are all filled with summaries of their great achievements and wonderful personal characteristics. They got to fill in their own blanks but history often made a different judgement regarding them.

I would speculate that lots of analysis by psychotherapists are all about how that blank would be filled. It is an outside measure of us and even misogynists like to be liked and respected. Someone completely indifferent to their standing with their fellow man is probably a sociopath and beyond immediate redemption. His redemption will have to come from a higher power.

The penultimate fill in the blank will of course be your obituary. I use penultimate because the ultimate evaluation of your life will come in a different realm, one of belief and fact and the judge will probably be kinder than you deserve. What words will those you leave behind use to describe you? What do you want them to be now while you still have the opportunity to alter or emend your behavior and treatment of others? Brave, bold, helpmate, a true pal to friends in need or otherwise, a leader and problem solver and the one others always looked to for encouragement or help. A true friend, husband and father. All those would be the sought after sentiments to be carved on the plinth of our personal centotaph. Those are the qualities and marks that make us worthy and remembered.

How will your blank be filled in?

God’s speed on life’s journey.

olcranky

Christmas Diary

I wish I had kept a diary of my Christmases. It would be interesting and I think rewarding to review my thoughts, emotions and impressions from those Christmas mornings from long ago. Alas I did not and now can only recount a handful of those memories. It is like trying to distinquish an individual image from a kaleidascope picture.

The earliest gifts I remember were my first tricycle and train set. The tryke I think I got when we lived on Overton Road in Oak Cliff. This was probably around age 3. Somewhere in the old family pictures there is one of me on that tryke in a sailor suit if I remember right. The iron and heavy train set was given by Santa to me when we were on Montclair in the two story duplex. It was brick and the first place we lived with a brick exterior for some time to come. That was likely the next Christmas. Loved that train and could watch it for a long time adjusting the speed and naturally like any little boy loved making it go too fast so it would derail and crash. I would set up small items and try to make it smash into them. Mom would always fuss about it and tell me I was going to ruin the train.

Got my first bb gun when we lived on Savoy in that really small clapboard house that was two bedrooms and one bath. It couldn’t have been more than 900 square feet if that. The gun I am sure would have been a Daisy or Ryder. I do recall using it a lot out in the back yard which was actually pretty large and since we were the southern most street in all of Dallas at that time it overlooked cotton fields and farm land as the land gently sloped downhill to a small creek at the bottom of Kiest Park about half a mile away. Spent a lot of time alone in that yard because I didn’t really have any buddies on that block. The only other guys were a couple of brothers and the oldest, about 10, was the neigborhood bully and mom would lnot let me play with them. He really didn’t like me anyway because I beat him in the old leg wrestling contest and that infuriated him because he was a couple of years older. But my cousins didn’t live too far away so I wasn’t that lonely. My little brother bless his heart followed me around like a puppy dog but being four years younger it was hard to find things we could do together because of the age difference. The only Christmas memory from that street is negative sadly. One of my intemperate grandfathers. But lots of other good ones.

The first White Christmas for sure was when had moved to Cascade in about ’52. Bought the house from my aunt and uncle and they moved a bit farther south of the place on Savoy as that neighborhood had continured to grow. I recall that it was more sleet than snow but it was white. My dad quickly banged together one of his home made sleds from two by fours for us kids. He would make it about six feet long at least and connect it to the back bumper of the car and pull me, brother and the cousins all around the neighborhood. Even have a 8 millimeter film of that. I don’t doubt today Child Protective Services would be called for such activity and unabashed fun. It is there on Cascade that I can remember having those huge family Christmas dinners with all of us packed in everywhere. Loved listening to the men talk when they separated from the gals. It was there that we had some wild game for Christmas. I was old enough that dad took me bird and deer hunting so if we were lucky we would have fried quail with gravy and biscuits for breakfast and the next day venison sausage. Loved those breakfasts around Christmas. I don’t recall any specific Christmas gifts from our years there but sure remember that ’46 Ford convertible I got in ’55 when I was 13. Well actually 12 when I got it but turned 13 in a couple of months after.

Well for anyone still awake or here, Merry Christmas to all and to all God Bless.

Olcranky

The Euridite Man

The following is a listing of books that will enable anyone to be knowledgeable about the world around them and the foibles, fears, aspirations, politics and anthropology of Mankind and our world both physical and cultural. If you read these books you will be able to hold your own I assure you with the most allegedly sophisticated PHD on the Upper West Side anytime. It is a college education in your own library.

1. Shakespeare–at least three of his dramas and one comedy.

2. The Bible. I read one chapter from the Old Testament and then one from the New Testament. Great lessons for human conduct and of course the promise of redemption which we all want to hear at some point in our lives.

3. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon. The language will make you realize how prosaic we have become with our use of English. You will learn a lot about human nature and politics.

4. The Iliad….filled with insight into human nature.

5. The Aeneid…..paradise lost and regained

6. Thucydides…..political drama, warfare, intrigue and the heart of Man.

7. The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant…..oh my a lesson in art, music, science and politics and culture from around the world.

8. The Discoverers by Boorstin. You will learn so much about the great achievements in science, maps, physics and more. From the great minds that advanced our knowledge of the world around us.

9. The Body Has a Head by Eckstein. Biology and the human body and medicine with ideas that still resonate in the era of covid.

10. The Beginning and Infinity by Deutsch. Physics and how our universe works.

11. A good reference book on Greek mythology. It will come in handy to learn how we humans try to explain the unknown so often and interesting stories.

12. The Universe Its Beginning and End by Motz. More science, physics and our place in the universe.

13. Lastly a TV show….How the Universe Works on Science channel or Discovery. Some of the scientist are a bit nerdy but it is filled with the latest thoughts on the solar system, the universe as a whole and unintentionally strong religious overtones about the amazing world the Divine gave us.

If you read that recommended list you will be better able to comprehend the current world and will have a much deeper and more profound understanding of the world today. You will learn that politics and politicians haven’t really changed over the millenia. You also will have a much deeper appreciation for the great minds that advanced civilization and the ideas and inventions that lead to our modern world. You will likewise come to realize that Ecclesiastes had it right that there is nothing new under the Sun.

Remember Pearl Harbor

I still remember the opening lines and melody of that song from the earliest days of the War. Even though I was only a small child during the War it dominated our culture and outlook for at least a generation after the close of the War. Indeed my very earliest memory is of my dad coming home for a leave (even though I certainly didn’t know it was a leave at the time) for just a couple of days. I was crying in my playpen when he and mom left for some time together. It was probably not more than a day at most they had with each other. But I was upset being left alone with only my grandmother. We lived with her or she lived with us in a small duplex on Beacon street during the War.eMy dad and three of my uncles all served during the War. I still have old black and white pics of them in uniform. One was a baker and the army actually did something that made sense and used him in that capacity at a army base in Yankeeland. One was in the infantry and went to Europe but had some injury and was shipped back fairly quickly. The youngest went to the Pacific in late ’44. He was in a long range recon platoon first in New Guinea and then the Phillipines. He contracted malaria and was hospitalized for bit like many thousands of other guys in the Pacific. He even had several more outbreaks of malaria into the ’50s. I remember once when they had to give him an ice bath at the VA to get his temperature down quickly it was so high. He bayonetted a wounded Jap once on the order of his sergeant. Before you judge him remember they were behind enemy lines, couldn’t take him with them and to leave him alive risked him being found or ambling off and warning the other troops in the area. A sad part of a real war.

When we kids played war games which we did often no one wanted to be a Jap.
Some would be Germans but no one would be the Japs because of Pearl Harbor. We would use those little plastic soldiers and set them up in the back yard and then use our bb guns to shoot them down. Little boys could do that for hours. Setting them up and then attacking them over and over.

During family get togethers or having mom and dad’s friends over the men and women would go congregrate separately at some point inevitably and the men would sooner or later beging to talk about their experiences during the War. They didn’t talk much about the blood and guts of battles but usually about the boot camp and the funny things that happened to them during their service. I loved those times and absorbed every story with relish. It was exciting for a little boy to hear those tales.Dad was a gunner’s mate and worked those 5 inch guns on the liberty ships. He was in charge of the gun crew of 5 men. His crew was credited with bringing down a Nazi plane off the coast of North Africa. But if you have ever seen those old live action films of ships shooting at planes you notice there are bullets and tracer shots going everywhere. Maybe their shot didn’t actually hit the plane but it was the best guess at the time. Dad was also in charge of the maintenance for all the ordinance on the ship including even the small arms. Yep, they had a few .45’s and rifles on board just in case.

I am realistic and know that for most folks these days hearing stories or tales about the War sounds like detritus from the history bin. About as relevant to them as studying the War of 1812. But it is not to me. Those experiences of those men was embedded into my conscienctiousness. It was a significant part of my life outlook even though I was not there. But those men were real to me. I knew them, heard them and their quiet and self-effacing courage gave me a north star in my own life. To achieve something greater than myself. I never accomplished any great deed or beau gest but at least I had the privilege to be given an inspiring and memorial example of what I should be.

A good example is both a prod to do better and a reminder of the road we have yet to travel to be worthy of the esteem of our fellows.

I do pray all those men rest in peace with God. They weren’t perfect but they did something to make the world a better place.

The coward dies a thousand deaths but the brave die but once

God Bless,

olcranky

Renewable Gizmos From the Memory Shelf

Fifty years ago this year my partner and I worked on our first major Chapter 11 case. It was called American General and it was a small conglomerate for those days. It had manufacturing (discs for auto brakes), a diamond mine (the Crater of Diamonds) and a geothermal vent among other assets. The manufactoring unit was sold off, the diamand mine was sold to the State of Arkansas and remains a State park to this day. Once in a while you will read about someone finding a valuable diamond digging on the site.

This was the early days of worry about out petroleum supply. The first Arab embargo was still a couple of years away but we were importing large amouts of oil from the Middle East. That geothermal vent I thought was quite exciting. You could engineer it to produce huge quantities of electricity. You build a turbine down the hole which would be turned by the natural flow of the hot vapors to turn the turbine which produced the electricity. But as they say in real estate–location, location, location. This vent was on the Utah/Nevada border. Miles from any major population center. I thought that whole concept was terrific and very modern and wanted to see the venture succeed. However, we could never find a buyer because of the cost of acquiring the easement rights and then constructing the transmissions lines going east and especially west to California. Once built it could have operated more or less forever. It would have been a very long term investment and there simply weren’t any takers. The buyer of the assets from American General gave it essentially no value. I was very dissappointed. I thought it would be a modern way to deal with energy production. But alas, it was not to be.

A few years later as the inflation and energy crisis deepened in the seventies there were numerous proposals mostly from the auto industry about how to increase mileage and thus reduce gas usage and emissions. Smog was a big deal then.

One I recall because it was so unique was placing small electric motors on each wheel of the vehicle. After all this time I don’t remember the engineering details but it was operated kinetically. When you braked your car each wheel would turn a generator to produce an electric charge for the motors. Then when you accelerated from a stop those electric motors would assist in getting your car moving again. It takes much more gas to get your car up to 30 miles per hour than it does to maintain that speed once obtained. It was estimated to save something like 5 to 8% of gas usage because of the aid in getting up to speed. Seems small but when you multiply that by millions of cars and millions of gallons per day it was a significant savings of gas and in turn a big reduction on emissions. I thought that sounded pretty neat. But the idea faded into the background.

In the last couple of months I have read articles and seen segments on the business channels about hydrogen fuel for autos and trucks. Cramer even had a guest on about it. Again there was lots of discussion in the seventies about using hydrogen for fuel for transportation. How to get the hydrogen, store it in bottles or containers and then convert the engines a bit to burn the hydrogen for power. It didn’t happen then and we’ll see what happens with the new efforts.

You must remember the context for lots of these alternative fuel/energy ideas. The smartest guys in the room were filling the newspapesr with a barrage of articles about “peak oil”. We would never find more and the world’s supply was going to steadily diminish and we had no choice according to them but to find another source of power and fuel for transportation. Well, the settled science then was dead wrong. It wasn’t peak oil time. Those geologists and economists were very self righteous about their opinions and only dummies could expect to have oil in the 21st century. It was going to be gone in the ’20th.

As a footnote I would add that my personal favorite for energy use was nuclear. When I was a teenager in the ’50s they were just coming online. I was all in for them and thought that was such a great way to advance radically. I couldn’t believe such a promising power source was just left on the shelf due to hysteria of the left mob. Maybe its day will still come about. I am not smart enough to know.

I realize these thoughts will be viewed by many as scloretic or thoughts buried in the past rather than dreams for a tomorrow. Oh, well I am past my expiration date bibically speaking of three score and ten. You young folks are no doubt the smartest guys in the room and will vanquish the problems of the day with your AI assistants.

Whither thou goest or the morrow bring, you’ll be better served and rewarded taking God along for your journey.

God Bless,

olcranky

climate and chaos

There is another international meeting starting tomorrow on the climate amid clamors for drastic and very costly action to reduce carbon emissions. Of course the cost will all come from the developed world. Over the decades the Third World is calling for trillions of dollars to be forwarded to them to fight climate change. Right. You really think that money going to Congo or Venezuela or Nigeria is going to be spent honestly on solar and wind projects? The local strong men will take their share outright and what little is allowed for climate projects will only go to those who pay bribes for the privilege on building a hydro-electric dam or wind farm. You can call me cynical all you want. I wasn’t born that way. It only came after decades of observation of the way of the world.

I do believe the climate is changing as it always has. The forces of the solar system will always see to that regardless of what we do or don’t do. The precession of the earth’s rotation (its wobble) alone will affect our climate. That combined with our 23.5% tilt will exaggerate the seasons as time goes by. Indeed in a couple more thousand years the North Star will no longer be the north star. It will migrate in the sky due to that wobble. Are wind farms going to solve that one?I think we should not be stupid and ignore risks. But we should never let bureaucrats or ideologue scientists be the sole determiners of what risk is. The reason we are here is because our ancestors adapted to many changes and difficulties over the millenia. That is what we do. That is why we are homo sapiens. Your ancestors somehow managed to adapt to the ice ages. We wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t. The last ice age came on pretty quickly. Those folks sitting around in the cave had to figure out a lot of things just to survive. They did and they even thrived. Candidly I am much more worried about a solar flare type event really hurting us than I am any change to the climate. Our modern world is almost now completely dependent on the electro-magnetic force…..all those little bitty thingys moving around in the ether or through wires or fiber. Computers and more…..all those electric devices that we still use and will forever. Almost all large solar flares occurred long before we were so dependent on the electric world. They really didn’t hurt much then because the caveman didn’t have any electric devices and neither did the Roman legions. The only one really noted came along just with the start of the telegraph age. Right about the time of the War Between the States. It did fry lots of telegraphs lines and caused major disruptions to that system but there wasn’t much else to harm.

Today….if we have a big solar flare all those Tesla’s will be big pieces of junk until they get a major overhaul with new equipment. How long will that take. What about your credit card, bank account, TV, smartphone, and all else dependent on the electrical spectrum. Just look around. Those appliances and heating systems for winter will be offline for a very, very long time. There is no law of nature that says we couldn’t have three bad flares in one year. Might not hurt to keep that old spinning wheel and learn how to can fruits and vegetables. And carbon emissions would drop off the chart. A Luddite garden of eden for all.

And God gave Man dominion over earth.

Hey Dad, save a space for me.

God bless to all,

olcranky

Wayward Wind

I worry about too abrupt a transition to everything electric including cars and home electric power. There well could be serious dislocations and distruptions of energy supply in the near future if we try to totally eliminate the use of fossil fuels too quickly. Remember carefully that economic and social well being is a direct function of available energy to any society. The more energy available the higher the standard of living in any society. You can compare the standard of living in any country and the higher the available energy per person the higher that standard will be.

Even if everything for the cars and home electric use was non fossil fuels tomorrow you should remember that each day we require approximately 1.5 millions barrels of oil equivalent a day to produce all that plastic and plastic like material we need. Just look at the Target, super market and your laptop, etc and you can get an idea of the amount we use. How many pounds of “plastic” are in each Tesla? That number of barrels of oil by the way comes directly from the EIA, a federal agency and I will accept that estimate as reasonably accurate. So the point is we will still need a substantial fossil fuel industry post all electric cars and everything else. I haven’t even covered all the chemicals that we get from petroleum that go into gazillions of industrial products that we need and want—just one example–paint. You do want your house painted right?

How many homes today use gas for heating and for their cooking? It is obviously millions. Who is going to pay to transform those homes to pure electric power? You really think those millions of home owners are going to willingly pony up the untold billions such a transformation would cost? Not to mention where are you going to get all the plumbers and electricians to undertake such an epic makeover. Then of course there is well over 300 million gas power vehicles on the road today. Millions of them will still be capable of operating just fine in 2030 or 2035. You going to tell all those millions of owners tough luck. You now own a piece of junk that won’t operate? Talk about a revolution in the streets with having to also pay to redo their houses and paying very much higher utility bills each month, when the power is available.

Changing our basic energy source should not be a religious crusade. It should be thoughtful and maximize the market forces that naturally can change if not given unrealistic mandates by Federal bureaucrats. A future with greatly reduced fossil fuel use will not be nirvana or an utopia. It could in fact be a living hell if we don’t heed science and economic reality.

Those unintended consequences of pure wind and solar power might indeed be the economic equivalent of the random and negative impacts from central planning. That command and control from Federal City. It might well be like the Wayward Wind from that old Frankie Laine song wandering around and you’ll not be sure exactly where it will blow and what it might blow with it.

We don’t wrap our water pipes anymore. That is an improvement from my youth. Every time the forecast called for temps to get down to the low 20’s we always had to go outside and wrap the pipes. We used old towels or rags and tied them on with twine or small rope. It was always in the afternoon and already pretty cold. I haven’t had to do that in decades.

It is terrifying to me that inflation is really here. You know that as well as I do. Almost all of you are too young to recall exactly how debilitating that is to the whole country and to yourself. If Federal City gets is way we are in for bad times I fear. More on that later.

Well time to return to my Sherlock Holmes.

God bless to all,

olcranky

Virus Redux

Talk of virus and the ravages of the China virus are all the news today but we’ve had pretty serious outbreaks caused by viruses in times past. One of those years was 1957. I don’t recall if it was given a specific name then but the flu was pretty rampant that fall. I know because I fell victim to it at a most inconvient time.

I was 15 and in prime health. I was the bmoc in jr. high and captain of the football team and had all the acclaim a 15 year old could want. In those days the local papers (we actually had two daily newspapers then) covered all the school sports including the jr. high sports. The high schools played on Friday nights and the jr. highs had games on Saturday because we had to share some of the fields. Both papers even had short recaps and comments about the jr. high games and it was always a thrill for us to see our name in the paper. I was fortunate that my name was there every week usually with a mention on both offense and defense. It was a big deal at that time. Our team that year was pretty good and we had a shot at the championship for the city. Then came late October or maybe very early in November and we were getting ready for our big rival game and one that might determine if we got to the championship game. Well old bozo here got sick in the middle of the week with that darn flu. Really sick. High fever, aches and total fatigue. Dad took me to the doc and he confirmed what we already knew that I had the flu. He of course recommended rest, fluids and aspirin. I don’t recall any medication. My coach was really down about it with the big game against our big rival boude storey only a day or so away. Well I missed the last two days of practice and just laid on the couch at home. Come Friday I was still really sick but dad and I wanted me to play the game. We checked with the doc once again and asked if playing would actually make me worse and he said probably not but it would delay my recovery and would be quite bad for me. But he didn’t say it would kill me. So the official line from me and my dad to mom and the coach was I could play if I didn’t get worse.

Well, of course I didn’t get “worse” in the next 24 hours. No way that was going to happen. So come Saturday I suited up and went to the game. I don’t remember much about the details of the game. I scored a couple of times but our defense just couldn’t hold them and we lost by a touchdown I think. I played the whole game both ways and was totally exhausted. I went straight home afterward which was not my usual post game activity. We always had some party or get together after normally. I was in bad shape and didn’t miss it. I just went to my room and crashed.

Of course I recovered in a couple more days and we even made the championship game a week or so later. We lost that one in another very close game with the most unusual ending I have ever seen or heard about. Just would mention that our team was on the bus to go home with a loss when we were called back off the bus for one more play which the referees totally botched.

And to finish off the year I had my tonsils removed. Mom insisted because she thought I got too many colds and sore throats. I was way older than normal for the procedure and fully grown physically. Not when that should be done. It was rough and both sides of my throat hemorraghed and I had to go back to have that treated with a long, very long curved needle to get the cragulant into the right spot way, way back in my throat.

Well, the young lad went on to fame and fortune and received more blessings than he merited.

Love seeks no profit or gain.

God Bless to all,

olcranky