Recent Price of Gasoline

I could hardly believe it.

And I wish it had been the scooter getting a "Fill Up".

But it was the Subaru. Ice storm possible tomorrow. Family Rule is to keep the vehicles above 1/2 full in the event of inclement weather. I was just a little below 1/2 when I rolled in to the convenience store this morning.

I kid you not.

I was charged the outrageous price of $ 1.67 / gallon.

Where's the Humanity?

When I first bought the scooter , you may remember back then. "Dubya" had just managed to implode the economy, gasoline reached a little over $4.00 / gallon.

I was sure glad I had Max back then.

(I still am)

:)

Ride On and Carpe Diem, my good friends.

A Cold Ride, The Edge of The Fiscal Cliff and a Right Wing Prius

Okay, so I put in all the liners in my jacket and pants this morning. I had been putting this off and with the recent relatively warm weather (Hell, it is almost December), I had been able to survive on the bike without all that extra gear. But this week has been colder, in fact the overnight lows had been in the 20's (wind chills in the teens) and I admit to having wimped out a couple of days on riding to work.

Now I have often thought of myself as a "Rounder" (a year round rider) and unless it is really cold (by my definition, single digits and below), the cold weather doesn't usually stop me from riding.  This morning the temperature was below freezing, but just barely and  it was sunny with almost no wind. Very nice! But I did take more precautions against the cold. I got out the fleece glove liners and even the nylon balaclava. Both liners in my pants and the fleece liner in my jacket. Max started right up like it was any other day. I think he actually likes the cold weather.

The winter gloves with the liners next to my Ride To Work bandana.

And I took out onto the street fighting a bit of fog in my visor, not bad, just a bit annoying. But I had this nagging feeling that I had forgotten something. With all the extra stuff I did this morning to get ready for the ride I knew it was likely that I would forget something, but at that moment I couldn't figure out what it was, and maybe it was nothing anyway.

At one of the first stop light intersections I pulled up behind this little Dodge something or other with a frosty back window. I thought to myself, Fantastic, Not only do I have to watch out for and fight people trying to talk and text on their cell phones, but now I have to watch out for people who are too damn lazy to even scrape off their windows. Oh well, I try a zen moment to calm myself, after all this is is supposed to be fun, and it really is.

And just next to the Dodge was a Prius. And the only reason I noticed it was because of the bumper stickers on it, one of which I couldn't read very well (small print), but the other was a "Fair Tax" sticker. Now it is never safe to generalize about anything and people will always surprise me but I was struck by what appeared to me to be a sort of incongruity between the concept of a Prius and the concept of the "Fair Tax". What I was thinking was that it might be more common for a Prius to be driven by a quote "liberal" person, you know, someone that believes in global warming, wants to save the planet by not using too much in the way of fossil fuels, etc. And then to see a "Fair Tax" sticker which I would associate to someone with more of a right wing sort of conservative bend to their political beliefs. Well it just seemed a bit odd. Probably just me.

Then, as it were, the Prius and I seemed to kind of parallel each other down the street on the way downtown. At some stop lights I would arrive first, at others the Prius would get there first. It was a woman driving the car, but I could never seem to get her to look over at me, she always faced away. (Bitch!?) Then I was thinking, "Okay, who is really trying to save the environment here today?" You in that Prius, at times traveling silently, but probably getting maybe 45 mpg as you move along toward your destination. Or me! Having a blast on my Taiwanese scooter, in cold weather to boot, but probably doing about 75 mpg.

Huh?!   Who's the Environmentalist Now?!

Then I take another deep breath. (Ommmm)

I remembered listening to NPR as I shaved this morning and they were interviewing various people talking about the upcoming "Fiscal Cliff". Now I remind you that I am a tax accountant. I am very aware of the changes that will or will not happen at the end of the year this year. I even spoke at about 15 little mini-seminars about this very subject. And you know what? In my humble opinion, all the politicians are crazy and don't have a clue. Most of them have no business calling themselves statesmen and I really would not be surprised that we just end up careening off the end of the cliff because the silly bastards won't have the guts to do anything about it. And you know what else?!

The world will not end!
Generalissimo Francisco Franco will still be dead!
The Kansas City Chiefs will still Suck!
And I will still try and ride to work on a mostly year round basis.

So There!

Whew!

Oh, the things I think about as I ride to work some days.

And as I arrived at the parking garage this morning and was taking off my helmet and gloves, one of the people who work for the parking lot company saw me and yelled at me about it being "Pretty cold to ride a scooter on a day like today".

I said, "Naah! It's a great day to Ride!"

And it was! And it will be this afternoon when the temperatures are expected to be in the 50's. I might even get hot with all those liners being used.

And then I remembered that nagging thought that I had forgotten this morning. And I realized it was my office keys that I had forgotten. Oh well.....
.
Ride On and Carpe Diem, my friends.
.

Thoughts While Giving a Final Exam

I had suspended my teaching activities for awhile after I became a Cyborg. Just too many things going on. Had to let loose of a few of them. But this year I decided to try it again and as I am writing this, my students are taking an Auditing Final Exam.

They are working very diligently. (I am goofing off, blogging, dontcha know)

Recently it has been difficult to ride with much regularity. Work has been busy and I have been doing some speaking engagements that has required the use of the automobile to get around. Teaching has also complicated the issue.

But this is the last night for the class, and my speaking engagements are winding down. So hopefully back to riding some more. I missed a beautiful day for riding today. Cool this morning, temperature about 40, but sunny and 75 this afternoon. Damn!

My speaking engagements have been about changes in tax laws (many changes this year, very many). Sounds pretty boring, and it is, but the response from clients and others has been very strong. But, indirectly, the speaking has also been about politics, and there, I have to be a little careful. Clients run the gamut of liberal vs conservative. I try and walk the line and not offend anyone. All are entitled to their opinions, just so long as they don't get nasty with each other. After all, we are all Americans, Right?

In Kansas, we don't get to see all the television ads. The race is pretty well decided and has been for a long time. That's good, I suppose. But I sure wish some of the so-called statesmen at the federal level would get off their dead asses and figure a few things out rather than just bitch and argue with each other.

I was thinking about my generation earlier today. How we are leaving an incredible legacy of debt to our children, something our forefathers didn't do to us. It's embarrassing to me, and the politicians just seem to gloss over it and not do anything constructive about it.

Reminds me of a song by Sting

"You could say I've lost my faith in the politicians
They all seem like Game Show Hosts to me"
.
Ride On and Carpe Diem, my friends
.

Let's Have a Party!!

Legal Disclaimer: It is not my intent to promote the interests of any politician or political party. My sole intent is to poke some fun at things I see and wonder, like many people, at the silliness and dysfunction of politics as it exists today.

I keep telling people that we have 3 viable political parties here in Kansas. I've said this for years! We do have lots of independents, libertarians and others, but they don't seem to be able to wield much political power by themselves. So we are left with:

Democrats
Conservative Republicans
Moderate Republicans

It used to be that the Republicans hated the Democrats and the Democrats hated the Republicans. Okay, maybe hate is a strong word. Mistrust and dislike are probably more accurate.

But anymore, to me, it's more like the 2 wings of the Republican party hate each other (and yes, hate just might be accurate) and the Democrats are all sitting around wondering what is wrong with all those other people and why are they so mad at each other.

And in the past we have usually elected Democrats or Moderate Republicans as governors. A Democrat would seemingly get elected in years where the Republicans were mad at each other, a Moderate Republican otherwise. It's been a long time since we had a Conservative Republican governor, until 2 years ago, when we elected Sam Brownback, a former US Senator.

The political situation is now very interesting. We now have a Conservative governor, the House is controlled by the Conservatives, the Senate by the Moderates and the Democrats and Independents have been sort of relegated to the sidelines. Some have even said we should rename the state of Kansas to "Brownbackistan". Oh, God, I said it; I'll probably get hate mail now, or even worse, audited!

Again, no opinion from me regarding right or wrong, just an observation.

The new county courthouse is in the background, the older one in the foreground. The older building has beautiful architecture. We just outgrew it. Some offices of the county are still housed in the old courthouse, among them the "Elections Office". That office was where I was headed today to see if an injustice had occurred and, if so, to demand justice.

So here's the deal. The primary election is coming up August 7. In Kansas, both the Democrats and Republicans have "closed" primaries. For many years voters who registered as independents, could go to the primary election and select which party they wanted to vote for.  Not Anymore! You have to be registered as a Democrat to vote in the democratic primary, or Republican to vote in the republican primary. Period!

And here's more to the deal, this year!  All the action is on the Republican side of the ledger. In some races, there are no Democrats even running, and those that are running are generally unopposed. But there are many key races with Conservative Republicans and Moderate Republicans vying for the same seat. In fact, it could be said that the 2 wings of the Republican party have declared war on each other, each calling each other RINO's (republicans in name only).

So what did I do? I wanted to be where the action is. Now, mind you, in past elections I have voted all over the place, sometimes Republican, sometimes Democrat, sometimes 3rd party, I usually vote for the person more than I vote for the party. Silly Me!  So I re-registered as a Republican even though I don't have strong feelings for the party. Frankly I don't have strong feelings for any party and never have.

So on the last day possible for registering to vote, which can be done on the Internet, I registered as a Republican so that I could vote in the Republican primary, which is where all the action is. In fact, for most races, it appears, the general election will be a foregone conclusion.

Then a few days later I get this postcard in the mail. It says "Certificate of Registration". It also says "Democratic" Party. I think, "WTF"?

So on Monday, postcard in hand and picture ID in my wallet...

New Law this year, meant to combat the travesty of something like 10 cases of voter fraud in the last 15 years.
You think I'm kidding?

I march down to the courthouse to demand satisfaction, see what was wrong, see if there was a vast right wing (or left wing) conspiracy, see if my rights as a citizen of the world had been violated, etc. I was prepared to contact the local newspaper if the election office had "screwed up". I was ready to even "blog" about it! That'll get some action real quick, NOT!

I was met by two very nice ladies at the front desk and I told them I had an apparent problem with the postcard I received. One of them simply said that everybody who was registered to vote was to receive a card to inform them of their proper districts for various political races and that the information for those cards was generated by the computer systems about 3 weeks ago. She also asked me when I had re-registered, I told her and she said that I should receive yet another card in the mail reflecting the newer re-registered information.

Whew!

But she even took it a step further and said "Let me double check what we have for you in the computer, It'll only take a moment". Sheepishly, I said, "That would be very nice". And, of course, it seems I was properly registered as a Republican like I had originally wished.

So there you have it!

RINO, I am

DINO, I used to be

iINO, is that iPhone in name only?

And finally on a plaque in front of the courthouse.....

Can't we all just get along?

Ride On, and Carpe Diem, my friends

Jimbo

Seen While Walking To The Bus Stop and Other Trivial 'Stuff'

I am still doing a lot of walking these days, but now with Autumn temperatures descending upon us, the color of the trees has been nice to look at. This tree is on the way to the bus stop fom my home. I just liked the colors.

And these two little scotties are a regular sight for me on the way to the bus stop. A nice man walks them 4 times a day, so he says. I see them about once a week or so. They are extremely friendly and give me a good sniff every time I see them.

We had some freezing temeratures lately so we picked the last of the peppers and pulled up the plants. We'll probably cook them in the smoker and freeze them so we can use them throughout the winter. We did that last year, too. This year's plants really suffered through the heat we had, and when the temperatures dropped a bit, they really started to produce. It was a very short growing season. Maybe better next year.

Our illustrous governor wants to emiminate the state income tax around here. Sounds good, but I don't think there is much of a plan to replace the revenue with anything that makes much sense. It will probably be a higher sales tax or maybe they will pass the obligations to more local taxing districts such as counties and cities.

At any rate, our governor has said that our tax structure should be a lot more like Texas, in fact some say he wants us to be a lot more like Texas in every respect. Well, I am not so sure that is a good idea. In Texas,  large corporations are treated with lots of preferences, maybe with more rights than even people have.

Then again, there are some certainites in life, like Google.

Google is now a verb, dontcha know.

Have you Googled yourself lately?

Just a Little Observation About Street Planning

I was thinking the other day, (seldom a good omen). As I rode east out of town on my ride to what is known locally as "Thunder Road", I noticed some significant improvements to some of the streets between Wichita and Andover, a "burb" about 10 miles east of Wichita. I remembered that 13th Street was a dirt road for part of the way. It is now paved, and not only that, it's 4 lanes wide with new trees and a bicycle path on the side. A very nice road it is. But the radical in me is thinking, "Do we really need all of this?". Yeah, it's nice, but did we really need a 45mph tree lined thoroughfare? It did need to be paved, but I find it hard to imagine that the traffic on this road is all that significant. It sure wasn't on a Sunday morning as I rode through here. Andover is a growing community with many sort of typical suburban housing developments with catchy names like "Quail Ridge" or "Sienna" or some other name that makes you want to live there. And a lot of people that live in Andover work in Wichita and need a good road to get back and forth in their, mostly huge, urban assault vehicles. But just a mile to the north is an excellent road going the same direction. There's another good road just a mile to the south, and 2 miles south, still another even faster road. So now the residents in Andover have 4 possible and comfortable routes to Wichita for their 15 mile commutes to work. I suppose I shouldn't pick on Andover residents. The same thing occurs in other places around the city of Wichita in other similar bedroom communities. This process is likely repeated all over the country. Hell, what is happening here in Wichita is peanuts compared to cities in California and many other places where commuting can be a much worse nightmare than it is around here. As I rode, in my mind, I was wondering if we really had our priorities where they needed to be. Roads are expensive. Our taxes help pay for them. We seem to try and make it easy for longer distance commuters. Is this right? If you consider our dependence as a nation on foreign oil, does this make any sense? Everyone says we use too much of that "black gold" from the Middle East, and have said that for a long time. But I am thinking that we are not doing much, if anything, to help ourselves out. We live near a major 4 lane street here in Wichita. A few years ago the city had a proposal to "improve" the street by widening it to 5 lanes (the 5th lane for a turn lane) and widen the lanes themselves. Their theory for all of this is that they were predicting that daily traffic on the street would increase from approximately 12,000 cars per day to over 20,000 cars per day in the next couple of decades. We attended a planning meeting along with a few neighbors so we could find out more. We had trouble believing that the traffic could ever really increase that drastically. To make the improvements they would have to suck up a lot of additional ground on either side of the existing street. Fully mature trees would have to be cut down. Some residents would lose a significant part of their already short driveways. There were some very concerned residents, some even a bit angry. Long story short, the proposal was defeated at a subsequent city commission meeting, but the process was a bit revealing in some ways. What bothered many of us was the attitude that the city planners "knew all about what was best for us". Our concerns were heard, but sort of shrugged off and almost ignored in some cases. The cancellation was, in my opinion, largely because one of the nearby residents was a state legislator and maybe "had some power" to influence the city planners decision. The planning process for that road to Andover may have been very similar. Andover is a growing community and is growing faster than Wichita. I am sure that over time the traffic on that road will increase, but Andover is not a big town. The traffic between here and there is not overwhelming and I can't imagine that it will be anytime soon. I bet the traffic planners aimed pretty high on their estimates of future traffic. It seems like the planners think that road budgets should have a very high priority and we have to spend a bunch of money whether the needs are really there or not. As a taxpayer, it seems a grossly inefficient way to spend money. I think that the millions of dollars they spent on that road and others could be spent a little more wisely. It's a really nice road, but Jeez! What if they spent a little of that money on more efficient forms of transportation, or used some of it to educate and encourage people to find more efficient ways to get to and from work. What if they made it easier and safer for people to commute on 2 wheels (of any kind). I am all for having nice roads to ride and drive on but I'm thinking that we could be a lot more efficient and conservative with our planning and tax dollars. I am reminded of a John Mellencamp song: Oh but ain't that America, for you and me Ain't that America, we're something to see baby Ain't that America, home of the free Little pink houses for you and me Those little pink houses are sure getting more and more spread out, requiring more planning, more pavement, more taxes and more oil. And I am just getting more and more cynical.

Common Sense in Kansas

From a dictionary: Sage One venerated for experience, judgment, and wisdom. adj. sag·er, sag·est 1. Having or exhibiting wisdom and calm judgment. 2. Proceeding from or marked by wisdom and calm judgment: sag From a thesaurus: Sage - a mentor in spiritual and philosophical topics who is renowned for profound wisdom Hakham - a Hebrew title of respect for a wise and highly educated man mahatma - (Hinduism) term of respect for a brahmin sage mentor, wise man - a wise and trusted guide and advisor From Conchscooter: dear cpa : Spring in Kansas must mean there will soon be lots of people out protesting aginst common sense. Photos please. One day, quite innocently, I had left a comment on Conchscooter's fine blog, The Key West Diary. In my comment I had merely stated that it was just beginning to feel like spring here on the plains after a cold winter. What you just read above was part of his response. Little did I know how omniscient Conch was. That same day I received this notice. By E-Mail.

Yup! Spring is almost here!

. And Sarah is coming to town!

. Will she have notes on her hand?

Will she bring her rifle with her?

Will she sell out our new arena?

. Will parking be a problem?

. Will she be treated like a Rockstar?

Will she try to answer questions that she is not prepared for?

. Will she say "You Betcha"?

. Will she call for Jihad against all she finds offensive in the world? .

Will she come out swinging?

And finally;

. And the most important question;

. Will the "all knowing" Conchscooter, the Sage of The Key West Diary, suddenly emerge as the Messiah that the civilized world has been waiting for?

. How did Conch know that there would be a total abandonment of common sense in Kansas this spring? Makes me wonder!

. So many questions.

. I may miss the Sarah Palin event.

. I am going to go for a ride on Max!

. Your thoughts?

Communists and Left Wing Republicans

Here's a post with intrigue! A post about stupid politicians! A post that involves, at least indirectly, one of our beloved fellow bloggers from the great city of Key West Florida! I am speaking of the one and only Conchscooter of Key West Diary fame. A blogger we all know and love for his keen insight into politics, health care, Triumph motorcycles, Vespas and the general state of the world as it is. I am not being facetious. Through his great blog, many of us know more about the Lanes, eating establishments, tourist attractions, nude beaches, politics and other facts about Key West than perhaps we know about our own cities. Well, maybe there is not a lot of intrigue to this post, but there is definate stupidity on the part of a politician, and the story involves a neighbor of Conch's, that neighbor being the country of Cuba. Cuba is, of course, only a stone's throw away from the great city of Key West, or at the very least, it isn't too far away. First a little background. I have maintained for a few years now that there are actually 3 political parties here in Kansas where I live. First you have your Democrats who are vastly outnumbered by the Republicans. The Democrats are not always well organized or well financed, but they are steady and consistent. The Republicans, however, are divided into two camps. And the two camps do not always get along with each other. I'll refer to them as the Conservative Republicans and the Moderate Republicans. It is, of course, a philosophical impossibility to be a Left Wing Republican. The Conservatives are fiercely aligned with various social issues such as abortion, the death penalty, the teaching of evolution and a distrust of big government. I say fiercely aligned, because to them, sometimes, it's their way or the highway. Even If the person they are arguing with is a fellow Republican. Kansas is a very red state. Yet, for the last 8 years, we have had a Democratic governor largely because, in my opinion, the 2 factions of the Republican party could not agree to support the same candidate. The current situation is that we have a Senator that is retiring from the Senate at the end of his next term. Two of our present US representatives, both Republicans, are vying for the Senate seat being vacated. The Senate seat is expected to be won in the primary as the Democratic candidate is not expected to be much of a factor. Here's the deal. One of them is a Conservative, the other very much a Moderate. The battle lines have been drawn. The Moderate is an early leader in the polls, supposedly with a 10-15 point margin. The moderate has raised more money for his campaign and it is starting to look bad for the Conservative. You would think that in the interest of party unity, the Conservative might just resign and throw his support to his opponent. But this is Kansas. The concept of unity in the Republican party does not exist, at least not happily. So what does the Conservative do? His campaign managers send out an Email to many of their supporters that says, in the title of the Email, that the Moderate candidate has been endorsed for the Senate seat by the Communist Party of the USA! . ????? . Upon checking with the Communist Party, they deny the endorsement and go on to say that they never endorse any Republican or Democrat for office because they like to try and find their own candidates. Makes sense to me. So what gives here?

Well, as it turns out, the Moderate candidate is one of approximately 170 other congressmen that are co-sponsoring a bill that in part is designed to ease travel restrictions between the good old USA and Cuba.

Ah yes, those Communists in Cuba! ..........................Bastards!

Guilt by association and inuendo! The politics of Fear! Who knows. It just might work!

Of course, the Moderate candidate is no more a Communist than you or I.

This is also notwithstanding the fact that many people think that the way we treat Cuba and attempt to isolate it probably does more to keep the Communists in power there than any other action we might take.

Hell, I don't know about all the details of the bill, nor do I really care. I am just amazed that some politicians think they can get away with crap like this. I hope, in a way, that this is unique to Kansas politicians but I am pretty sure it is not. Which is sort of sad.

They say that some people should not be allowed to breed. Others should not become politicians. Perhaps, sometimes, certain politicians should not be allowed to breed.

I certainly cannot begin to understand what they expected to accomplish with this Email. I would hope that most people would be able to see through this kind of bullshit politics. It would be really sad If I was wrong about that.

But Conch, I want to sincerely thank you! For defending our freedom from the tyranny of the Communists that live so close to you. I cannot begin to adequately express my appreciation for the dangers you and your fellow Key West citizens must face each and every day from the menace just a few miles from your shores. I, here in the midwest, am so thankful that you have so steadfastly maintained a vigil to keep the rest of us protected from the dangers of the nation that means nothing but harm for us in the good old USA. I am indebted to you and your fellow citizens in Key West. You have my deepest respect and gratitude! Besides that, you have a Kick Ass blog!