He killed the Doughboy

We lived in Jamestown Kentucky for three years around 1980. In the middle of the traffic circle on the courthouse square (yes, they have a circular square), the American Legion had a statue of the Doughboy, the First World War infantryman, erected on a pedestal in 1937. The other day a drunk driver speeding down one of the approaches to the traffic circle hit the steps at the edge of the raised circle and launched his pick-up truck through the air straight at the statue. He was high enough in the air to clear the pedestal, but destroyed the bronze statue before coming to rest at the far edge of the circle. He now is resting in jail. The Doughboy fought a valiant fight and the yellow paint of the truck on his bayonet suggests he inflicted a severe wound before succumbing to his injuries.

The Dreamsicle is an ice cream bar covered in orange sherbet, and a fond memory of my childhood. I don't believe I've had one since I was a kid, but I saw a box of these delights (though they weren't called Dreamcicles) in the freezer section of the grocery the other day, and brought it home with me. Today my wife and I decided to have one. It tasted so good we had a second one and even thought about a third. That seemed a bit much though and we resisted.

When we first move here the old court house in the middle of our square town square was a bright white. Quite picturesque I thought. Now it seems it's on the National Registry of Historic Structures and they spent a basketful of money blasting the many year's accumulation of paint from the original red brick, repairing and painting window frames, remortering areas and the like. Supposedly it now looks like it did when it was first built in the mid eighteen hundreds. We have a brand new, state of the art court house on one of the corners of the square where they hold traffic and criminal court, but they still hold fiscal court in the old building. At least for now it also holds the Sheriff's department, the license branch, all the deeds for the county, and a couple of other bureaucracies, but I understand the Sheriff's department is soon to move to another location. There is a large lawn around the old court house with walkways, benches (liars benches?), and a lot of mature trees. It's an inviting place to sit in the shade on warm summer days, and the various events and festivals held here center around the square. Care for a fried apple turnover?

Caucus or Primary

Periodically we have a primary election in the state to choose who will run on the Democratic and Republican tickets. This primary is set for a particular day and every county votes their choices. After the votes are tallied we have one winner in each category for the Democratic contenders, and an equal number of contenders on the Republican ticket. On election day we get to choose between the two parties candidates for each position. It seems to work well, so why in the world is the Presidential caucus or primary such a mess?

For instance, Iowa then New Hampshire gets to vote. There choices were - Republicans - Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, John McCain, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, and Duncan Hunter. Democrats - Barack Obama, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, and Chris Dodd.

From there it goes through other states, one after another, and on occasion some states voting the same day. By the time it gets to the last states in these "primaries" many of the candidates have dropped out from lack of support, or it can even be down to one candidate for each party, which completely nullifies any reason for the last states to even bother.

Such a system costs each candidate many millions of dollars, sends them running around the country in an exhausting succession of whistle-stop speeches, and in the end the final states get no say-so in who your party will run for this most important job in the world.

It's possible that holding such primary elections in all 50 states at the same time, some of the "losers" in the early primaries with the current system, could well come out on top in a lot of the states that never get a chance to cast their votes for any but the frontrunners.

If they gave each candidate a fifteen minute spot on television (which the candidate would pay for), then let them post their positions on their web sites, and/or mail a flier to every home (which they would also have to pay for), it would level the playing field. I'm sure it would cost them less than the multi-millions each now have to spend just to campaign, and all states would get a chance to put in their vote. The way it is now there are states that don't even bother because it's all been decided before they would have an opportunity to hold a primary.

Cold Weather Stuff

I had a new package heat pump installed last spring. For anyone that doesn't know why the word "package" is in front of heat pump, that simply means the whole thing sits outside, and the only thing in the house is the duct work and the thermostat. It was a simpler installation since I'd had a package air conditioner and an indoor electric furnace combination.

It stopped working one Wednesday afternoon. There wasn't even a digital read-out on the thermostat, so I wasn't getting power some how. I opened the breaker box and flipped the furnace breakers off and on to see if that was it, but nothing happened. I called the company that had installed it but the best they could do was some time the next week. It was supposed to drop into the low 20's that night. This is a total electric home, so I turned on a small ceramic heater and the oven on the range for a while, then decided to drag in a kerosene heater.

When we moved in here in the spring of '04 I realized we were a bit remote, and there was only one power source coming through the area. A good ice storm, or high winds can take out our power for two or three days or more so I bought a couple of kerosene heaters. I figured one in each end of the house would keep the temperature above the freezing mark, but little did I know. I'd also bought two five gallon containers and filled them with kerosene, and they've been sitting here unused for the last three years. I filled the one heater, set it mid house and fired it up. It seemed to be putting out a lot of heat so I just turned it to about three fourths on the control. This was eleven o'clock at night. When I got up at six the next morning it was still cooking away and the temperature was about 85º in the kitchen and dining area, and over 75º at the farthest ends of the house. I shut it off for a while and refilled it, then fired it back up a couple of hours later. Those things are serious heaters, and I was duly impressed.

And now for the rest of the story. About the middle of the next day I had called another service company to see if I could get the heat pump back up and running, and they scheduled me for the next afternoon. Just after I hung up from talking to them I was struck with one of those "duh" realizations. There are two sets of breakers. The ones that had controlled the original electric furnace, and the ones that had controlled the package air conditioner. I opened the breaker box and flipped the AC breakers off and on, and the whole system was back up and running. Two more phone calls to the two service companies to admit my ignorance and I was back in business.

All is not lost though. It made me realize just how effective those kerosene heaters can be, and if one can heat our home during a power outage, I can set the second one in my daughters place adjacent to us to keep them comfy during such an outage. I just have to make sure I have enough kerosene on hand because if it's a wide outage the service stations will not be able to pump more.