Obsolete

When I think back into the past, the starting point for me is the year 2000. Because, anytime before 2000 might as well be 1952 or 1965. Life from 1950 - 2000 doesn't seem to have changed drastically.

I often remember my sister making claim to my mom that life was so much harder now then it was in the past for kids. And my mom would counter that life now wasn't any different than when she grew up. What must have seemed to be such an outlandish claim to a youngster, was actually very accurate. Life in 1962 wasn't any different than 1992.

But after Thanksgiving dinner, instead of watching a game, everyone is sitting on the couches with their laptops. This represents a dramatic change in how we live our lives. And with these changes, many things common to life before, are now unnecessary and becoming rapidly obsolete. Looking around the 1950's ranch, I've found the following to be terribly obsolete.

• I received an answering machine as a college graduation gift. It's now sitting in a box along with all the telephone handsets that required a wire, and about 100 feet of extra telephone cable. All the telephone jacks from the main floor have been removed. We're 100% wireless.
• Newspaper holder on my mailbox. If I want to see the news, I go to dmregister.com. The Register still mails me a paper occasionally, and it goes right into the recycle bin.
  
• Mailbox. Okay, I still get mail every other day, but 99% of it goes straight into the recycle bin without being opened.
• Desk. I still have an office in the house with a desk. This is from when computers sat on a desk. I'm just waiting for the day to get rid of this spacewaster, as everything is nearly digital now. I'll probably replace it with a couple of storage boxes on a shelf.
• The Mediacom service wire at the side of the house remains, although cable service was discontinued long ago...
• The trashcan. I'm pretty sure we could recycle or compost 95% of our rubbish.
  

And making a comeback...

• The tv antenna from the 1950's in the attic is now a bonus.
  
• The bus stop at the end of the block. Who would have thought that riding the bus would be in vogue again.
  
• The back yard garden. We grow more veggies than we buy these days.
  

Blogging isn't dead...

But it has slowed down. We still walk every chance we get. Iowa is a wonderful place to be in the summer.

Fire Station, 1937

We spotted this old and interesting building on a greyhound walk.

The Smells of Our Walks

The Des Moines River may look dirty but usually lacks strong smells.

Walking my loyal greyhound lets me take in the environment around me. One of the most striking senses that one would miss if one wasn't walking, is the sense of smell.

After a big snow, there's the burning oil smell from two cycle snowblowers. If a older muscle car drives past us, a trail of raw gasoline is left in the air. Older minivans, Hondas, and Mitsubishi's can reek of burning oil that hangs in the air forever.

Burning tobacco has all kind of variations and levels. One can smell a heavy smoker's house just by walking past it on the sidewalk. They have a unique stale bowling alley smell mixed in with cool air conditioning. Someone smoking on their patio is obvious. Cigar smoke will hang in the air for a block. Pipes always smell good.

The smell of manwiches signals church pot-luck, and makes me lose my appetite quicker than anything else. Indian food cooking is spicy and sharp. Chinese cooking just smells awesome. BBQ chicken being grilled is unique. The burning wood and olive oil smell near a high end restaurant makes me jealous.

If I was driving instead of walking, this would all be missed.

2009 Amtrak Observations

I took the best train trip of my life this spring. I normally travel in winter, so seeing the green landscape in May was very refreshing. I also traveled on a weekend, and it was amazing seeing everyone enjoying their weekend across the country. Nothing beats train travel.

There are some obvious, very good changes happening with Amtrak, which I assume is due to them getting funding they've needed for a very long time.

• I've found the trains are running on time or even early sometimes. It's not perfect, but a huge improvement.
• Amtrak staff on the trains are now much friendlier.
• Half of the coach cars have electrical outlets for personal electronics. Half of the lounge cars are modern. Half of the cars are still old with orange/brown early 80's colors.
  
• The trains are being used more, it's likely you'll be traveling on a train that's nearly booked up at times.
• Some of the century old Iowa train stations are planning renovations. It's definitely needed. The Illinois train stations are impressive vs. the Iowa stations that really haven't changed since they were built.
  

Some things that haven't changed and still need improvement.

• The food is bad and doesn't seem very healthy. I recommend bringing your own food. Stopping at Trader Joe's at my destination and buying fresh food for lunch dinner for the trip home was very smart.
• Chicago Union Station is still kind of mess. It's very over crowed, confusing, the staff is not friendly, some of the bathrooms were closed. But, if you know your way around, it's pretty easy to limit your time here and get to the bus stop quickly. The Great Hall is a nice place to relax.
  

How Long Does a Car Last?

Inspecting the Damage

Imagine you're driving on an unplowed, icy, snow covered road. Your windshield is partially obscured by freezing rain. A curb appears, you steer left, your out of control car keeps going straight. You're not going to make the turn.

Do you turn the wheels straight to go over the curb straight-on? Or, do you crank the wheel all the way and let the side of the wheel take the impact. Captain Smith on the Titanic had to make a similar decision. Choose wrong and you can total out your car. (Or sink your ship.)

I chose wrong, so cars are on my mind lately. I've always bought older cars, then driven them into the ground. They normally sell for $700 when I'm done with them. This time, I'm considering on upgrading to a higher end car, but the extra cost only works out if one drives the car a long time. An extra $5k for the high performance engine is relatively cheap expensed over 20 years. So how long does a modern car last?

I'm on my third car in 15 years of driving, so here's my experience.

• 1986 Mitsubishi - Ran with zero problems until age 9, then everything broke. Interior was shot. Engine worn out. Lifespan, 10 years.
• 1990 Nissan Stanza - Definitely the best car I owned. Only needed normal maintenance. Interior still looked new. Engine and body solid. Sold for a sportier car at age 14 and 145k miles. Will likely make it to age 20 or 200k+ miles.
• 1988 Nissan 300ZX - Lot of fun with this one...until I hit that curb. Needs major service every 60k miles. Interior and accessories began breaking at age 17, but still mechanically rock solid at age 21 and 135k miles. AC is still cold. Could likely push it to age 30 and 300k miles by keeping up on the little things needing replaced.
  

Yes, I keep my cars a long time. And, that's a lot of variation, with the Mitsubishi only lasting 10 years and the Nissan potentially lasting 20 - 30 years. Assuming one bought a car new, and drove it into the scrapyard, two cars would last a lifetime.

Internet articles estimate a car's lifespan to be 8 - 10 years and 150k - 200k miles. Kind of low in my opinion.

So, what's the proper way to hit a curb? Straight on risks catching the frame rails on the curb, bending them, deploying the airbags, smashing the radiator to bits, and bending bodywork. But if it's shallow enough, you may drive over it with zero damage. Hitting it side on like I did, risks bending the control, arm, tie rod, and tension rod, along with the frame. Yes, there's no proper way to hit a curb.

Garden Defence II

Greyhounds are attracted to gardens, and greyhounds can be pooping machines. The only solution is garden defence.

My first attempt using sticks, twine, and spare lumber can only be described as: FAILURE. The greyhounds were easily able to defeat it.

I'm paranoid about the economy, so I tripled the garden space. I decided to build a proper anti-greyhound fence. Fences are incredibly expensive. A roll of wire mesh is $60, and that buys a lot of tomatoes at the farmer's market, so I needed cheap.

Greyhounds respect obstacles, as long as it's not rotting sticks and lumber they can simply walk over. I picked up three t-posts at my local farm store for $15. Instead of traditional wire for the fence, I made four rungs with twine. To top it off, I bought some wedge-lock attachments for the tposts, and attached boards to use as a gate.

There's a lot of rope style electric fence components that would probably work equally well. (Just don't make it live.) Ag fencing is actually quite fun to research. It seems there's a fence and tool for any situation.

So far, success. Long Nose stared at the fence for a few minutes, but completely leaves it alone. The garden is safe.

Spring Fun

Some random photos of springtime in Iowa:

Miss Long Nose finds her county. Smart dog.

Enjoying music and vegetarian food at the Ritual Cafe.

Spotted on our walk, there's a very old storefront, filled with wisdom.

A rabbit?

To Our Four Year Anniversary

Here's to 1,200 pounds of premium dog food. Plus well over a thousand dog bags courteously disposed of. $1,400 went to my vet and Merial. We're on our third dog bed, second crate, and considering our second dogmobile.

Two birds have been killed, along with one rabbit, and countless flies.

We've walked an equivalent of two months. I weigh about 15 pounds less than I would otherwise.

The years 2002, 2003, and 2004 mean little to me. They were just years filled with too many hours working towards a career. Then 2005 came along and everything changed. A monumental year. Here's to four more great years, my greyhound friend.

Liquor Store Robbery & Testosterone Deficiency

I absolutely love walking at night. It's so much more of a relaxing experience, completely different than walking during the day. But do you ever wonder about your safety?

Friday night was the day I saw the most police cars in my life. The liquor store that gives me so much entertainment, was robbed. We had missed witnessing the robbery by about 5 minutes.

The Des Moines Register described the robbery as:

The man, wearing a red bandanna over his face and a hooded sweatshirt, entered the store at 4538 Lower Beaver Road at about 8:30 p.m. He pointed a gun at the clerk and said, "You know what time it is. Open the register."

If that wasn't exciting enough for my Friday, my third foster dog was adopted! Of course we miss him, but he went to such an awesome home, we're thrilled. I picked him up fresh off the track last August, he was adopted, bounced, and he's been putting up with Miss Long Nose since.

On the downside, I'm the only guy in the house again, surrounded by females. I need to start wearing old spice and macho this place up.