That scraping you sound you hear is me dragging my soap box out. Yet another article in the Urinal Jar about building another energy wasting ethanol plant. And yet again our fine journalists fail to investigate what they report and inform the public it takes more energy (and pollution) to produce a gallon of corn ethanol than the gallon of corn ethanol is worth. Almost 25% more. It doesn’t make any sense to waste energy and tax money on an obviously failed long term solution. Again the corn lobby is legislating tax incentives, rebates and subsidies to fund this nonsense instead of finding ways to sell corn for food.
I may as well just leave the soapbox out. Don’t trip over it —— jump up on it and speak your mind!
Tracey finally wandered home last evening from three days of “training meetings” up near Chicago. She had that glazed look in her eye from sleeping on a lumpy hotel pillow and spending too much time driving through the cratered road construction hell Illinois calls a highway. She wonders why she went in the first place.
She did get a chance to meet her new boss and she proclaims the jury is still out on what she thinks of her. That’s my girl —— no rush to judgment or snap decisions based on first impressions.
I just hope things settle down for her at work. It has been a real roller coaster with her last boss being rather ineffectual and dumping on Tracey quite often —— and then she had to assume a lot of responsibilities when her last boss was “asked to step down”. (read: Got Fired!)
MjL 17 Aug 2006, 6:01 a.m.
The sun is just coming up and as I look out upon the splendor of nature I wonder —— why the heck do we have so many cars in our yard!?
We now have five (5) cars. Actually we have four and Noah has one, but still —— three of them have over 100,000 miles and we are trading the newest (the #VW Beetle) off on the new #Honda Hybrid (if it ever gets here). Here’s the logic. The #AstroVan is ancient and paid off. We use it for a bus to haul everybody everywhere and like a truck when we need building materials. We have to keep the van. The #Blazer is mine. Period. We have to keep it too. The #Taurus was Noah’s car and now it’s just a spare, but it is also paid off. It is also nearly worthless in resale value (like the van) and we have two new drivers coming along next spring. We have to keep it. That leaves us with the soon to be traded VW which is Tracey’s work car. Since we have to keep her we have to keep her car.
So I sit here and watch a beautiful sunrise. The new rays of light glistening upon the dew covering our used car lot.
MjL 17 Aug 2006, 6:02 a.m.
Geez, maybe Dave should just rent a car from you to drive in the winter!
I have the same story.....I HAVE to keep the motorcycle because I HAVE to keep him!
Tammy 17 Aug 2006, 6:55 a.m.
Occasionally you will hear or read me say “You should write a letter!”. Just to let you know I sometimes take my own advice I will share a reply I received from my Senator regarding a particularly repugnant attempt by the ruling party to undercut the already paltry healthcare system of our country. I don’t know if my constant letters and emails really do much good, but I actually get personalized (still a form letter, but personalized) letters on occasion. So I say again —— stay informed and write, call or email your elected representatives. Often.
I imagine you have heard about the Dell laptop computer battery recall by now. I happened to trip over a web site which chronicled a burning laptop and these photos went a long way toward prompting Dell to initiate the recall of 22,000+ batteries. If you have a Dell laptop you might want to check to see if YOUR battery might set you on fire!
MjL 17 Aug 2006, 7:10 a.m.
My brother Alan just called to let me know the state of Illinois had finally made an internet search engine available to check out the availability of license plate letter / number combinations. Tracey will be real happy to hear this as she has been trying to decide what she wants on her new car. Here’s the link
MjL 17 Aug 2006, 7:15 a.m.
This news flash just in from Alan Legel —— the following as reported in the Morton Times-News, Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 - page 3B
Future Leader: Cassie Hart, section 12 president, FFA member Andrew Legel, and Illinois State FFA treasurer, Mallory Daughtery attended the 2006 Illinois Future Farmers of America Leadership camp at Allerton Park near Monticello. Nearly 260 campers from across the state gathered to develop leadership skills.
Legel attends camp
Andrew Legel, of the Morton Future Farmer’s of America chapter recently attended the 2006 Illinois FFA leadership camp, at Allerton Park near Monticello. The camp was held from July 26th - 29th. Legel was among the nearly 260 campers from across the state that gathered to develop leadership skills and learn more about the FFA. Campers participated in a challenge course to develop teamwork, Ag Olympics, FFA power sessions, dance and a large water balloon fight. They also listened to presentations from the Illinois FFA alumni, Illinois Foundation FFA, hypnotist Dr. Morton Ford, and guest speaker Rod Stoll.
MjL 17 Aug 2006, 7:20 a.m.
Here are some highlights of the pension reform bill just passed. There are some good aspects and some horrible.
By The Associated Press August 17, 2006, 3:52 AM EDT
Major provisions of the pension protection bill:
* Requires employers with defined-benefit plans to make sufficient contributions to meet a 100 percent funding target and erase funding shortfalls over seven years.
* Forces employers with “at-risk” plans to make accelerated contributions. Under one scenario, a plan is deemed at-risk if it falls below 70 percent funded status using assumptions that employees take the most expensive benefits and retire at the earliest possible date.
* Changes the interest rate model used for measuring a company’s pension liabilities.
* Prohibits employers and unions from increasing benefits if a plan is less than 80 percent funded, unless the benefits are paid for immediately.
* Restricts the use of deferred executive compensation arrangements for employers with severely underfunded pension plans.
* Gives bankrupt airlines with a “hard freeze” on their plans an additional 10 years to meet funding obligations. A plan sponsor would pay a termination premium of $2,500 per plan once it emerges from bankruptcy. Airlines with a “soft freeze” on their plans would get an extra three years and must also pay the $2,500 premium if they terminate their plan upon entering bankruptcy. The premium would have to be paid when they emerge from bankruptcy.
* Ends the legal uncertainty surrounding cash balance pension plans and establish a simple age discrimination standard for all defined-benefit plans.
* Bars companies from forcing employees to invest any of their own retirement savings contributions in company stock.
* Permits qualified financial companies to offer face-to-face investment advice to help employees manage 401(k) and other retirement options. Those companies would be required to base recommendations on employer-sponsored plans such as 401(k)s on a certified computer model.
* Makes permanent provisions in a 2001 tax cut law that raised annual contribution limits for IRAs.
* Gives taxpayers the option of depositing a portion of their federal tax refund directly into an IRA.
* Allows employers to offer automatic enrollment in employer-sponsored defined contribution pension plans such as 401(k)s.
* Allows employers with defined benefit pension plans that are more than 120 percent funded to use assets to fund retiree health benefits.
MjL 17 Aug 2006, 7:25 a.m.
Oh my..............now you have 2 Legel mugshots on your site!
You’re a very lucky man!
You’re quick on the draw Alan!
(I couldn’t quite believe how large they made that nice little photograph that was sent to them.)
Also, FFA does not stand for Future Farmers of America any more. The newspaper took it upon themselves to print that. The pre-typed camp information didn’t use the spelled out version for FFA. I don’t even know exactly what it stands for nowadays.
Tammy 17 Aug 2006, 7:10 p.m.
OK? I just showed Andy his mug shot and he asked me how Alan (and you) got a colored picture? The one in the paper was black and white and blurry. How did ya do that?
Tammy 17 Aug 2006, 7:15 p.m.
All I can say is that Alan is a very resourceful fellow. The internet is an open book to him. You never know what he might be able to discover with a little effort.
MjL 17 Aug 2006, 7:20 p.m.
Just thought you “boys” would like to know that you are interrupting my beauty sleep! I cannot figure out how Alan did that picture! I’ve been surfing and surfing....no luck!
Tammy 17 Aug 2006, 11:03 p.m.
AHA! I just happened to mention your comment about how resourceful Alan can be and a light bulb went off over Andy’s head! He has that picture on “his space” and he is a “friend” of Alans!
Whew....now I can wake up a princess instead of a frog tomorrow!
About
All I can say is that Alan is a very resourceful fellow. The internet is an open book to him. You never know what he might be able to discover with a little effort.