tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59461951443389736052024-03-13T20:35:30.889-07:00Living Lightly in Williamson CountyBonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-14970795189953930362014-08-28T18:35:00.000-07:002014-08-28T18:35:14.328-07:00Heeding the Atmosphere's Check Engine LightPublished in the Sun Aug 27, 2014<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Suppose at your annual
checkup you found that your blood pressure, steady for years at 120/80, had
suddenly risen to 170/115.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wouldn’t you
be curious what caused the increase?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wouldn’t you be worried about possible consequences?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the doctor walks in and you start to ask
what you should do but she interrupts, ”Blood pressure is natural.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without blood pressure you would be in shock
and die.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">True, you ponder, but more is
not always better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doesn’t untreated
high blood pressure lead to strokes and heart disease?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The doctor continues, “Maybe you will be
fine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t know for sure that you
will have a stroke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ninety seven percent
of doctors think that very high blood pressure should be treated but I think that
blood pressure is very complicated and we should not be interfering in this
process which is beyond our capacity to control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s leave the outcome to Providence.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At this point you, a prudent
patient, will most likely want a second opinion, but some people would really
rather continue with the current carefree lifestyle and enjoy the potato chips,
so they happily accept the comfortable message of denial.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">You have surely figured out
that I am not talking about blood pressure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The silly story above is a metaphor for our situation with atmospheric
carbon dioxide (CO2).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the last
800,000 years the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has remained steady at
about 280 parts per million (ppm).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since
humans began burning fossil fuels for energy, atmospheric CO2 has risen sharply
and now hovers around 400 ppm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not that
400 ppm of CO2 is intrinsically dangerous; far from it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A classroom full of children, all exhaling
regularly, will easily top 800 ppm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
if nobody is dropping dead, what’s the big deal?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The rising CO2 level is like
our atmospheric check engine light has come on, telling us that something has
seriously changed and if we don’t get to the garage pretty quick there could be
some permanent damage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For an example,
over 60% of the calories that people consume are from rice, maize, and
wheat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All three crops were developed during
the last 10,000 years in a constant atmosphere of 280 ppm CO2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t know yet how they will respond to a
changing climate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you like to eat,
and seven billion of us do, that could turn out to be a very important question.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Human nature being what it
is, we deal with day to day emergencies as they come up and frequently ignore
situations that might cause problems in the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Global climate change involves organic chemistry,
and who can do chemistry during these times of cross border terrorists and
Ebola fever?</span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dr. Joshua Long, professor of
environmental studies at Southwestern, has a personal stake in keeping Texas’
climate healthy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His family owns 600 acres
of ranchland in Bastrop county, on which they raise grass fed beef.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Josh would like his 5 year old daughter, and
her children, to continue ranching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
if central Texas continues to get hotter and drier, cattle ranching will no
longer be an option, and the Long family might have to sell out to developers,
replacing the green pastures with endless rows of single family dwellings with xeriscaped
yards.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dr. Long, a geographer by
training, studies how people interact with their local environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is currently writing a book on Texas
environmental policy:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>what made us
choose this particular path for development, why do oil and gas provide 15% of
our gross state product? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why does Texas,
with an abundance of natural gas, burn so much coal that we emit more greenhouse
gas and mercury pollution than any other state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He is interested in figuring out how we might chart a new path into the
future that would be just as lucrative, but more sustainable, than the one we
are on now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I asked him to define the
overused word “sustainable”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He laughed because
there are 26 million differing opinions about Texas environmental policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dr. Long, who calls himself an independent
voter, laments the idea that Democrats are considered pro-environment and
Republicans pro-business, a dichotomy that makes no sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A businessman has to protect his resources
and an environmentalist has to make a living.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We all worry about water and lament the invasion of bastard
cabbage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely we could find some common
ground on stewardship of the atmosphere.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On Thursday, September 18 at
7 pm in the main sanctuary at First United Methodist Church, Dr. Long will
conduct a seminar titled “What’s The Big Fuss About Climate Change?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He will discuss likely effects of climate
change in Texas and discuss actions we might take to mitigate adverse
effects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People of all political
persuasions are welcome to attend and participate in a lively discussion of
science and politics.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-40320774235600438682014-06-28T06:58:00.001-07:002014-06-28T06:58:22.865-07:00Coping With Texas HeatPublished in the Sun June, 2014<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RGDXQl1AG8w/U67JtLc_hTI/AAAAAAAAAfU/UdOkeY0_o9Y/s1600/Dwight+Richter+of+Georgetown+tries+out+the+outdoor+shower+at+the+Cool+Home+Tour.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RGDXQl1AG8w/U67JtLc_hTI/AAAAAAAAAfU/UdOkeY0_o9Y/s1600/Dwight+Richter+of+Georgetown+tries+out+the+outdoor+shower+at+the+Cool+Home+Tour.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dwight Richter of Georgetown checks out an outdoor shower on the Cool Home Tour</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Even though I was born here,
I believe that Texas is barely fit for human habitation in the summertime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every winter when the sky is blue and the air
is cool and dry, I fantasize that the coming summer will finally be the one in
which a sturdy fan, a tall glass of iced tea, and a hefty dose of ecological
self-righteousness will suffice in lieu of air conditioning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the spring, the balmy breeze through the
open windows is soft as a caress, the rustling trees and the thrum of cicadas are
a lullaby, and I feel kinship with a benevolent Mother Nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People thrived here for hundreds of years
without air-conditioning; surely I am no less hardy than they.</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But every year, usually in
May, a deathly still day arrives when the humidity tops 80 percent and the temperature
has climbed into the mid nineties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sweat
runs down my back even if I could sit perfectly still, but I can’t sit still
because of a cloud of blood-sucking mosquitoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mother Nature is no longer benign, but rather an uncaring dominatrix
awaiting my eventual return to compost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
cannot save the planet in this infernal heat.</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This year I made it until
June before admitting that I am indeed less evolutionarily fit than my
forebears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My grandmother used to sleep
under a wet sheet to stay cool, but I have more convenient options.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With a reluctant twist of the thermostat I both
increased my carbon footprint and sealed myself into a habitable pod, like an
astronaut on the Space Station.</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It hasn’t always been the
case that a house was meant to seal us off from the hostile environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For thousands of years people lived mostly outside
and a shelter was considered adequate if it kept the rain off and the predators
out at night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But being human, and by
nature chronically dissatisfied, we gradually demanded more.</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">First we began to cook inside,
even though the smoke was deadly until chimneys were invented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, however crazy it sounds, we decided to
poop indoors, which clearly required other technological innovations.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sometime in the latter half
of the twentieth century we decided we needed more space; about a thousand square
feet per person would be very comfortable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To remind us of our European roots we put a steep roof on the house to
shed snow (no matter that there wasn’t really any snow), decorated with a
stylish Italian façade, and surrounded the house with a lawn like an English
manor, which looks appealing and would be perfect for grazing sheep or croquet,
but you can’t play in the grass because of chiggers, so it is only useful for
mowing practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next we wanted a
perfectly modulated indoor climate, even though heating and cooling a home
accounts for almost 50% of residential electricity usage. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And to top off the absurdity of our housing
desires we build this modern version of a house several hundred copies at a
time on rocky pastures where there is not enough water to support one cow per
five acres.</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On June 8, almost the same
day that I turned on my AC, I also visited some of the homes on the 18<sup>th</sup>
annual Cool House Tour, sponsored by the Texas Solar Energy Society and Austin
Energy Green Building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The purpose of
the tour is to showcase new homes and remodels that have been designed to be
energy efficient and comfortable, with less negative impact on the
environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These houses are technologically
advanced, but because they are all one-off projects, they are creative far
beyond anything you might find in a tract home.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">HausBar Farm was one of the
most popular homes on the tour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sitting
on less than two acres in east Austin, this working urban farm has space enough
for a large garden, dozens of hens, ducks, and rabbits, and even a donkey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A 30,000 gallon rainwater tank provides
irrigation for the vegetables and animals and a 22 kilowatt solar array covers
a pole barn in the yard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although the
house is efficiently insulated and air conditioned, the owners can stay cool
outside on either a shady screened porch or a shady patio beside an inviting
swimming pool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shade is absolutely the
first, most important step in energy efficiency for Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep the summer sun off the walls and windows
and make the roof light-colored to reflect the heat, and you have gone a long
way toward reducing energy costs.</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A kitchen on the patio allows
the farmers to do their cooking outside in warm weather, so the house stays cooler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A shower is also located on the patio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A regular feature at scout camps and
Caribbean resorts, outdoor showers put the excitement back into bathing, while
also keeping humidity out of the house and lessening the load on the AC unit.</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another home on the tour
economized on space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The young
professional couple packed lots of luxury into 903 square feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The small size means they used less material
to build, and will spend far less to heat and cool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will not have to waste a lot of time
cleaning either, and will have time and money to do the fun things they want to
do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Less is more.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Texas can be a hostile
environment, but with a little imagination you can find clever ways of dealing
comfortably and efficiently with summer heat, without having to sleep between
wet sheets.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-67798112777292912512014-06-01T06:36:00.002-07:002014-06-01T06:36:52.220-07:00Notes From the Wrong End of a StethoscopePublished in the Sun June 1, 2014<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have recently accompanied
my father, who is 84, on some of his medical excursions, which has been an
enlightening experience, and not in a particularly good way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a former practitioner of medicine, I am
used to being on the other end of the stethoscope; the end with all the power
and prestige.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being the patient, or even
the patient’s family member, is a different kettle of fish.</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here are some things I have
noticed about the medical profession when viewed from the supine position, and
I would be willing to bet that I am not the only person with these experiences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, old people can still speak regular,
adult English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A medical assistant
interviewed my dad in a high-pitched, patronizing voice “Are we taking our
medicines?“ and “How is our blood pressure today?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When she got to “Are we having trouble
walking?” my dad, who started several businesses and has multiple patents,
turned to me and asked sarcastically, “Does she have trouble walking also?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Save the baby talk for patients under four
years old.</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another puzzling thing
happens if a patient or family member questions a recommendation for yet
another invasive test or increase in medication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The doctor’s eyes narrow suspiciously and you
can almost see a little text box over his (or her) head flashing the alarm
“Noncompliant patient-Beware!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You might
think a little caution would be in order, since medical errors and
complications are the third leading cause of death in the US, responsible for
somewhere between 100,000 and 400,000 premature departures annually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doctors and hospitals are almost as deadly as
cancer and heart disease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember that
old saying, “He was at death’s door and the doctor pulled him through.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is wisdom in those old sayings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the first things I learned in medical
school was the adage, “Primum non nocere.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>First, do no harm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a
solemn reminder that every medication has side effects and any procedure can go
wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another saying I learned in
medical school, and a personal favorite of my dad’s, is “All bleeding stops
eventually.”</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At one of my dad’s
appointments with a cardiologist, the doctor suggested another coronary
arteriogram with possible stents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
asked, because I did not know the answer, if placing another stent in an artery
that had previously been both bypassed and stented could reasonably be expected
to provide benefit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said he couldn’t
be sure unless he looked, but hastened to add that we could also just wait and
see how Dad would do on his medications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not discussed in our conversation, because cost is almost never
discussed, was that an angiogram would cost at least $20,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For $20,000 it seems like there should be
some reasonable expectation of benefit, wouldn’t you think?</span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The subject of cost poses the
most difficult ethical question in medicine today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How much intervention is appropriate at the
end of life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Patients who are placed on
hospice or palliative care as they approach death spend many thousands of
dollars less than those who continue medical therapy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Interestingly, the hospice patients also live
longer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Patients with heart failure,
like my dad, live almost three months longer on hospice than they do if they
continue aggressive treatment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This fact
is often used to extol the virtues of hospice care, but I think more likely it illustrates
the hazard of futile interventions in the intensive care unit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More hospital humor – The risk of dying in
the ICU increases exponentially with the number of specialists required.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But here is the real good news:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>proactive discussions (and written
instructions) between you and your physician about how you want to spend the
last few months of your life increase your chances for a pain-free, dignified
death in the company of your family and friends.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My dad likes to say that he
has already lived as long as most people can expect to live, so he is getting
ready for his next assignment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whenever
he hears the siren of an ambulance he grins and says, “There goes another meat
wagon without me in it.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-25288323925383022252014-05-11T13:42:00.002-07:002014-05-11T13:42:24.483-07:00Solar Power Helps Environment, PocketbookPublished in the Sun May 7, 2014<br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VZ-XyZBi3oY/U2_gY--s6jI/AAAAAAAAAeY/sEJho_Dgh1E/s1600/Bill+Stump+puts+finishing+touches+on+the+racking+for+a+new+solar+array.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VZ-XyZBi3oY/U2_gY--s6jI/AAAAAAAAAeY/sEJho_Dgh1E/s1600/Bill+Stump+puts+finishing+touches+on+the+racking+for+a+new+solar+array.JPG" height="221" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bill Stump puts the finishing touches on the racks fro a solar array on 18th street</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1973, when the engineering
department at UT finally decided that students could use calculators in class,
my husband Bill put his slide rule in the drawer and we headed to the
University Co-op for a major purchase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He picked out the deluxe calculator that could do square roots as well
as add, subtract, multiply, and divide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That was all it could do, but it set us back more than $200, which was
about 50 date-night enchilada dinners at El Patio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These days you can get a free calculator on a
key chain, but that’s the way technology evolves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The early adopters pay more.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another technology with a
plummeting price is photovoltaic solar panels, as I can attest from personal
experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2006 we bought ten solar
panels (a 2 kilowatt system), with the required DC to AC inverter and roof racking,
for $12,960.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We installed them
ourselves, which requires at least one person who understands electricity, and
several others who are not afraid of heights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you don’t have the right kind of roof you will also have to put bolts
through the roof, in which case you will definitely need somebody who
understands roof flashing, because you will not like your solar panels if the
roof leaks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a $2000 tax credit
from the federal government, our cost was about $5.50 a watt.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Please note that this cost of
$5.50 per watt has nothing to do with the cost that you might pay your utility
company for a kilowatt-hour of electricity, which is about 11 cents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A watt of generating capacity will produce a
watt-hour of electricity every hour that the sun shines, day after day, for the
next 30 or 40 years, maybe longer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
are no moving parts to wear out, and maintenance is close to zero.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the last seven years those ten panels
have produced an average of 215 kilowatt-hours per month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At night, or when the house is using more
than the panels can provide, electricity is supplied by the grid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the day when nobody is home the panels
are putting electricity back into the grid and the meter is essentially running
backwards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The switching back and forth
all happens automatically.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This year we purchased a much
bigger solar array for almost exactly the same price that we paid for the small
array eight years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The panels are
getting more efficient at converting sunlight to electricity, so now we can get
5.6 kilowatts of power in 21 panels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even including the racks and inverters, the cost has dropped to $2.13
per watt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s say we get 750
kilowatt-hours per month from this new array.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At 11 cents per kilowatt-hour, the array would be producing about $82.50
worth of electricity a month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over 30
years that equals $29,700 worth of electricity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If the market price of electricity rises, so does the profitability of
the panels, because the sunshine stays free. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It won’t be too long before utilities start
charging their customers more for electricity consumed at peak demand hours in
the late afternoon, and that is exactly when panels are producing the most
energy.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The precipitous drop in price
of solar panels explains why last year 3900 megawatts of new solar generation
capacity were installed in the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Of new electricity sources installed in 2013, solar was second only to
natural gas.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course the really cool
thing about solar panels is that they produce clean electricity from sunshine,
which is plentiful to the point of being a nuisance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the panels are built and installed,
there are no CO2 emissions, no particulates, no smog, no mercury, no fracking, no
water consumption, no noise, and no toxic spills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Texas has all this energy from the sun relentlessly
beating down on us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Might as well get
some benefit from it.</span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-91425442004932704722014-04-12T07:39:00.002-07:002014-04-12T07:39:54.370-07:00Friendly Will Baptist Church and its Tribulations with HARCPublished in the Sun April 9, 2014<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RWGHEzXGD7k/U0lP9H7m_BI/AAAAAAAAAdw/hrHFhypgvjQ/s1600/Pastor+Rudy+Williams.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RWGHEzXGD7k/U0lP9H7m_BI/AAAAAAAAAdw/hrHFhypgvjQ/s1600/Pastor+Rudy+Williams.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pastor Rudy Williams and the Friendly Will Baptist Church</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1945, the members of
Friendly Will Baptist Church built their church building on their own property
at the end of 14<sup>th</sup> Street, right beside the old railroad tracks and
across the street from the cotton gin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On the east side of the courthouse the streets were paved, but Friendly
Will was on the poor side of town and their part of 14<sup>th</sup> Street was
just a gravel road with a drainage ditch beside it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The war was ending and people didn’t have much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Black people had even less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No architects drew up plans for the church
building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The men of the church who had building
experience just did the best they could with what they had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They made a rubble foundation for some stone
walls held together with plaster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
hammered together some two by fours to make trusses for a roof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where the two by fours weren’t long enough,
they spliced them together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They ran electricity
to the building, but made do with outhouses instead of indoor plumbing.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The resulting church was
rustic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It looked a bit like a Spanish
mission, except that the missions were about 200 years older and a lot fancier
and sturdier.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fast forward 68 years and the
Friendly Will congregation has grown from 60 to 250 members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fourteenth Street has been paved, the
railroad tracks are gone, and the cotton gin has been replaced by apartments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Jack-in-the-Box has popped up on University.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The church has added youth programs, women’s
groups, counseling sessions, prison ministry, and an addiction recovery
ministry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even though indoor bathrooms
were installed long ago, and a meeting room was added in the 1980’s, the
facility is no longer big enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After
thousands of dollars of attempted repairs the roof still leaks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rubble foundation is collapsing so the
floor is a rolling landscape of hills and valleys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once a skunk crawled under the floor to die,
and worship had to be cancelled until the smell aired out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to Pastor Rudy Williams, people
come to visit the church, but seeing the wavy floor, the crooked windows, and
the holes in the ceiling makes them ask, “Is this all you’ve got?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often they don’t come back.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The congregation has been
collecting money and pledges for a new church building to meet their needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They hired Jimmy Jacobs Construction to
design a 7400 square foot building, and applied for a permit to demolish the
old church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A building inspector from the
city came out, and what he found was so far out of code that he condemned the
old church as structurally unsafe, locked the doors, and told the pastor to
conduct services elsewhere.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">You would think that a
demolition permit would be a cinch once the building is condemned as an
imminent threat to public health and safety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enter the Historic and
Architectural Review Commission (HARC).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This board gets to pass judgment on renovations, alterations,
maintenance, and demolition of any building that appears on a list of
“historic” priority structures, as the Friendly Will Baptist Church does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even though the church owned this piece of property
since 1936 and built the building with their own hands, used the building for
68 years, maintained it as well as they could with limited resources over that
entire period, and now find themselves evicted from their too small and unsafe facility,
the HARC said that they could not tear it down, but should instead look for the
$2 million required to salvage the cute faux Spanish mission facade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or move to a new location. </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">HARC told Pastor Williams
that the church was an asset to the African-American community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Williams knew that in its present condition,
it was a not an asset, but a liability.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This story sounds like way
too much interference in private property decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Time marches on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should be happy when people want to
upgrade and modernize a bit of our city, especially in the historic
district.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Old properties are expensive
enough to own without somebody else telling you what you can do and how it has
to look when you finish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As it is now,
property owners are so reluctant to deal with the piles of paperwork that they
procrastinate on needed renovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take
a drive through Old Town to see many examples of “demolition by neglect.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A rebellious homeowner who ignore the rules
and begins his project without a blessing by HARC risks being punished with a
stop work order, delaying progress for months.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Rather than a regulatory
commission, what if we had a group of donors who would reward property owners
who voluntarily meet certain historical and architectural guidelines?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They could call themselves Lovers of
Architectural Victorianism Investing in Sustaining History (LAVISH) or Citizens
Artistically Saving our Heritage (CASH).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then we would have people standing in line to keep gingerbread trim on
the honeysuckled verandas of old Georgetown.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Friendly Will story has a
happy ending. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The congregation appealed
HARC’s decision, and the city council approved the demolition permit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Friendly Will gets a modern facility which
will truly be an asset to the community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The old church’s cornerstone and some of the stones from the façade will
be used to construct a memorial to those hardworking ancestors who meant to
build a church, not a monument.</span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-77252893945799087722014-04-05T11:29:00.000-07:002014-04-05T11:29:03.650-07:00Driving Electric - PolitelyPublished in the Sun March 26, 2014<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">An electric car does not
“fill up” as quickly as a gasoline car.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Gasoline is such an energy marvel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You just pour into your tank and “Voila!” you can drive for hundreds of
miles. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, this convenience is
the magic of fossil fuels and why we are so loathe to switch to alternative
fuels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A battery, on the other hand,
takes some time to recharge, which is why recharging stations are not located
at gas stations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is nothing to do
at a gas station while your car charges, unless you really love fountain
drinks, Ding-Dongs, and dirty restrooms.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Car charging stations are best
located where people hang out for a while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Georgetown was pretty smart about their charging stations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a couple at the recreation center,
one at the library, and two separate locations downtown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(There needs to be one at Wolf Ranch as well,
and at Southwestern.)</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Every new technology develops
an etiquette for its use, but sometimes that etiquette is slow to appear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The etiquette for cell phones is still
evolving, which you know if you have ever tried to talk to someone who is using
his cell phone under the table, a situation which makes me want to grab the
phone like a teacher confiscating a furtive note passed between students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Now Jeremy and Marissa, let’s share your
little private conversation with all the other children.”</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So what is proper etiquette
for car charging stations?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It should go
without saying that if you drive a gasoline car (yes even a hybrid), you should
never park in a charging spot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if
you resent the concept of electric cars and believe from the bottom of your
heart that God created parking places for pickup trucks, you should still never
park in a charging spot. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost 96,000
electric vehicles were sold in the US in 2013, and more electric vehicles on
the road means more people are looking for a charge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somebody might be arriving from another town
and counting on that charging station for enough electrons to get home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Round Rock Nissan sold 40 Leafs last year,
practically in Georgetown’s backyard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are currently over 400 Tesla owners in Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leaf
owners are rather mild-mannered and usually don’t react if you hog the electric
parking spot, but you do not want to mess with someone who drives a Tesla.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Last week I took my Leaf to
the Arboretum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can make it back from
the Arboretum on one charge, but charging allows for some extra side trips and
a margin of error.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is one charger
with two designated parking spaces in the parking lot behind Barnes and
Nobles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Leaf was hooked up to the
charger but had finished charging, as indicated by the lights on the dashboard,
a code that Leaf owners can easily recognize.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The second designated space was occupied by an SUV, in spite of the fact
that the parking lot was virtually empty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Let’s give the driver the benefit of the doubt and say that when he parked
absolutely no other spaces were available, and he must have gone into the
Cheesecake Factory whereupon he suffered a massive heart attack, and was even now
lying prostrate in the ICU, his recovery hampered by extreme guilt over preventing
me from charging my car.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I parked on the
far side of the SUV, thinking that just maybe the cord would reach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Touching somebody else’s car in a garage
breaks some kind of modern automotive taboo, but the other Leaf was definitely
finished charging, so I unplugged it, swiped my own Chargepoint card, and tried
to stretch the cord past the heart attack victim’s SUV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was not to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cord was about three feet too short.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought about leaving a note but decided
that would not improve my karma, and besides, he had probably suffered enough
already.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-15743501755386846692014-03-16T12:18:00.000-07:002014-03-16T12:18:41.788-07:00Creativity Can Shape the Future of Georgetown<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Published in the Sun March 12, 2014</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Where do we want Georgetown
to be heading over the next 10 years?
When planning a journey, it is possible to go to the airport and buy the
cheapest ticket you can find to whatever destination is on sale. It’s possible, but it is not the best way to
end up in a fabulous location, and it is certainly not the best way to conduct
a business trip. A better scheme (and
the one most of us use in our personal lives) is to decide exactly what we
would like to do and then figure out how to get to the place we want to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">So with the subject of goals
for Georgetown in mind, I asked a few friends to think “out of the box” about
what would make Georgetown an even better place to live. Here are some of their very interesting ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Tamara Hudgins wrote, “Why
the Recreation Center is closed on Sundays baffles me. People who work have two days to
recreate. Why prevent us from recreating
on Sundays?” The people should rise up
and demand Sunday recreation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Celeste Adams wants Georgetown
to be a “Green City,” promoting energy and water efficiency in new commercial
buildings. She suggests that we apply
for an Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps Fellow to help create financial
strategies for energy and water management.
Climate Corps Fellows have worked with mega corporations such as
AT&T, Facebook, Apple, and various cities including Dallas, Atlanta, and
Cleveland. Celeste would also like to
see native, drought tolerant landscaping and LEED certified buildings. If she had her way, city tax exemptions would
only be considered for businesses that meet strict efficiency standards.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">On a roll, Celeste also
suggested a solar powered city bus system.
Since a solar powered bus would have to be electric, and I had never
heard of an electric bus, I almost dismissed her suggestion. But then I read that just this week
California’s King Canyon Unified School District began picking up students with
an electric bus. Celeste was way ahead
of me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">A lot of people want buses,
especially buses that go from Sun City to Wolf Ranch and the Square. If not electricity, city buses and official
vehicles could run on natural gas or propane.
We have a company right here in town, CleanFuel USA, that specializes in
propane vehicles. Bill Snead at Texas
Crushed Stone is planning to modify some of his heavy equipment to run on
natural gas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Jonathan Dade, an Army
veteran who in two weeks will be cycling in the Ride 2 Recovery from Houston to
Fort Worth to benefit injured veterans, wants Georgetown to become more veteran
friendly, especially for young veterans and their families. Maybe we could let veterans use the Rec
Center for free on Sundays! Of course
what really makes a city veteran friendly is to have jobs for them, and awesome
places where they can afford to live.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Speaking of jobs, I read
recently that Tesla Motors, the luxury electric car company, is looking at
Texas as a possible location for a lithium-ion battery factory which would
employ 6500 people. Wouldn’t it be cool to
lure those tech jobs to Georgetown? They
could hire veterans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">What about expanding our
system of bike trails into the neighborhoods off Leander Road? The bridges across IH 35 are definitely
hostile to cyclists. Only the most
intrepid cyclist would attempt to ride a bike from Leander Road to Wolf Ranch,
and I certainly wouldn’t let a child try it.
Sam Pfiester and Jack Garey are already working on a scheme to extend
the bike trail along the South San Gabriel all the way to Garey Ranch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Davin Hoyt noticed that the
students at Southwestern don’t have a grocery store within easy walking
distance and suggests a healthy co-op style market in that area. A number of people would like to see a Trader
Joe’s in Georgetown. My daughter
Kimberly wants a healthy eating place with an indoor playground for kids. And when, oh when, are we going to get a combination
bookstore/coffee shop/brewery on the Square?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Milton Jordan steps way out
on a limb and wants to see a city-wide minimum wage in the range of $10 an
hour. He suspects there may be a state
law against that kind of innovation but aren’t we in favor of local control?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Georgetown is lucky to be
growing and prosperous. We have a great
opportunity to decide which direction we are headed, so don’t keep your
out-of-the-box ideas to yourself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-14020978910464384382014-02-16T13:49:00.000-08:002014-02-16T13:49:01.340-08:00Poverty Hidden in Georgetown SchoolsPublished in the Sun February 15, 2014<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“The whole people must take upon
themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the
expenses of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There should not be a
district of one square mile, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable
individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.”</span></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">John Adams, US President, 1785<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Rob Dyer, principal of
Mitchell Elementary School, visited one of his students at home last
November.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The child lived out a county
road in a broken down Winnebago camper with no electricity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Daddy was working in another town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A garden hose in the yard provided water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A toilet in the camper could be flushed by
pouring a bucket into it, washing the sewage into a pit behind the house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mom cooked on a propane burner in a metal shed
attached to the camper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was working
a minimum wage job as a caregiver, but with an infant to take along with her, a
four year old to pick up from pre-k at noon, and a seven year old to pick up in
mid-afternoon, it was difficult to make ends meet. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily, Rob and his staff were able to help
get the four year old enrolled in Head Start, and Backpack Buddies sent the
seven year old home with a bag of food every weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, this family is not
particularly unusual at Mitchell.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most of us like to think of
Georgetown as an affluent community:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>techies, university professors, and comfortable retirees soaking up suburban
bliss between exotic vacations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe
so, but the schools here exist in an alternate universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of the 4,941 students in Georgetown’s
elementary schools, almost 57% are economically disadvantaged and qualify for
free or reduced price lunch and breakfast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A family of four with an annual income less than $42,000 qualifies for
reduced lunch prices, meaning that thanks to money from the US Department of
Agriculture a child pays 40 cents instead of $2.20 for a nutritious lunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At Mitchell Elementary in southeast
Georgetown, 73% of the children qualify for free or reduced lunches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr. Dyer knows for sure that many of those
kids are not gathering around the family table for meatloaf and peas in the
evening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, some don’t get supper at
all and are really hungry for a school breakfast the next day.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At this point some reader
will be compelled to write to me explaining that dried beans are highly
nutritious and cost only $1.20 a pound so there is no reason for any child to
go to bed hungry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just be forewarned
that if you actually write such a letter you will be conscripted to organize and
teach the Mitchell dried bean education project.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Due to some special food
service grants, Mitchell Elementary is able to provide free breakfast to all
students, without regard to their socioeconomic status.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr. Dyer prefers the free-for-all
approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For one thing, nobody is
singled out as a free-breakfast kid, and frankly a lot of rich kids are missing
breakfast too, just because it’s hard to get breakfast if you are already late
for the bus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He and his daughter
frequently enjoy the convenience of breakfast at school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He points out that when kids start the day
well-fed they pay attention in school and have fewer behavior problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He seems a bit embarrassed about advocating
that lunch and breakfast be provided for all his students as part of the
school’s mission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I have very
conservative values, but there are some things that are sacred, and caring for
kids is one of those sacred values.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
wants his kids to be healthy, happy, and productive, and feeding them is pretty
basic to that goal.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mr. Dyer goes on to explain
that many people think poverty means the parents are sitting around watching
TV, looking for a government handout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
knows what his school families are doing, where they are living and where they
are working because they have to provide that information when they register
for school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He says the vast majority
are working, but a minimum wage job at $7.25 an hour will pay $15,000 a year if
it is full time and lasts all year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even
if both parents worked for that much, the children would still qualify for the
lunch program. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Median rent in Georgetown
is over $900 a month, or $11,000 a year, which doesn’t leave much left over for
utilities and groceries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many Mitchell
families are doubled up in rent houses, some even in rented rooms, and how do
you get to your minimum wage job when the car breaks down?</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I asked Mr. Dyer if he could
wave a magic wand and get anything for his kids, besides food, what would it
be?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t hesitate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would have a city-wide grid of safe,
filtered WiFi. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A laptop computer for every
child would be the icing on the cake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That way, even if the home could not afford internet access, the child
(and the parents) could be computer literate in this modern world where
computer literacy is just as necessary as reading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To illustrate his point he pulls out a
map.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A mobile home community in
Mitchell’s district just east of town was an internet desert until a tech-savvy
donor installed a WiFi transmitter for less than $500.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now the kids can keep up with the teachers’
webpages, do their homework and research, and the parents can use it as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over 57 American cities have begun providing
some level of municpal WiFi, and the smart ones are basing it on a high speed
fiberoptic network that also attracts industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mr. Dyer points out that Belton is setting up a city-wide municipal
network through the Belton Wireless Project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If Belton can do it, surely Georgetown can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, if we are going to demand free
wireless in our coffee shops, shouldn’t we insist on it for all of our
students?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-2503680676013646282014-02-15T06:55:00.000-08:002014-02-15T06:55:48.737-08:00Recycling Doubles Under Single-StreamPublished in the Sun February 13, 2014<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thursday is trash day on my
street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On Thursday mornings, as far as
the eye can see in both directions, the curb is punctuated with 95 gallon
bins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two sit in front of each house,
one with a black lid and the other tan, all arranged neatly against the curb
before 7 AM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Compliance of this degree
is rarely seen in our individualistic society, but we are highly motivated to
get rid of our trash.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The average American
generates 4.4 pounds of municipal waste every day, 1606 pounds every year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A family of four would generate more than 3
tons of waste annually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being orderly
people, we want that waste to go away promptly so we are not buried under a
mountain of junk mail, food boxes, and yard trimmings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, the trash doesn’t really “go
away”, as in disappear forever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It just
changes location.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The final destination
for Georgetown trash is the Texas Disposal Systems (TDS) landfill and recycling
facility at Creedmoor, southeast of Austin.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the fall of 2012, Georgetown
began single-stream recycling. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the
95 gallon recycling bins first arrived, many customers complained that they
were too big and wanted to trade them in for smaller versions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At my house there was no complaining.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We fill that sucker every time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The trash, on the other hand has diminished
to approximately one small kitchen bag a week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In fact, the kitchen trash usually gets taken out because it is stinky,
not because it is full.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Friends have
told me that they generate so little trash it seems a waste of effort to push
the bin down the driveway every week.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I asked Verna Browning,
Community Relations Manager at TDS, how we are doing at single-stream recycling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the month before the new bins were
delivered, Georgetown recycled 244 tons of material.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have more than doubled that amount to 503
tons in December 2013.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That means about
6000 tons of material were diverted away from the landfill this past year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sun City seems to be doing the most
recycling, which should give the rest of us some competitive motivation to get
on the stick.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Although the recycled
materials have economic worth as raw materials, the real savings comes from
preserving landfill space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Building new
landfills is outrageously expensive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wasting stuff has never been a really good economic strategy.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In addition to recycling, Georgetown
elementary schools are also composting their lunchroom waste.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The children are taught to separate their
trash as they leave the cafeteria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Food,
milk cartons, and napkins go for composting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Water bottles and aluminum cans go into single-stream recycling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What can’t be recycled goes into the trash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This small discipline on the part of these
young children results in about 7 pounds of waste per child per month being
diverted from the landfill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
middle schools, which are not yet composting, less than 1 pound per student per
month is recycled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You might look at
these numbers and ask why the middle schoolers are recycling so little, or you
might also ask why the little kids are wasting so much food!</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ms. Browning has three reminders
for readers who want to be good recyclers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>First, 13% of the stuff that gets put in the recycling containers is
inappropriate and belongs in the regular trash so look at the list of
recyclable items at http://recycle.georgetown.org.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Styrofoam cannot be recycled so please put it
in the regular trash (or better yet, don’t use Styrofoam.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you recycle boxes, be sure that all
Styrofoam inserts have been removed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Second, if you want to recycle your plastic bags and plastic film
wrappers, they must be put into a yellow stuffer bag available from the
city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Putting them inside another
plastic bag is not good enough because the bags break and jam up the recycling
equipment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you don’t want to get a
yellow stuffer bag then all plastic films and bags must be put in the
trash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Third, yard waste composting will
begin in March.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yard waste must be put
in compostable paper bags or in a container clearly marked “Yard Waste” in big
letters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If your leaves are in a black
plastic bag, they will go to the landfill.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Gardeners consider bagged
leaves a valuable commodity for the compost pile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bags that contain only leaves are welcome at
Getsemani Community Garden at the corner of Church and East 20<sup>th</sup>
Street.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">These items DO NOT belong in
recycling bins:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Styrofoam, loose plastic
bags, hazardous waste (chemicals and paint), pet food bags, pet waste, lightbulbs,
batteries, aerosol cans, motor oil containers, coat hangars, clothing, garden
hoses, potato chip bags, wine corks, single use coffee cups, yard waste.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-54454728621608124172014-01-25T15:13:00.000-08:002014-01-25T15:13:15.413-08:00A Win-Wind Deal for GeorgetownPublished in the Sun January 25, 2014<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you are interested in
renewable energy, something extremely remarkable happened in Georgetown last
year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our fair city, with no fanfare
whatsoever, approved and signed a contract with a wind farm that could provide
over 85% of our electricity when it comes on line in 2015.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That much wind power in our portfolio will
definitely put us on the top shelf of cities committed to renewable energy.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Georgetown has entered a 20
year agreement with EDF Renewable Energy for half the power produced by Spinning
Spur 3, a 194 megawatt wind farm under construction in Oldham County Texas, 50
miles west of Amarillo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Garland Texas is
taking the other half.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Spinning Spur 1
is partially owned by Google, which has a long-term goal of 100% renewable
energy.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jim Briggs, general manager of
utilities, can’t disclose the exact price we will be paying when the wind farm
is completed, but it is very competitive with electricity generated from
natural gas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So competitive in fact,
that Mr. Briggs expects he will eventually be able to decrease customer rates
for a kilowatt-hour of electricity, lowering our utility bills.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">West Texas wind power has recently
been selling for historic low prices, as low as $28 per megawatt-hour (2.8
cents per kilowatt-hour) and Georgetown’s cost for wind energy is now locked in
for the next 20 years at today’s low price. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In contrast, the price of electricity from
natural gas fluctuates every fifteen minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is cheap when demand is low, but when the weather turns bad and
demand skyrockets, like it did during the recent Polar Vortex or like it
routinely does on August afternoons, wholesale electricity prices frequently
shoot up to $500/megawatt-hour, and in a real pinch can go as high as
$5000/megawatt-hour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t take too
many hours of the high prices to burn through anything you saved with cheap gas
during off hours.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Georgetown will be
contracting for so much wind power that during the early morning and late night
hours we won’t be able to use it all, and excess power will be sold to ERCOT at
a profit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the mid afternoon, the
wind won’t quite cover all our demand, so that is when we will fulfill our
other old contracts for fossil fuel energy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Of course mid afternoon is a wonderful time for solar generation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As some of those old energy contracts expire,
Mr. Briggs is looking for some competitively priced commercial solar projects
to cover that expensive midday gap when cities and businesses scramble for
enough electricity to keep the air conditioning on.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Besides not emitting
greenhouse gases and not being dependent on a global fuel commodity, wind
energy has another great advantage for a hot, dry state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does not require water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coal fired power plants use hundreds of
thousands of acre-feet of water every year for cooling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fracking for natural gas also requires large
amounts of water to be injected into the wells.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ironically, Texas may run out of water before we run out of natural gas.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One might well ask how
Georgetown became a green energy city so suddenly and without the usual civic
angst that might accompany a convention center or a drive-through hamburger
stand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A number of stars aligned to
create this “windfall.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, Texas has
installed a lot of wind turbines, leading the nation in wind energy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since wind farms do not have big batteries,
when the electricity is generated it has to be sold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second, competitive renewable energy zone
(CREZ) transmission lines were recently completed and allow electricity from
west Texas wind farms to be brought to the population centers such as Dallas,
Houston, and Austin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Third, and most
fortuitous for us, the federal production tax credits (PTC) for wind energy
were set to expire on December 31, 2013.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To be eligible for the PTC, EDF Renewable Energy had to have contracts for
Spinning Spur 3 in place by the end of the year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, a little breeze blew
Georgetown Utilities through a very narrow window of opportunity to purchase
clean energy for less than dirty energy would cost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank you, Mr. Briggs and the Georgetown City
Council, for not closing the window.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-52111917903218448122014-01-23T17:49:00.000-08:002014-01-23T17:49:20.752-08:00Table Saw StoryPublished in the Sun January 19, 2014<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q9ZcbjFzESs/UuHGViAKATI/AAAAAAAAAcg/9O92LRBTwqc/s1600/Table+Saw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q9ZcbjFzESs/UuHGViAKATI/AAAAAAAAAcg/9O92LRBTwqc/s1600/Table+Saw.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Habitat volunteer using a table saw without safety guards</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As an occasional but timid
user of a table saw, I was fascinated by the picture in the January 8 edition
of the Sun which showed a man, presumably a Habitat for Humanity volunteer,
ripping a small piece of wood on a table saw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All blade guards and safety devices have been removed from the saw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The man is not identified, but the wrinkles
of his hand suggest he is a carpenter of many years experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is wisely using a stick to push the wood
through the saw, but his left hand is holding the wood steady, and is about an
inch from the blade. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He appears to have
all his fingers.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I personally know two
experienced carpenters who have lost multiple fingers to encounters with saws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of them is Matt Scavarelli, the father of
my son-in-law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matt’s story occurred on
March 26, 1989 at 8:05 pm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He remembers
the time exactly, because his wife had just yelled down to his home shop that
he should quit for the evening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matt, a
carpenter for almost 40 years, was working late trying to finish some kitchen
cabinets for a client.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told his wife
he would make just one more cut.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was
ripping a piece of wood on a radial arm saw, which is generally a safer saw
than the table saw in the picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Suddenly the wood “kicked back” and he felt like he had slammed his right
thumb is a car door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he
looked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Half his thumb and index finger
were gone, and his middle finger was hanging by some flesh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that moment he was sure his career was
finished.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the emergency room the
surgeon gave him a choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He could have
the three fingers amputated, or he could undergo multiple surgeries to reattach
the fingers, but they would most likely stick out uselessly and never function
properly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matt chose the amputations.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The accident was physically
and psychologically devastating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matt
had been working with power saws since he was a kid and had never had so much
as a splinter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had lost all fear of
his equipment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That confidence, combined
with hurrying to finish up and the fatigue of a long day, caused an accident
that put him into rehabilitation for a year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was right-handed, so he had to learn new ways to do everything, from zippering
his jacket to picking up small objects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He had to learn to write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
learned to use his carpentry tools again, but his hand was so weak he needed a
lighter hammer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He still can’t properly
open a bag of potato chips.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Matt had to rehabilitate
mentally as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As he describes the
process, you mourn the loss of part of your body the same way you would mourn
the loss of a friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The loss was made
even more difficult by phantom pain in the missing fingers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had suffered with arthritis in the tip of
his index finger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the accident he
could still feel the pain of the arthritis, even though the affected joint was
gone.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Matt is also self-conscious
about his hand and notices people staring at it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s awkward at social events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People are reluctant to shake a hand that has
three fingers missing.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Habitat for Humanity is a
super organization that has done wonderful things in Georgetown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope their volunteers will be very careful
with the saws, put the safety equipment back on, and keep their hands away from
the blade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An estimated 4000 amputations
a year in the US result from power saw accidents, mostly fingers of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although he still uses power saws in his work,
Matt has retained a healthy respect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
he puts it, “The machine has no conscience.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-3702394700921710692013-12-28T15:05:00.002-08:002013-12-28T15:05:43.086-08:00
Published in the Sun Dec 28, 2013<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“We live on the edge of a
desert, and our yards are going to look like that.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are not the words of a latte-sipping,
electric-car-driving, rainwater-collecting environmentalist. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(You thought I was nagging at you again,
didn’t you?)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are the words of John
Hofmann, manager of the central and lower basins of the Brazos River Authority,
the man ultimately responsible for Georgetown’s water supply.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He means that if we want to continue to have
clean, abundant water coming out of our faucets in 2050, we need to stop
pouring it on the grass.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It should be a simple
message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our lake is only 53% full after
what seems like a wet fall, even though we are pumping water from Lake
Stillhouse in an effort to keep it filled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The time has come for a paradigm shift on how we use water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we are going to have enough water for all
the people who already live here, plus the ones who are arriving every day, we
will need to use less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back to Mr.
Hofmann, “You have to raise rates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Everybody thinks about water like it’s a birthright because it’s so
cheap.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He adds this admonition, “You
need to be shooting for under 150 gallons per person per day.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Georgetown residents currently use over 200
gallons of water per person per day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
only way to achieve that kind of conservation (unless we want to seriously sacrifice
personal hygiene) is to change the way we water our yards.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In addition to advocating
conservation, Mr. Hofmann’s presentation to the Chisholm Trail Special Utility
District on December 19 also included a lot of information about potential new
water resources for the Brazos G region which includes Williamson County and 36
other Texas counties from the lower Panhandle to Navasota in the southeast.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Bel-house Connector is a
$500 million, 8 mile pipeline which would bring water from Lake Belton to
Stillhouse Hollow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For years, Georgetown
has been paying more than $600,000 a year for rights to water in Lake Belton,
even though the pipeline doesn’t yet exist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To bring this pipeline to fruition, the BRA still needs to acquire the
right-of-way for the pipeline, and get the approval of politicians in Bell
County.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since Belton, Killeen, Copperas
Cove, and Harker Heights have all managed to get their own water consumption
below 160 gallons per capita per day, the politicians up there may not be so
keen to share water from their own growing constituency with water-hog
neighbors to the south.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If all the cards
fall into place, and if we can get our consumption down to an acceptable level,
the Bel-house connector would provide enough water for Williamson County until
2050.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that we will need to find
more.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another possibility is to
build a new lake near Cameron called the Little River Off-Channel Reservoir.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This new reservoir, which would cost $137
million to build and almost $12 million a year to run, would provide about
27,000 acre feet of water per year, or 24 million gallons per day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To put that number in perspective, the city
of Georgetown all by itself can consume over 27 million gallons of water on a hot
summer day, two-thirds of which goes – you guessed it - onto the grass.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are, however, people who
oppose the construction of the Little River reservoir.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The resulting lake would submerge over 4000
acres of ranchland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If your family had
been ranching near Cameron for 150 years, you might not be in favor of having
your land confiscated so that city slickers can grow posies in the yard.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">All water planning in Texas
is predicated on a worst case scenario similar to the “drought of record,” our
dry spell in the early 1950s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr.
Hofmann points out that the “drought of record” is only based on 100 years of
data, while historic evidence suggests Texas has experienced droughts much
worse than that one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also notes that
the last 30 years have been some of the wettest in central Texas history,
allowing a growth rate that may not be sustainable if the area reverts to a
drier climate again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In summary, the
future may have less water filling our lakes, and more people sucking it out.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-68969082917504767842013-12-20T05:49:00.002-08:002013-12-20T05:49:51.182-08:00Knowing What Is In Your Food
Published in the Sun 12-18-2013<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The US Food and Drug
Administration recently announced that “trans” fats are not safe to consume at
any level, meaning that food manufacturers would have to remove all trans fats
from their products.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This move by the
FDA has prompted cries of “nanny state” and “excess government regulation,” so
I have been thinking a bit about what exactly is “excess government
regulation.”</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you want to sell me a
scarf you knitted, and I want to buy it, we would probably all agree that transaction
is our personal business and the government does not need to be involved.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What if you want to sell me a
32 ounce sugary cola drink, and I know that drinking large quantities of sugary
cola drinks will eventually predispose me to obesity and diabetes?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should the government allow me to buy that
drink even though it is harmful to my health?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I think most of us in Texas, the home of personal responsibility, would
still say yes, I have a constitutional right to make stupid decisions. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I can dodge feral hogs at 85 mph on Texas
130, surely I can handle a Big Gulp.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let’s go a couple of steps
further and suppose that I make a loaf of bread that looks pretty and smells
nice, but secretly contains a deadly poison that will kill you after one bite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should I be allowed to sell that to you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course not, you gasp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That would be murder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I should be prosecuted to the full extent of
the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(In this case my imprisonment
would be retroactive government regulation.)</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Okay, those were the easy
questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now it gets tougher. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember the can of Crisco that your mom had
on the back of the stove?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Crisco was
short for crystallized cottonseed oil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Cottonseed oil, a waste product from the cotton industry, was originally
used to make soap and lamp oil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
chemist discovered that if hydrogen was bubbled through cottonseed oil, it made
a white, semi-solid grease that worked great for frying chicken and fish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a shortening, it also gave baked goods a
lovely brown color and a longer shelf life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils (also called PHOs or trans fats)
were thought to be a healthy alternative to lard and rapidly made their way
into almost all of our commercially baked breads and cookies, margarines,
frostings, and even coffee creamers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
miraculous oils seemed like real business winners, until it was discovered that
they were causing many thousands of heart attacks annually in the US.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Trans fats have a different
chemical structure than natural vegetable oils.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unfortunately, our bodies use oils from our diet to make things like
cell membranes, so if we ingest abnormal oils, we can expect abnormal results
over the long term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just like one
cigarette won’t kill you, one trans fat loaded cinnamon roll won’t knock you
off right away. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But over the long term,
even a tiny increase in the amount of trans fat in the diet increases the risk
of heart disease by as much as 30%.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Since 2006 the FDA has
required food makers to list trans fat as a separate ingredient on nutrition
labels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Public shame turned out to be
quite an effective form of government regulation, because food companies fell
all over themselves to remove the trans fat from their products, rather than
admit that they were using PHOs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
days, most of the foods in the grocery store that still admit to containing a
lot of trans fats are margarines, frostings and baked goods that have
frostings, like cinnamon rolls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately
the labeling law has a loophole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a
product contains less than half a gram per serving it could still be labeled as
0 grams of trans fat, so if you eat processed food every day you can still get
enough to harden your arteries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the
grocery store you can read the fine print to find which products contain PHOs,
but restaurants are more difficult, unless you carry a biochemistry lab around
in your purse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t know which foods
have trans fat in them, and often the restaurant people don’t know themselves,
so I can’t really make an informed decision about what is safe to eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A bit of government regulation over my food doesn’t
bother me in the least.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We actually have
these government regulations because people used to get poisoned by their food
regularly, and not in a gradual way.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course, many restaurant
owners want to keep trans fat out of their food just because it is the right
thing to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I eat lunch every Friday
with a group of friends at Bob’s Catfish-N-More in San Gabriel Park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bob McMinn, a former paramedic, was “green as
a snake” about nutrition when he first got into the restaurant business in
1979.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he opened Catfish-N-More he
bought 50 pound blocks of hydrogenated soy oil to fry his catfish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was what everybody did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he learned about the health dangers of
trans fat 20 years ago, he switched over to canola oil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s more expensive but it lasts longer, and
lets him feel better about his customers eating fried food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He laughs and admits, “This ain’t no
therapeutic diet kitchen!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He doesn’t
serve dessert because he figures that fried food is indulgence enough for his
customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can however get a big
sugary cola if you think you can handle it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3LIzbmT0GLA/UrRKpZvunmI/AAAAAAAAAb8/tRWeh1RMVzg/s1600/Bob+McMinn.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="309" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3LIzbmT0GLA/UrRKpZvunmI/AAAAAAAAAb8/tRWeh1RMVzg/s320/Bob+McMinn.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bob McMinn at Catfish-N-More</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-22187170516597981162013-11-30T14:38:00.000-08:002013-11-30T14:38:01.557-08:00Pass the Cranberry Jelly, PleasePublished in the Sun Nov 27, 2013<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WrM5u_XwcIk/UppoZp0_GEI/AAAAAAAAAbs/e8mOmat4UYU/s1600/Winnie+Bowen,+7+yr+volunteer.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WrM5u_XwcIk/UppoZp0_GEI/AAAAAAAAAbs/e8mOmat4UYU/s320/Winnie+Bowen,+7+yr+volunteer.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Winnie Bowen, 7 year volunteer at the Caring Place, helps a client select groceries</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I am a procrastinator when it
comes to Thanksgiving dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every year,
25 members of the family show up at my house, expecting a delicious meal in a delightfully
festive environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So here I am lying
awake at 5:00 AM on the Friday before Thanksgiving, deciding what to serve and
wondering how much of the house absolutely must be cleaned to avoid disgrace.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Green bean casserole, of
course, and cranberry jelly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My kids
like cranberry jelly right out of a can, carefully sliced so the can marks are
a visible testament to authenticity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s
as far as I get on the menu before my mind wanders and I starting wondering
about people who don’t have the luxury of being picky about their groceries
during the holidays.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Curious about food insecurity,
I head over to the Caring Place to meet Rita Turner, director of community
engagement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rita tells me that although
to the casual observer Georgetown looks like an affluent community, an
increasing number of families have a hard time putting food on the table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Part of the increased demand may be due to
the recent reduction in federal food stamp benefits that went into effect
November 1, 2013.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Playing devil’s advocate I
challenge Rita to respond to the claim that some people would rather use food
stamps than get a job and she snorts dismissively, “Nobody’s getting rich off
food stamps.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The maximum benefit for a
family of four calculates to $1.76 per meal per person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, what I might casually spend
on a morning latte would be a day’s worth of food stamps for an eligible
child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last month in Williamson County,
over 28,000 people received food stamps; 57% of them were children.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Rita further explains that
most of the food pantry clients at the Caring Place are disabled or elderly and
are not candidates for jobs anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
2012, the Caring Place distributed enough food for almost 600,000 meals.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">While Rita and I are talking,
my friend Jodie Steger walks out of a room where she interviews potential
clients.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jodie screens people in private
and finds out what financial crisis has caused the need for emergency
assistance and how the Caring Place might help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She has just interviewed a woman without medical insurance who was
hospitalized recently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The woman may
lose her job because of her absence, and can’t afford her new prescriptions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jodie can’t help her pay her medical bills
from the hospital, but she is able to give her a voucher to purchase her medications
at HEB and help her with one week’s worth of food every month for the next
three months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That will help the woman
keep enough cash on hand to buy gasoline to get to her job in South Austin, if
she doesn’t get fired.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jodie, who let’s just say is
beyond Medicare age and in a comfortable place financially, could be spending
her “golden years” doing anything she wants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What she wanted was to be a social worker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She went back to Southwestern as a
non-traditional student and graduated at age 49 with a degree in
sociology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She volunteers about 15 hours
a week at the Caring Place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is
embarrassed to be interviewed for the newspaper, saying, “I don’t want any
credit; it’s not about me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just like
doing this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a selfish thing on my
part.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She means of course that the
satisfaction she feels from helping people is rich compensation for her
efforts.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I agree that it is not about
her, but the Caring Place won’t let me interview a client for privacy reasons,
and I can’t interview all 450 volunteers who regularly donate their time and
talents to the Caring Place, so Jodie is on the hook simply because she came
out of her office at the precise moment that I walked by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is one of many, many people who care
about our less fortunate neighbors, and are willing to sacrifice both time and
money to make a difference.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I ask Jodie the same question
I asked Rita; how does she know that the clients aren’t trying to scam the
system?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After years of interviewing desperate
people in dire financial straits she seems a bit puzzled by my question and thoughtfully
replies, “I just believe that everybody deserves food, and shelter, and a safe
place to stay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would rather help a few
people who don’t need it than turn away the ones who do.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ginna O’Connor, the new
executive director, has joined us and interjects that many people can be just
one or two paychecks away from needing assistance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Caring Place exists to help those who
find themselves in a rough spot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jodie
recalls refugees from Hurricane Katrina who had nice homes and fancy cars back
in New Orleans, but lost everything in the flood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Misfortune can happen to anybody.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you are reading this
newspaper, chances are that you will spend several hundred dollars (or way more)
on your holiday celebrations over the next five weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do your conscience a favor and go to </span></span><a href="http://www.caringplacetx.org/"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.caringplacetx.org</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> (or another charity of your choosing) and help
somebody else have a nice holiday as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Anne Frank wrote in her diary, “How wonderful it is that nobody need
wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Improve your world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That cranberry jelly will be so much sweeter.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-8211751071170841462013-11-20T19:18:00.000-08:002013-11-20T19:18:22.698-08:00Observations from the Campaign TrailPublished in the Williamson County Sun 11-20-2013<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The best part of running for
city council was meeting people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I met
so many wonderful people who have quietly been doing good in this town for
years; people who believe that even the unlucky deserve a fair shake, people who
spend their spare time making things better for the less fortunate among us, and
people who believe that the real value in a community cannot be entered on a
spread sheet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Excel is not the same as
Excellence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I drank a lot of coffee with
city employees who, without exception, were excited about their jobs and
passionate about the future of Georgetown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are lucky to have such a wonderful city staff.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Knocking on a thousand doors
in Georgetown’s District 2, I learned a lot of interesting things about my
neighbors too. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The majority of people
who answered the doorbell were eager to chat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some offered to introduce me to their neighbors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost everybody loves Georgetown, having
moved here precisely because it is a good place to live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many told me they intend to die here, even if
Georgetown keeps growing, which they know it will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most had no complaints, but if they did come
up with one, it was usually “Don’t raise property taxes.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many want more businesses on the Square that
cater to Georgetown residents, not just tourists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot of people really miss the monthly truck
load of brush that they used to be able to dump for free at the collection
station, and many were puzzled about why we do so much road repaving and curb
replacement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many, many people thought
we should restrict watering more than we currently do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Several of my block-walking encounters
stand out because they were unusual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
very tall man answered the door in his boxer shorts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our conversation was brief.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A young man with multiple
tattoos asked me if I liked guns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I
assured him that city council was unlikely to pass any ordinance that would
interfere with his second amendment rights, he confided that he likes to take
his rifle out in public to demonstrate for open carry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had tried to organize a neighborhood
militia but his neighbors weren’t very interested.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since he lives about a quarter of a mile from
my own house, I was secretly thankful for the lack of local military fervor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another youngish man only
wanted to know if I opposed Agenda 21, the non-binding United Nations document
addressing environmental degradation and poverty in the 21<sup>st</sup>
century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certain suspicious individuals
believe Agenda 21 is secret code for a covert plan to destroy the sovereignty
of the United States and take away our private property rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t been able to figure out how
stripping away our property rights would combat poverty or environmental
degradation, and even if the UN were to set such a goal, it really hasn’t ever
been successful at imposing its will on even those most deserving of control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My attempts were futile to persuade him that Georgetown
city council has little to gain by forcing citizens into serfdom.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A young home-schooling
couple, after a long sidewalk conversation, wanted me to promise that if
elected to city council, I would never vote to provide gay people with equal
rights or domestic benefits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I
refused to make such a pledge, they dismissed me as an incorrigible progressive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few days later my opponent’s sign appeared
in their yard.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At another home a woman
answered but seemed reluctant to talk to me by herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She called her husband to the door and he
immediately demanded to know if I was a Republican.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I answered that I was not, he growled
“Not a chance,” and turned away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
wife smiled wanly and shrugged her shoulders, as if to apologize silently for
his rudeness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I left wondering if she
was ever allowed to converse on her own, and what kind of behavior she puts up
with on his bad days.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A gentleman in a small duplex
visited with me on his driveway until it was time for him to pick up his
teenage niece from school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A single man,
he had devoted his life to raising his niece since she was an infant, because her
mother had been in prison when the baby was born.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An entire wall of his living room was covered
with pictures of the girl.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On a sweltering day in
September, a young black Navy veteran, recently moved to Georgetown from
Washington DC, invited me, a sweaty stranger, into his home and offered me a
glass of water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His hospitality was remarkable
enough, but his race was the really unusual thing in district 2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of my entire list of voters in district 2,
only 5 doors were answered by black people, proving yet again that a
“post-racial” America is a myth. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find
this lack of diversity disturbing, not because I was the Democrat in a
supposedly non-partisan election, but because I believe neighborhood
segregation is an anchor holding us in the past.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It would have been more fun
to win, but making so many new friends was a real gift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And at least I’m off the hook for the
repaving job.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-11208672185467193902013-08-26T06:56:00.001-07:002013-08-26T06:56:35.627-07:00Sidewalk OmeletsPublished in the Sun August 24, 2013<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p3iAUns6Vao/UhteXm6HeqI/AAAAAAAAAY4/_qDZvYNedoo/s1600/Failed+experiment.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p3iAUns6Vao/UhteXm6HeqI/AAAAAAAAAY4/_qDZvYNedoo/s320/Failed+experiment.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Failed Experiment</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Last week I foolishly tried
to pick up a big steel chain that had been lying in the sun all afternoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was hotter than the brass hinges of Hades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to kick it along the ground to keep
from losing the skin on my hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
made me think about that old saying about being hot enough to fry an egg on the
sidewalk and wonder if that can actually be done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not willing to trust the people on You Tube
about this important question, I decided to do the experiment myself.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At 3:00 on a sunny afternoon
I placed a cast iron skillet on my driveway and let it heat up for 15
minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An infrared thermometer told me
the pan was 163 degrees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The iron
skillet holds more heat than the concrete, which was only 150 degrees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I added a little butter and it melted nicely
before I broke an egg into the pan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nothing happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I stirred the
egg around, thinking that would help the process, and let it sit out in the sun
for thirty minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No scrambled egg for
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turns out the liquid in the egg
cools the pan enough to keep it from cooking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The egg started to dry up, and congealed into an unappealing tan colored
slime, but it was definitely not cooked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Oh well, I can cross sidewalk omelets off the bucket list.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Complaining about the heat is
a major recreational pastime in August, but of course Texas is not even one of
the hottest places.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last July, the
average high in Baghdad was 115, and often they suffer over 120 degrees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How would you like to live there without air
conditioning?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In January of this year, during
a particularly bad heat wave, southern Australia had to add a new color to the
weather maps: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a bright purple representing
125 to 129 degrees Fahrenheit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But just because there are
hotter places doesn’t mean we don’t have a legitimate complaint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I write this we are up to 30 days past the
100 degree mark and August isn’t half over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Having satisfied my curiosity about eggs, I started wondering what is
normal for 100 degree days around here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The National Weather Service has kept records on Austin since 1898, and
over that 115 year period they say that the average number of 100 degree days
is thirteen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You read that right:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you look at the whole period since 1898,
the average number of 100 degree days in a summer is 13.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is the number of 100 degree
days we’ve experienced over the last few years:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2012 – 35<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2011 – 90<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2010 – 22<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2009 – 68<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2008 – 50<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2007 – 3<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2006 - 34<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So it’s not your
imagination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It really has been hot
lately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But not quite hot enough to cook
an egg on the sidewalk.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-25864605409265672802013-08-10T15:37:00.000-07:002013-08-10T15:37:40.049-07:00Por Vida!Published in the Sun August 10, 2013<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wAUScU0Wjtw/Uga_kiAFDQI/AAAAAAAAAYc/QvUfNsTj1zU/s1600/DSC_1521.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wAUScU0Wjtw/Uga_kiAFDQI/AAAAAAAAAYc/QvUfNsTj1zU/s320/DSC_1521.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joe Kerby, Brittaney Kerby, Melissa Cammack, Erin Rigney, and Marcus Cooper<br />
at the Hutto McDonald's owned by the Kerbys</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I first heard that
Williamson County was ranked the healthiest county in the Texas I was a bit
surprised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have wonderful people
here, of course, but health-wise they strike me as somewhere in the average
range, which is of course where most of us rank in pretty much everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turns out that the health department did
not actually go around and check everybody’s blood pressure or put people on
treadmills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The evaluations of county
health are made by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of
Wisconsin Population Health Institute, with the cooperation of state and local
health departments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of doing
check-ups on people, they look at statistics such as premature death rates, how
many people smoke or are obese, teen pregnancy, unemployment rates, and even
air pollution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also counted doctors
and dentists in the area, and how many people had health insurance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To come out on top of all the
counties in Texas, Williamson County obviously did very well on most measures,
but I was curious if there was any category in which we flubbed up, so I called
Dr. Chip Riggins, the executive director of the Williamson County and Cities Health
District (WCCHD).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He confessed that in
the category labeled “Percent of All Restaurants that are Fast Food
Establishments” we scored 56%, which is worse than the Texas average of 52% and
considerably worse than the national benchmark of 27%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a county, we really enjoy hamburgers and
French fries.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If a woman goes to a certain
drive-through establishment in Georgetown for lunch and orders a bacon
cheeseburger with mayonnaise, a medium order of onion rings, and a small
chocolate shake, that one meal would satisfy her entire daily calorie and
sodium requirements, with twice as much fat as recommended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If she makes a habit of that meal, and also
continues to eat breakfast and supper, over time she will gain weight, and
quite likely develop heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is such a familiar progression that we
have come to regard it as normal aging, which it is not.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Americans consume one-third
of our daily calories outside of the home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If we are going to eat out that much, we need to order healthy menu
items.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is where the health
department steps in with a little assistance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">¡Por Vida!</i> (which means “For
Life”) is a new WCCHD program helping participating restaurants identify menu
items that meet strict criteria for calorie, fat, and sodium content.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Items that pass the test are marked on the
menu with a special <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">¡Por Vida!</i> logo.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Melissa Cammack, Director of
Healthy Communities, Erin Rigney, a registered dietician, and Marcus Cooper,
Marketing Director, all from WCCHD met me recently at the McDonald’s across
from Hutto High School.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joe and
Brittaney Kerby, the owners of this and several other McDonald’s restaurants in
the area, have volunteered for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">¡Por
Vida!</i> program and are rolling out the new menu stickers and promotional
pamphlets this week.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Joe and Brittaney are in
their 30s and are regular exercisers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Brittaney recently completed a five kilometer race, running the whole
distance, and is now training to get her time below 30 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When she brings her two sons to the
McDonald’s she makes them eat oatmeal and lets them split an order of fries for
a treat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joe eats at the restaurant
every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Southwest Salad is his
favorite, fresh lettuce topped with fire-roasted corn, black beans, tomatoes
and tortilla strips, but when Brittaney is not watching he will sometimes enjoy
a triple cheeseburger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brittaney has
studied nutrition and is really enthusiastic about the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">¡Por Vida!</i> program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She says
that a lot of people just don’t know that McDonald’s carries healthy menu
items, but she admits that hamburgers still sell better than salads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ask her if the cashiers are going to
counsel people not to buy large shakes to go with their salads and she looks at
me as if I’ve lost my mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It’s about
having a choice,” she explains diplomatically.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Everybody else has already eaten,
but I have come hungry to taste-test the healthy choices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joe brings me a small hamburger, a small
fruit smoothie, and a Southwest Salad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marcus
takes the hamburger off my hands, and the rest of them stare at me while I
eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a package of Paul Newman salad
dressing, but Erin tells me that the dressing isn’t counted for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">¡Por Vida!</i> sticker so I play by the
rules and squeeze some lime juice on my salad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even without dressing the salad tastes really good and fills me up, and
the price is just $3.99.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wash it down
with the Wild Berry Smoothie.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To qualify for a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">¡Por Vida!</i> sticker, a meal must meet the
following criteria:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><700 calories<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><23 grams total fat<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><8 grams saturated fat<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><0.5 grams trans fat<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><750 milligrams sodium<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The one weakness of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">¡Por Vida!</i> criteria is that the content
of sugar is not specified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s how
the Wild Berry Smoothie can qualify.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On
the other hand, most people should be able to figure out that the Wild Berry
Smoothie has more sugar than the salad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">¡Por Vida!</i> literature that
Erin brought for me recommends water as the preferred beverage.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Other area establishments
that are participating in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">¡Por Vida!</i>
are Carino’s Italian Restaurant, Catfish Parlour, The Egg and I, and the
Wesleyan at Estrella.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The folks at WCCHD
intend to recruit more eating establishments into the program soon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They want to hang onto that Healthiest County
designation.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span> </div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-14236525028368121052013-08-04T06:10:00.000-07:002013-08-04T06:10:07.296-07:00Soaking Up the Sun in GeorgetownPublished in the Sun August 3, 2013<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-stOIdJ2KBd0/Uf5R2h5z-qI/AAAAAAAAAYI/eyewO25PHoQ/s1600/landfill+solar+copy+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-stOIdJ2KBd0/Uf5R2h5z-qI/AAAAAAAAAYI/eyewO25PHoQ/s320/landfill+solar+copy+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the proposed solar farm sites, the decommissioned landfill. At the bottom left is the road crossing the San Gabriel at the east end of the park, and at bottom right is the wastewater treatment plant. The solar panels are inserted into the photo with computer graphics.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span> </div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jim Briggs, general manager
of utilities for the city of Georgetown, is a no-nonsense kind of guy when it
comes to electricity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wants to keep
your lights on, and he doesn’t want people calling him at the end of the month
complaining that their electric bills are too high.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr. Briggs also wants Georgetown to invest in
more renewable energy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“This is not just a green
thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m looking at the numbers.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two years ago Mr. Briggs discussed renewable
energy with the city council and together they set a goal that by 2030, thirty
percent of Georgetown’s electricity would be from renewable sources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, shifting from fossil fuels to wind
and solar energy decreases air pollution and carbon emissions, but there are
economic reasons to make the switch as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Fossil fuels are not only subject to the whims of the market but are
also increasingly regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Georgetown no longer uses electricity from
coal plants, but 92% of our electricity is generated from natural gas. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is risky to be so dependent on one source
of power. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Natural gas is cheap now, but as
it becomes widely used as a transportation fuel, Mr. Briggs believes the price
will shoot up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two years ago he thought
that it would be irresponsible NOT to have renewables in the portfolio as a
hedge against rising fuel prices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is
even more convinced today, because the price for renewable energy has dropped.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Later this month Mr. Briggs
is going to ask the city council to authorize him to negotiate contracts for
two alternative energy proposals that would push Georgetown past its goal of
30% renewable energy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The first proposal is for a two
to five megawatt community solar farm to be located right here in
Georgetown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two potential locations are
being studied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One is the old landfill
at the end of College Street and the other is near the Dove Springs wastewater
treatment plant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No up-front capital
expenditure by the city would be required because, for the first 6 years, the
equipment would be owned by Borrego Solar, the company that would design and
build the installation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Borrego would be
eligible for the federal tax credits for renewable energy that are not
available to municipalities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Georgetown
would agree to purchase all the electricity generated for the first 6
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then in the seventh year we would
have the option to purchase the entire solar array for a predetermined amount,
and harvest free electricity from the sun for the lifetime of the panels, which
could be well over thirty years.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The idea of a solar farm on a
landfill is particularly interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
else can you do with an old landfill?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
can’t put houses or businesses on it, but the EPA actually encourages reuse of
“contaminated” sites for renewable energy projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The panels would be mounted on stone and
concrete pads in such a way that the cap of the landfill is not disturbed or
penetrated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s like making lemonade
out of a landfill lemon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is how the solar farm plan
would work for us, the consumers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Suppose I want to reduce my carbon footprint and use solar energy but
there are big trees all around my house shading my roof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or maybe my homeowner’s association is stuck
in the Dark Ages and doesn’t allow solar panels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Possibly I don’t have the extra cash on hand
to purchase panels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather than making
an expensive improvement to my house, I can contract to purchase solar
electricity from the community solar farm, without punching any holes in my own
roof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The city will even put a nametag
on my solar panels and I can go visit them any time I want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, if I decide to move to another town, I
can relinquish the panels and they can be assigned to another solar customer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A two megawatt solar farm
could supply electricity for about 1400 homes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Actually, it produces more than they would need during daylight hours,
so the solar customers would share their solar electricity with everybody else
while the sun is shining.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the sun
is not shining, the regular customers would share their natural gas and wind
electricity with the solar customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Everybody gets all the power they need, whenever they need it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The electricity generated by
a community solar farm would be a few cents more expensive per kilowatt-hour
than what we currently pay for electricity, but the price is locked in for 25
years, unlike the price for natural gas electricity, which can vary from day to
day.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The second proposal that Mr.
Briggs will make to the city council is economically even more compelling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Out in sunny west Texas on 153 acres of desert,
an experienced utility-scale solar company, SunPower, can build us our own 30
megawatt solar array to deliver pollution-free electrons that are competitive
with, or even cheaper than, gas generated electricity today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No up-front costs are required for this deal
either.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Since a solar farm is not
going to run afoul of the EPA or be subject to any future carbon taxes, the
price comparison is just going to get better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Many things could happen to natural gas over the next thirty years, but
we can be fairly confident that the sun will keep shining in west Texas.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mr. Briggs is an old hand in
the utilities business, but he is enthusiastic about these new solar
proposals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Economically it just makes
sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the right thing to do, and
sometimes you just have to do the right thing.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-24592400795189486822013-07-28T09:45:00.002-07:002013-07-28T09:45:58.088-07:00Keeping It CoolPublished in the Sun 7-27-2013<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7nfmnKvsuzY/UfVI5XCatjI/AAAAAAAAAXo/y6JUkIczFD4/s1600/Dahlia+Lopez.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7nfmnKvsuzY/UfVI5XCatjI/AAAAAAAAAXo/y6JUkIczFD4/s320/Dahlia+Lopez.JPG" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dahlia Lopez and her weatherized house</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">People used to live in Texas
without air conditioning, but I wasn’t one of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My parents didn’t have air conditioning until
the month before I was born, during the heat wave of 1954, when my father took
pity on my pregnant mother and bought a window unit for the living room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They put my crib in the cool room, so I
became one of the first members of the AC generation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We all know that in a hot,
muggy climate like central Texas air conditioning is hands down the biggest
electricity hog in our homes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
summer, air conditioning can account for 70 percent of the electric bill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But knowing a fact about electricity, and
being willing to live without air conditioning are two entirely separate
things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just typing that sentence made
me so hot I had to turn the thermostat down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So what is an ecologically-minded person to do?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most people, when they think
about saving money on air conditioning, imagine turning up the thermostat and
suffering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is certainly nothing
wrong with adjusting the thermostat, and I highly recommend it, but what if you
could be just as cool as you want and still use half the electricity?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wouldn’t that be a no-brainer?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Does this scene ever happen
at your house?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids are going in and
out the kitchen door, leaving it wide open behind them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally a practical person, usually the one
who pays the electric bills, interrupts the fun by yelling, “Shut the
door!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can’t air condition the entire
outdoors.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kids of course are
thinking that it would be a really good idea to air condition the whole
outdoors because, hey, it’s super hot out there.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But the truth is that,
without being aware of it, many people are trying to cool the whole outdoors
all the time, even when the door is closed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dahlia Lopez had that problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She lived in an old farm house that belonged
to her grandparents back when people just resigned themselves to the ambient
temperature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Houses back then were not
designed to keep cold air inside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
were designed to let a breeze blow through, and that is exactly what Dahlia’s
house did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the winter an arctic wind
blowing through the bathroom turned an ordinary shower into an ordeal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the summer the house never felt cool and
her utility bills were topping $300 a month, even though her house is not very
big.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only was she hot in the summer
and cold in the winter, but she was wasting money that she had better ways to
spend.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dahlia had recently retired
and didn’t have the disposable income needed to remodel and weatherize her home,
but she qualified for a city program that helped owners of older homes reduce
their energy requirements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An energy
auditor did a blower door test, in which a big fan sucks air out of the house,
allowing the auditor to find all the places where outside air is leaking
in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The test proved that Dahlia’s
vintage house was no barrier to the elements, with air leaks around her windows
and doors, through the attic, and even around her electrical outlets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The auditor made recommendations, and then a
contractor came in and blew fiberglass insulation into her attic and walls, insulated
her outlets, sealed and replaced windows, and caulked and weather-stripped her
doors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She got new fiberglass batts and
drywall in her bathroom, and solar screens on her windows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This work was done in the winter and Dahlia
noticed a difference right away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
could go to bed without bundling up like an Eskimo.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The financial benefit hit
home in the summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prior to the weatherization
work her June electricity consumption was 1600 kilowatt-hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This past June she used only 666
kilowatt-hours, a savings of about $100 on electricity in just one month.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you live in an old drafty
home, you certainly need an energy audit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If your home is fairly modern but the electric bill seems too high in
the summer, or if your air conditioner seems to be running all the time and you
are still not comfortable, or if your attic is hot enough to bake bread, you
may also have room for improvement. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An
insulation company can make recommendations, which is fine if you already know
that you need insulation, but if you are not quite sure what you need, an
independent energy auditor can evaluate your house and find out exactly where
you are wasting energy and save you hundreds of dollars a year on electricity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go to RESNET, Residential Energy Services
Network, to find an auditor who is not selling anything but advice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I know insulating your house
is not very sexy, but it’s the most important energy conservation move you can
make, reducing your carbon footprint and saving money at the same time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Letting your conditioned air disappear into
the atmosphere is like icing down your beer and leaving the ice chest
open.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s just not cool.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-33269373822949753602013-07-21T05:27:00.002-07:002013-07-21T05:27:59.456-07:00Local Women Ride Train to Austin and Return UnscathedPublished in the Sun July 20, 2013<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WAiXx74VDP4/UevTKwD0idI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/mdI7dOuo0JU/s1600/DSC_1488.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WAiXx74VDP4/UevTKwD0idI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/mdI7dOuo0JU/s320/DSC_1488.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Metrorail train at the Leander Station</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There has been a lot of
spirited conversation recently about passenger trains, and whether or not
Georgetown needs a passenger train to take us to Austin and San Antonio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Frankly, most of the conversing has been by
people like me who have their own personal automobiles waiting to deliver them
door-to-door wherever they want to go, at the exact moment they are ready to
depart, and haven’t boarded a bus or a train since their last vacation in
London or Vancouver, unless you count the tram at the Dallas airport.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Williamson County already has
a new passenger train, of course:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the
Capital MetroRail running from Leander to the Austin Convention Center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had read a few things about the MetroRail,
but I hadn’t met anyone who had actually ridden it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no teacher like experience, so I set
aside a day to explore, and my friend Sherry Dana agreed to come along and keep
me company.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We arrived at the Leander
Park and Ride (or Kiss and Ride as it’s called if you get dropped off) about 30
minutes early for the 8:40 AM train, the last morning train to depart from
Leander.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The morning rush was over, and the
parking lot was mostly full.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The station
is beautifully landscaped with stone walks and native plants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We couldn’t find any public restrooms though,
so don’t drink too much coffee before you go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We bought day passes from a machine for $5.50 each that would allow us
to get on and off the train all day, and ride connecting Capital Metro buses as
well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">While we waited for the
train, I asked a young man if he was a regular train-rider.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Taking his earbuds out (pretty much everybody
under 30 on the train was connected to earbuds), he told me that he likes to
take the train to his software job everyday because he can do his extra computer
work with the train’s WiFi while he rides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Or he can sleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The trip all the
way downtown takes 55 minutes, about the same time it would take to drive and
park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The train, however, never has to worry
about traffic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At 8:40 we got on the train,
which was spotlessly clean and cool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
northern part of the route is scenic through the countryside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whenever we came to a crossroad the barriers
came down and we barreled on through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is nothing like driving on IH 35.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The train
made several brief stops and 5 to 20 people would get on or off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the people were going to work, but at
one station a group of three young mothers and five children boarded, headed
for an adventure at the Austin Children’s Museum.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sherry and I got off at Plaza
Saltillo, at the corner of 5<sup>th</sup> and Comal in East Austin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hidden behind the station in a nondescript
warehouse was Texas Coffee Traders, where they import and roast coffee, and
will also brew a cup for a thirsty traveler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But Sherry and I were looking for breakfast, so we walked one block to 6<sup>th</sup>
Street and found ourselves at Cisco’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To me it looked dubious, but Sherry assured me Cisco’s was famous, and
that all the Texas legislators used to eat there, and we did indeed have some
excellent egg tacos and coffee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
lawmakers were unfortunately otherwise engaged.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After breakfast we finished
our southbound train ride to the Convention Center and walked around
downtown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turns out 6<sup>th</sup>
street is not that much fun at 11:30 in the morning, especially when the
temperature gets up into the 90s, so we decided to take our public transit
adventure to the next level – a connecting bus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All the train stops are coordinated with a connecting Capital Metro bus,
so we hopped back on the train and headed north to the Martin Luther King Station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Waiting for us was the bus taking passengers
to campus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here again, Sherry was the
smart one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somehow she knew that
Thursday is free day at the Blanton Art Museum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I love the upstairs part of the Blanton but the downstairs can be
strange.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most bizarre exhibit was a
large piece of corrugated cardboard leaning against the wall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know some people look at modern art and
say, “I could do that,” but really, I could lean a piece of cardboard against
the wall, and in fact I have, many times, and never got put in an art museum.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Catching the right bus back
to the train station was the only tricky part of the whole journey, because by
now of course it is 102 degrees and Capital Metro maps are written in Egyptian
hieroglyphics crisscrossed with nanoscopic color-coded lines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But every bus stop has a number on it and you
can send a text to the bus company and immediately get back a text that tells
you when the next bus is coming, so you can sit very still at the bus stop
under a tree and not sweat too much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After a ten minute wait we were back on a cool bus and the driver took
us straight to the train station.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Back in Leander, MetroRail
operator Narvin Logans let me look in the cockpit and blow the horn. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He explained that the operators really do
drive the trains; they are not computerized or on autopilot. He also said that
the afternoon trains coming back north are usually standing room only.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes the train is a few minutes late to
Leander because so many people unload at Lakeline.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">By the way, don’t try to ride
the train without buying a ticket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Tickets are mostly by the honor system, but every once in a while the
fare-checker comes by, and he brings a policeman with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A young man got caught on our return trip,
and the policeman wrote him up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fine
could be anywhere from $100 to $400.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
got off the train with the perpetrator and asked him if he was a regular rider.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He assured us that he always pays the fare,
except just this one time, because he almost missed the train.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s his story, and I’m just going to
believe it, because he seemed like such a nice guy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X5MxsoqqEJc/UevTgF_9ehI/AAAAAAAAAXY/a3p6AFsTaaY/s1600/People+exit+the+train+at+the+Leander+station.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X5MxsoqqEJc/UevTgF_9ehI/AAAAAAAAAXY/a3p6AFsTaaY/s320/People+exit+the+train+at+the+Leander+station.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">People exiting the train at Leander</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-23180746054408839612013-07-14T20:27:00.000-07:002013-07-14T20:27:47.414-07:00Horny Toad ReduxPublished in the Sun July 13, 2013<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wUrQaBg6p2o/UeNrZa7OeeI/AAAAAAAAAWw/vHVQ-gUjP-U/s1600/Ouida+with+a+picture+of+her+mother.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wUrQaBg6p2o/UeNrZa7OeeI/AAAAAAAAAWw/vHVQ-gUjP-U/s320/Ouida+with+a+picture+of+her+mother.JPG" width="232" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ouida Henderson with a picture of her mother and the horny toad wagon</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After writing about the
decline in central Texas of “Horny Toads,” properly known as Texas Horned
Lizards, I received the following letter from Nancy McMillan Higgs, who, as a
child, lived around the corner from me in Austin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is her story in her own words.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Clearly you had moved away
from Exposition Boulevard before you started learning about horny toads because
I certainly would have taught you that they ate red ants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think, however, that I did not begin to
learn about them till I was maybe 7, when we – Mom, Dad, and me – drove to
Denver from Austin to visit one of my dad’s best friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We always started these trips in the wee
hours of the night so we stopped in Lampasas for breakfast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we left the café, I spied a rather large
horny toad by the car and Dad caught it for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I dutifully named him “Lampasas.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He not only travelled all the way to Denver with us, but also to the top
of Mount Evans, where I “hypnotized” him while sitting at the counter of the
mountaintop café, sipping Alka Seltzer for my motion sickness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can still remember the mesmerized truckers
sitting across from me and Mom…they had never seen a horny toad before!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the trip, my mom was in the midst of
making a Christmas stocking, so she made Lampasas a nice, sequined, elastic
collar and leash that I used to tie him up next to ant beds for lunch while we
ate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lampasas rode all the way home with
me and was released in our backyard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m
not sure I ever saw him again, but at least a couple of weeks of his life were
quite colorful.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nancy, who is quite the horny
toad aficionado, continues with another story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“I particularly loved the baby toads – maybe the size of a silver
dollar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One time I had one at home and
was playing with it when my aunt was visiting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’d hypnotized it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She didn’t see
the before part, just the lie still on its back part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She asked to hold it so I gave it to
her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was admiring how it looked so
real (duh) when I replied that it was indeed real.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And – you guessed it – she screamed and threw
her hand up, the innocent little horny toad flying up into the air and striking
the ceiling before coming down hard on the floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dead on impact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was honestly appalled and disgusted at her
ignorance and hysteria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily, she was
my favorite aunt so eventually I got over it.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Obviously, being a pet was
quite hazardous duty for a horny toad, and in fact human attention is one of
the major factors in their decline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>During the 1950s and 60s, many Texas children earned pocket money by
catching live horny toads and mailing them to pet stores and curio shops in
other states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nancy’s grandfather, a
Jarrell farmer, paid her 25 cents each to catch horny toads, but he released
them into his vegetable garden to eat insects, so likely Nancy’s lizards
survived the transaction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ouida Henderson, an 85 year
old Georgetown resident, related that ever since she was a child, her mother,
Irene Moore Waddell (born 1899), had kept a small metal wagon, with attached
horse, displayed in their home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A bit of
tan colored string, six or eight inches long, is tied around the horse’s neck
and has remained tied there for all these many decades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The loose end of the string was used by Irene
and her little brother to harness a horny toad to the wagon, pulling both wagon
and horse around the sandy streets of Hempstead, west of Houston.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ouida is sure that it was their favorite toy,
and she has kept the wagon displayed in her own home since her mother passed
away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I asked if Ouida herself used
horny toad labor to pull the wagon, but she denies it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I wasn’t one to catch them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wasn’t a brave soul.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-81808942385488839702013-07-06T15:15:00.000-07:002013-07-06T15:15:31.662-07:00Rustling Up Some Grubs at the Austin Bug-Eating FestivalPublished in the Sun July 6, 2013<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dsCh0W7b1bs/UdiVmXtwwvI/AAAAAAAAAWM/OPQ_eCp5nhI/s1600/Alan+Davisson+rustles+up+some+grubs.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dsCh0W7b1bs/UdiVmXtwwvI/AAAAAAAAAWM/OPQ_eCp5nhI/s320/Alan+Davisson+rustles+up+some+grubs.JPG" width="241" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alan Davisson sautés up some insects</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Does anyone want to eat the
baby cockroach that was inside that other cockroach?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s 107 degrees in Zilker Park, but Alan
Davisson has his fryng pans hot and is sautéing insects at the 6<sup>th</sup>
Annual Bug-Eating Festival.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t even
get close enough to see the baby cockroach, much less eat it, because of the
crowd of curious bug-eaters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alan goes
on to explain to the kids in the group, “All of my heroes are weird.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They all changed the world because they did
something weird.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can all pretty much
agree that Alan is weird.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">He redeems himself somewhat
and admits that he doesn’t like to eat cockroaches, because they just taste
like cockroaches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The best insects to
eat, according to Alan, are grubs and larvae, because they don’t have shells
and legs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are however filled with
dirt, so to properly prepare a grub you have to cut off the head, slit it up
the side and wash it in water to remove all the brown stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When cooked up, the fat solidifies and the
grub is more meaty, like bacon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yumm.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A table behind the throng of
Alan’s on-lookers holds the mealworms he cooked up before moving on to
cockroaches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some are Cajun-flavored and
some are plain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A sign on the table
warns people with shellfish allergies not to eat them, as shellfish and insects
contain similar allergens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A man
standing beside me apologizes that he has a shellfish allergy and won’t be able
to partake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Sure you do,” I snark
back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His friend elbows him, “Dude, she
knows you’re lying,” and we all laugh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But I have come here to eat bugs so I might as well get on with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grabbing one of the bigger mealworms I take a
tentative bite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s kind of crunchy
with a non-descript flavor, so I pretend it’s a chow mein noodle and finish it
off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I use the same technique with a
wasp larva.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really, they are so small
that a tiny bite is much ado about nothing, once you get past the yuck factor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JSoscUc5x5o/UdiWDDO94mI/AAAAAAAAAWU/8CqFZ5MnvR4/s1600/Jeffrey+Stump.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JSoscUc5x5o/UdiWDDO94mI/AAAAAAAAAWU/8CqFZ5MnvR4/s320/Jeffrey+Stump.JPG" width="213" /></a></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Jeffrey Stump contemplates a mealworm</span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Marjory Wildcraft, who put
this bug-eating event together, checks to see if I’m having a good time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marjory has been called the “Martha Stewart
of Self-Reliance.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her business is
teaching people to grow their own food in backyard gardens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I asked her how she got interested in
bug-eating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She explains that there are
certain fats and minerals that are hard to get if a person is really trying to
grow all their nourishment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She noticed
in her own garden that insects were a constant, and annoying, presence, and
thought, “Why don’t I try eating bugs?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just one little problem, “They are disgusting.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So she got a few friends together for moral
support, and after three beers to lubricate the system, she was ready to eat
bugs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was the first Bug-Eating
Festival, and it multiplied from there.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A discerning reader at this
point would be asking, “Why on earth are we talking about eating insects?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s the point of this insanity?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Entomophagy, which is Greek
for “eating insects”, has always been common in traditional societies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beetles and caterpillars are the most popular
food bugs, but over 1900 species have been used for food. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people think that entomophagy may spread
to developed cultures as populations continue to increase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A recent United Nations report reminds us
that by 2050 there will be 9 billion people on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are only 7 billion of us right now, but
already one billion are chronically hungry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Turning more forests into farmland for pigs and cattle is problematic,
and ocean fisheries are already in serious decline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Insects are a sustainable source of protein,
and they can be farmed efficiently using less land and less water than mammals,
and are frequently fed with biowaste.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Continuing my tour around the
festival, I tried a chocolate chip cookie made with mealworm flour, which was
fairly tasty, although with enough chocolate almost anything is edible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Getting braver, I tried an ant lion that Alan
had just served up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was way too
crunchy and got stuck in my teeth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Seriously I had to rinse my mouth out when I got back to the truck and
spit it out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mealworms and wasp larvae
might be okay in an emergency, but avoid ant lions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We really need to take better care of those
ocean fisheries.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dVQMYTP3Cv4/UdiWqdy3EFI/AAAAAAAAAWc/AHXHDGJGlL8/s1600/Sunny+Greenblum+eats+a+chocolate+covered+mealworm.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dVQMYTP3Cv4/UdiWqdy3EFI/AAAAAAAAAWc/AHXHDGJGlL8/s320/Sunny+Greenblum+eats+a+chocolate+covered+mealworm.JPG" width="242" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Sunny Greenblum, age 7, eats a chocolate covered mealworm</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span> </div>
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Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-81429020481160004022013-06-29T10:23:00.000-07:002013-06-29T10:23:21.615-07:00Homebuilding Outside the Big Orange BoxPublished in the Sun June 29, 2013<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7wZasLeY_Uw/Uc8XbTQUmiI/AAAAAAAAAVw/ectIDTKSs1o/s1600/DSC_1361.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7wZasLeY_Uw/Uc8XbTQUmiI/AAAAAAAAAVw/ectIDTKSs1o/s320/DSC_1361.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jason Ballard demonstrates a Nest self-programming thermostat</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">“Smart
Building, Better Living,” is the motto of the Treehouse store on South Lamar. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I arrived without an appointment to see Jason
Ballard, the force of nature behind this unique home improvement center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know what Jason looks like, but this
huge store seems like an ambitious business venture, so I inquire of the most
distinguished looking man on the floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He is not Jason, but goes to look for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he comes back he tells me that Jason is
in a meeting but will be with me shortly and invites me to look around.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Wandering
past the bulk chicken feed and the home canning supplies, I find myself in
flooring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A big sign lists the pros and
cons of various kinds of flooring materials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Carpet can be made of recycled materials, but harbors dust and
allergens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wood floors sold here are
certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Cork is more comfortable on your feet than hardwood and uses waste from
the wine industry, so no trees have to be cut down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The
paint department sells wood finishes and paints which are free of volatile organic
compounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A kitchen design center
displays custom countertops made from recycled glass, concrete, sustainable
Mexican teak, or even a recycled paper product that feels like any other solid
surface countertop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this is the
really amazing thing, actual salesmen are available to help you plan your new
kitchen or bathroom and make sure it’s built and installed correctly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">While
I am lusting after countertops, the distinguished looking man tells me that
Jason is available, and points to a fresh-faced, skinny lad wearing a blue
t-shirt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That kid looks more like the leader of a
church youth group than the president of a multi-million dollar corporation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually Jason is 31 years old and married
with children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He admits, however, that ministry
was one of his possible career paths.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Jason
grew up hunting and fishing with his grandfather, who taught him respect for
the natural world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They never killed
anything they weren’t planning to eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After
studying ecology at Texas A & M, Jason worked for a while in Colorado with
a sustainable building company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
learned that most buildings are tremendously inefficient and waste vast amounts
of energy, but consumers are in the dark about how to improve the
situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also realized that no home improvement
store would promise its customers, “We will not sell you something that is
poison.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A consumer who wants safe, environmentally
responsible products is on his own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jason saw a niche in the business world that needed to be filled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">So
Jason Ballard, ecologist, decided to go head to head with Home Depot and Lowe’s
and create an oasis of non-toxic, sustainable, and energy efficient
products.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was just one tiny little
problem:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he knew nothing about running a
business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, almost nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knew that if you take care of people and
sell them good things, they will be loyal customers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">He
assembled a team of experts to create his brainchild:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>lawyers, marketers, merchandisers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jason concentrated on vetting his potential
products, spending hours on the phone and internet researching ingredients and environmental
implications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Treehouse doesn’t sell
anything that Jason hasn’t scrutinized.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">I
asked Jason to show me something he is really excited about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without hesitation he led me to a display of
Nest Learning Thermostats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everybody
knows that programming the thermostat saves electricity, but normal people just
never get around to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Nest
Thermostat, invented by the same guy who invented the iPod, learns your
personal habits and programs itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jason is emphatic, “People always want to put solar panels on the
roof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This $250 thermostat will save
more energy than a $10,000 solar system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Solar panels should be the last thing you do when you are trying to save
energy, not the first.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the Nest first
came onto the market, the makers wanted to sell exclusively to the big box
chains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every Tuesday for months, Jason
called them, begging for the right to carry the Nest, until they finally said,
“OK, OK, you can sell it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stop calling
us.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Jason
used the same hounding technique to get the Switch LED light bulbs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“This is the Aston Martin of light bulbs,” he
brags, “and Treehouse is the first place in the world to sell it.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The store is phasing out compact fluorescent
bulbs, because LEDs save more energy, and don’t contain mercury.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">We
continue around the store, Jason enthusiastically pointing out a plant-based
alternative to WD-40, insulation made from recycled blue jean denim, tankless
water heaters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ask when he will be
expanding into Williamson County.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
admits he would like to open a branch in Round Rock, as soon as he can swing it
financially.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">On
the Treehouse website, Jason has written “Dreams matter:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We believe we all have a say in what tomorrow
looks like, so let’s make it even better.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hooray for young people like Jason, thinking outside the box.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lbHEyG3_gc0/Uc8X0MJ7CdI/AAAAAAAAAV4/-lC3M_Ya-vc/s1600/DSC_1370.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lbHEyG3_gc0/Uc8X0MJ7CdI/AAAAAAAAAV4/-lC3M_Ya-vc/s320/DSC_1370.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-21230115716258756262013-06-26T05:22:00.000-07:002013-06-26T05:22:04.266-07:00The Horns of a Carbon DilemmaPublished in the Sun June 22, 2013<br />
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<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I read recently that one can be environmentally
friendly to the extreme in recycling and energy savings, but that a single
short commercial jet flight wipes out anything green you have done over an
entire year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s all owing to the fact
that jet engines are terribly inefficient and it takes a humongous amount of
fossil fuel to keep the plane and its passengers aloft.</span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></b></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">George Flynn, Georgetown</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">George has impaled himself on
the horns of a dilemma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In modern times,
we have the luxury of doing things that were completely impossible before the
age of fossil fuels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few hundred years
ago, the only sources of useful power were human muscle, animal muscle, and
fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Founding Fathers had large
numbers of servants, both voluntary and involuntary, for the express purpose of
doing hard physical labor, such as plowing fields and chopping wood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today, most of us can’t afford a retinue of
servants to do our work for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead
we use fossil fuels, in the form of gasoline or coal-generated
electricity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have “energy slaves” to
cook our food, wash our clothes, light our houses, and push our cars around
town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you assume that a human worker
can sustain a work output of about 80 watts, the average American has 147 “energy
slaves” working around the clock to maintain his regal lifestyle, cooling our
offices and harvesting our food while we post cat pictures on Facebook.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A Boeing 747 uses about 80
megawatts of power to take off, the equivalent of one million “energy slaves”
pedaling like crazy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You just can’t do
that without jet fuel.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On a round trip flight from
New York to San Francisco, the combustion of that jet fuel produces 2 to 3 tons
of carbon dioxide emissions per passenger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Since most of us (in the States) generate about 19 tons of carbon
dioxide every year, air travel is a significant part of our carbon
footprint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You would be absolutely
correct to point out that Al Gore, jetting around the world to discuss climate
change, has a much bigger carbon footprint than some unfortunate soul who
doesn’t really care about carbon emissions but can’t afford to go anywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So here is the dilemma:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We love to fly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who doesn’t adore a vacation in the
Caribbean?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also are hooked on air
conditioning, the biggest electricity hog in our Texas homes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we to give up flying and cooling for the
sake of being “green”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are some
who say that if the earth becomes uninhabitable for human beings our
grandchildren will wish we had taken this question a bit more seriously, and
they have a valid point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other
hand, if I personally give up jet travel and air conditioning, staying home to
sweat miserably this summer, all my sacrifice accomplishes in the short term is
to take the pressure off ERCOT, allowing some less virtuous person to crank his
thermostat down to 68 degrees and have friends over to see his pictures from
Aruba.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I can’t single-handedly save
the planet, but that doesn’t mean I’m off the hook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can make a multitude of “green” decisions
that actually improve my overall well-being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Using energy efficient light bulbs saves money on my electric bill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eating less meat reduces my carbon footprint
and is healthier for my heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Locally
grown foods are delicious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A small car
is easy to park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bicycling tones my
bum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recycling is completely painless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take a train somewhere, or vote to build a
train somewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.25in 0pt 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The famous architect and
inventor Buckminster Fuller said this about the power of the individual:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Something hit me very hard once, thinking
about what one little man could do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Think of the Queen Mary – the whole ship goes by and then comes the
rudder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there’s a tiny thing at the
edge of the rudder called a trimtab.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s a miniature rudder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just
moving the little trimtab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder
around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Takes almost no effort at
all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I said that the little
individual can be a trimtab.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Society
thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally
the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big
ship of state is going to go.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The words “Call Me Trimtab”
are engraved on Fuller’s headstone</span>Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5946195144338973605.post-21917794113079437162013-06-16T11:54:00.003-07:002013-06-16T11:54:55.067-07:00Save the Texas "Horny Toad"Published in the Sun June 15, 2013<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g5yuhPNGBhg/Ub4JvQg2-aI/AAAAAAAAAVU/49YVsXBQTGM/s1600/Texas+Horned+Lizard+v4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="315" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g5yuhPNGBhg/Ub4JvQg2-aI/AAAAAAAAAVU/49YVsXBQTGM/s320/Texas+Horned+Lizard+v4.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Original art by David Stump</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">When
threatened by a predator, the Texas Horned Lizard, widely known as the “Horny
Toad,” holds perfectly still in the mistaken belief that its camouflage will
protect it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That strategy might hide it
from a hawk, but to a human child a motionless horny toad is all too visible
and easy prey.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Most
Texas baby boomers, and many generations before us, have fond memories of
catching and playing with horny toads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Deprived of video games, our mothers would send us out into the yard,
where we were forced to seek entertainment from the landscape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both in town and in the country, horny toads
were everywhere, providing hours of diversion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Genie Vogler remembers tying a string around the little horns on their
heads and leading them around on a leash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Dean Hamilton made his captives pull tiny wagons made out of
matchboxes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another friend, who wishes
to remain anonymous because he is otherwise a kindly soul who deeply regrets
his misspent youth, used to blow them up with firecrackers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">I
lived on a busy street in Austin, but there were plenty of horny toads around
our house, and I frequently kept one in a shoebox.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I probably tried to feed it Velveeta cheese
(a personal favorite snack) and of course it wouldn’t eat, so after a few days
I would let it go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t know that
the horny toads in my yard were feasting on the red harvester ants that had a
permanent bed on the far side of the driveway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We never tried to get rid of the ants; they were just part of the
territory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact my sisters and I
would take bits of food out to the ant bed and watch the ants pick up the
crumbs and carry them around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(It was so
much easier to entertain children in those days.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were a pacifist group of ants and never
tried to bite us, unlike fire ants which are no fun to play with at all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The
harvester ant bed was a flat sandy circle about four feet across with a tunnel
in the center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ants would go out in
search of seeds along trails leading from the bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Horny toads would stake out along the trails
and eat the ants as they marched by, each horny toad eating 70 to 100 ants a
day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A horny toad has to rotate between
several ant beds because the ants wise up and change their trails.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">So
what happened to all the horny toads?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When I mentioned them to my grown children they looked at me as if I had
been riding dinosaurs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The horned lizard
does look prehistoric, but they are not extinct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They still exist, just not so much in Central
Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I contacted Lee Ann Linam, a
representative of the Horned Lizard Conservation Society and a wildlife
biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), who has been studying
horny toads for decades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She told me
that in the last 15 years, she has received only five unconfirmed reports of
horny toad sightings in Williamson County, and those might have been Texas spiny
lizards instead, which are quite common.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Texas horned lizards have been listed as threatened by the TPWD since
1977.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Habitat
loss is a big factor in the decline of horny toads, which prefer native
grasslands with bare rocky spots for sunning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are not much into shopping malls and suburban developments with St.
Augustine lawns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as fire ants
invaded the area, people became much more hostile to ants in general.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ant poisons and other insecticides destroyed
the harvester ants which are the food supply for the horny toads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scientists have tried to teach them to eat
fire ants, but they just won’t do it, and who can blame them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Here’s
the action plan for horny toad fans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
you have a red harvester ant bed on your property, do not destroy it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harvester ants are the good guys and compete
with fire ants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Check out the trails
around the ant bed in mid morning before it gets too hot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you see a horny toad, take a picture and
send it to the TPWD. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t use
widespread pesticides in your yard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
you have to destroy fire ants, use boiling soapy water poured directly on the
mound, or directly apply a bait containing Spinosad, which is not harmful to
the harvester ants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Milam
County has a population of horny toads, so if we can take care of our harvester
ants and keep some of the county natural, just maybe, if we are really lucky,
it might be possible for our great grandkids to play with Texas Horned Lizards
again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Bonnie Stumphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08074034848822492697noreply@blogger.com1