Squirrels are cute, smart but can also be pretty damaging and nasty pests, causing all kinds of damage to houses. Once they decide to get inside an attic, watch out. They are excellent chewers and unless your house is built out of bullet-proof materials, they will usually manage to get in, often causing all kinds of problems, including leaky roofs and walls and will do all they can to keep you awake at night, by running all over the attic.

The only legal way to get rid of them is to trap them, or have them trapped and carted away. But if you are living in an area containing enough of the basic squirrel foods, such as acorns and nuts, they are sure to re-appear again.

This post is not strictly about squirrels, though, but rather about the very unusual shortage of the above-mentioned squirrel foods this year.

I remember that in previous years the acorns – under our thick canopy of white and red oak trees – were so plentiful, that in addition to having to rake several cubic yards of oak leaves, I usually raked and carted away thousands, upon thousands of acorns into the compost pile. Squirrels are as plentiful as birds in our yard. There are also several chipmunks living in the drainage pipes, extending from the downspouts, away from the house. I always wondered how our chipmunks manage to weather violent rainstorms, without getting blown out of those pipes by the rushing water.

What got me thinking was the fact that our large, uncarved and whole Halloween pumpkin got very thoroughly worked over by either one very evident fat squirrel, or by our entire squirrel population. In the past pumpkins were left largely alone, decaying and finally getting thrown either in the garbage can, or in the compost pile, but this year the big orange vegetable was devoured almost completely, skin and all, within about two weeks.

At first I thought that maybe this was a case of a particularly voracious animal, but a recent article in the Washington Post confirmed my rising suspicions that something was definitely weird and different around the yard. No acorns to speak of, anywhere to be seen.

Theories about this event abound. Some think that the sudden dearth of acorns and nuts is due to global warming and to overall climate change, others theorize that it has something to do with heavy rains last spring, which could have interfered with oak and nut tree pollination and so forth.  Or maybe it had something to do with the amazing Moon- Venus – Jupiter display which is so gorgeous in the early evening sky about now?

The bottom line is that for the first time in living memory the usually incredibly plentiful crop of acorns simply didn’t materialize. This sudden shortage could have an impact way beyond the squirrel population, as acorns are a staple food source for many different animals, including bears and deer and although we don’t depend on acorns for survival any longer, they were known to be one of the staple foods for the American Indians at one time.

In the meantime, give the squirrels a break. They are frantically running around looking for a winter supply of food and more often than usual are getting run over by cars. Many squirrel aficionados have actually started feeding them hazelnuts and peanut butter, hoping to tidy them over until the next acorn and nut crop appears, but that will probably take almost an entire year…

Technorati Tags: acorns, nuts, shortage, squirrels

I don’t know how many of you own and use a gasoline-powered leaf blower. Having rented large, backpack-type units in the past, I have long ago decided that these monstrously loud and polluting machines should be controlled, maybe in a similar way as firearms. Needless to say, I do not own a leaf blower. My mulching mower can perfectly – while actually doing something useful, such as cutting grass – convert all of my many leaves into tiny particles, which are left in the lawn as a very good, natural fertilizer.

The rest of the cleanup is done with traditional tools: rakes and brooms. Do any of you own one of these very efficient, non-polluting, low-tech implements?

Los Angeles has already implemented a ban on gas leaf blowers and the whole area has very quickly become a much more pleasant place to live. No more roaring blowers, no more toxic two-cycle exhaust fumes and no more clouds of dust. Check out the Zero Air Pollution (ZAPLA) website on this issue.

Considering the fact that the leaf blowers are not really a very efficient way of removing leaves – in my personal experience, only marginally easier to use than a good rake – the deafening noise and pollution that they produce is really not a worthwhile price to pay. I could say pretty much the same for gas-powered weed whackers, which I have refused to buy for all these years for the same reasons, opting instead to continue using a variety of hand tools, including a very old machete, which when properly sharpened is an incredibly efficient and satisfying tool to use.

Using these power implements probably harkens to the same mentality that has created what is called “a very efficient” agriculture in the U.S. “Efficient”? Not when you take into account the amount of energy and pollution that the myriad agricultural machines consume and produce. How about the often deadly for the environment artificial fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides? Don’t even get me started on the genetically modified plants and animals, or the corn ethanol, or the high fructose corn syrup and all the other so-called benefits of our industrialized “civilization”.

Maybe the economic meltdown, along with rising energy prices (don’t let the temporary reduction in the price of oil fool you), along with (hopefully) more stringent and responsible environmental regulations under the Obama administration will change our perception of what is efficient and correct to use. And if all goes well, gas-powered leaf blowers will become regulated to a degree, where we will seldom, if ever have to put up with their annoying roar.

Technorati Tags: blowers, gas, leaf, noise, not, pollution, useful

The financial problems of the U.S. automakers are common knowledge. The dubious lineups that the Big Three offer and the equally dubious quality that they represent are also quite well known. But is it really true that Americans are incapable any longer of designing and producing quality automobiles, like they seemed to be perfectly able to do fifty, or more years ago? Not exactly true, but more on that later.

Personally, I do not see (and haven’t seen for decades) even one vehicle offered by GM, Ford, or Chrysler in the U.S., that I would be even remotely interested in owning. The cost of fuel is certainly part of the problem, but there is so much more. Lets list a few of the problems: Lousy handling: That has been corrected to a large degree in the past few years. Even the most blatant example of the “great American boat ride”, namely Cadillac has in the past few years totally redesigned their cars, making them fast and tight and zippy. But do we really need the Caddy Escalade, particularly in the pickup configuration? How about the Lincoln LT pickup?

Lousy quality: Remember the Ford Pinto, the Chevy Chevette and Vega, the American Motors Pacer and Gremlin and a host of other truly crappy vehicles? GM’s TWO Speed automatic transmission was a true classic of brainlessness. How about Chrysler’s line of “muscle cars” of the 60s and 70s? If I remember correctly neither the Charger, nor the Challenger, or the Barracuda were anything more than a huge engine, installed into a cheap, rattling and a distinctly non-durable body, with a suspension not much more advanced than a horse drawn buggy.

Many years ago I owned an International Harvester Scout. An almost reasonably sized predecessor to today’s SUVs. The thing looked tough and rugged, had a small V8 engine and a four-speed manual transmission, large knobby tires and a winch. A real macho machine. Right? Wrong! It was the very last American vehicle that I bought. The thing would shut down when it rained and wouldn’t restart until the weather cleared. The dealer replaced the ignition system three, or four times, until he finally got it right. The “rugged” rear drive shaft broke in half, while accelerating a bit too fast from a red light. One day the gearshift lever just came off and I was incredulously left holding a long, bent steel rod, with a knob on the end. And if that wasn’t enough, about a year after buying this new vehicle, I noticed rust holes in the vehicle’s body, just above the rear wheels. Looked underneath and gasped. There was nothing, not even a suggestion of a lining in the wheel well. In short: everything kicked up by the big, knobby tires went straight up in between the body panels – which of course were not even painted and certainly not rustproofed – and ate them up. That’s what I call “good design” and “quality” folks. Can you blame me for not falling for another piece of Detroit iron since that time?

At the same I admire and like a host of well-built American cars from the 30s, 40s and 50s. Has it really been that long since they offered us some quality products?

The sad truth is that pretty much all of the U.S. automakers have been actually designing and producing pretty good vehicles all along, except that most of them never see the U.S. market.

Take for example the very well built Ford Mondeo. Reasonably pretty, with good handling, comfortable, with crisp steering, etc. Of course some 70 percent of Mondeos sold in Europe are equipped with diesel engines – something that we in the U.S. can only salivate about – and despite Mondeo’s relatively hefty (by European standards) weight, the diesel still provides a pretty good mileage. Unfortunately, Ford Mondeo is built at Ford’s plant in Genk, Belgium, and the decline in the dollar’s value against the euro makes the prospect of exporting this car to the U.S. utterly untenable.

Even the otherwise decent Chrysler minivans are only available with a diesel option in Europe, but not in the U.S.

In short: the Big Three U.S. automakers have been forcing the huge, gas guzzling (and profitable for the manufacturers) SUVs down the American public’s throats for a great many years now. The bigger-the-better mentality has been with us for much too long.

Overall, there has been not nearly enough of an emphasis on quality and certainly not on environmental consciousness in the past several decades. The quality problems are not limited to the auto industry, but to our overall business “strategies”. Saving a few pennies has become more important than building something well and planned obsolescence has become still another tool to keep the corporate profits up, while simultaneously screwing everybody else.

That said, I see no reason to pump billions, or even trillions of dollars into any industry, which has for many years now tried to steal money from all of us. If we are to have a free market system, propping up the corporations – in particular the financial industry – is certainly not the way to go about it.

Technorati Tags: automakers, chrysler, decline, ford, gm, lack, quality, US

This is not a joke. After being subjected to almost unbelievable rhetorical excesses – not unlike hearing a new kind of a language – for the past eight years, the very real possibility of once again hearing complete sentences coming out of the White House seems like a breath of fresh air.

So, brace yourselves. Starting January 20, 2009, the presidential press conferences will not sound like parts of the Jerry Springer Show any longer. We realize that this might take a bit of getting used to, but for those of you, who are actually in the habit of reading good books from time to time, it should not be too hard to make the adjustment. Just perk up your ears and keep a dictionary handy. You could need it to help you decipher words, which you might not have heard in about eight years.

Technorati Tags: bush, complete, heard, obama, sentences, soon, white house

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation: -”I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Article II, Section 1, The United States Constitution.

George Washington is reputed to have added the phrase so help me God to the end of his oath, and almost every president has added it since. *See comment below*

That’s part of the constitutional requirements for the historic oath of office, which we will hear President Barack Obama take on January 20, 2009.

By the way, Barack Obama did not exactly become president-elect on November 4, 2008. He is the president-designate. He won’t officially become president-elect until after December 15, 2008 when the Electoral College actually votes for the President.

Inauguration Day was originally set for March 4, giving electors from each state nearly four months after Election Day to cast their ballots for president. In 1933, the day of inauguration was changed by constitutional amendment to January 20 to speed the changeover of administrations.

Before that momentous event there will be a tremendous amount of work, thinking, decisions, coordination and probably compromise. The Presidential Transition team has already taken over one of the buildings in downtown Washington DC.

Three separate organizations are responsible for planning the modern inauguration. Various military groups provide logistical support and also have a role in the ceremony itself. The Presidential Inaugural Committee has final say on nearly every detail, down to the music played by the Army and Marine bands. The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies handles most events at the Capitol.

The transition arrangements are also separately active in practically all of the major federal government agencies, including the Pentagon. The Armed Forces Inaugural Committee has been active for some months now, occupying a building, only about half a mile away from the Capitol. Another, every-four-years, expensive process of building the inaugural site from scratch has started as well. Personally, having witnessed several presidential inaugurations – each on a brand new, specially built platform – we think that this is a bit of a waste of money and time. Well…maybe this time it is all right. After all the occasion is considerably more uplifting than it has been for many decades.

Those are just the nuts and bolts of the transition/inaugural process. The behind the scenes work, such as choosing cabinet appointments and a great many other issues, is no less taxing and difficult. Some of the choices will certainly not be easy to make, but there seems to be no shortage of willing bodies, lining up to be taken into consideration by the Obama team.

Most hotel rooms in and around Washington are already booked and people are readying their houses, condos and apartments for short-term and often lucrative rentals to the anticipated tens of thousands of inaugural visitors.

I wonder what sort of gimmicks we will see at the upcoming inauguration parade. George H.W. Bush’s one in 1989 had the type of plane in which Bush as a young naval pilot was shot down over the Pacific. His son’s 2005 parade had a variety of horse-mounted policemen, soldiers, cowboys and others. We distinctly remember both riders and horses freezing, while waiting for the parade to start, as the president arrived late, having spent too much time at the traditional congressional luncheon.

The swearing-in, luncheon, parade and actual arrival at the White House are of course just the beginning of the festivities. Let’s not forget the myriad inaugural balls, performances – hopefully including Mark Russell’s hilarious inaugural extravaganza – and all kinds of other events, which will keep Washington humming well into the next day.

Technorati Tags: gathers, inauguration, obama, presidential, steam, transition