floodgate.blog

Part of the tension arm in my engine decided to quit on me and fell out of my engine.. here are the pics.

The serpentine belt, loose as all hell

The pulley wheel that fell out of my engine...

You can "sort of" see the bearing shredded. The bolt was almost glowing when I first saw it, and it definitely wasn't straight.

The joys (and shortfalls) of being a high school teacher is that I get the day off (or delayed) due to inclement weather (the down side is that I pay for it in June… grrrr).  Anyway, on a day that was arguably both a two-hour delay and a cancellation kind of day (depending on where you were), I decided to take some pics on my way to work.  Please excuse the inconsistency of my crappy camera… it was the one on my phone :-/

I-89 South approaching Springfield, NH

Gile Pond Rd., in Sutton, NH

Approaching the intersection of Gile Pond Rd. and NH 114, Sutton, NH

NH 114, Sutton, NH

NH 114, Sutton, NH

Approaching Blaisdell Lake, NH 114, South Sutton, NH

NH 114 in Bradford, NH

NH 114, Henniker, NH (On a clear day, you can see Pats Peak from here)

Note: The amount of traffic in all of these pictures is normal.. I definitely will never go back to a big city again.

So, I finally took a minute to get my phone to play nice with my laptop, and despite the speed difference (to be fair, my phone is only USB1.1, so it’s slow anyway) is much easier than trying to remember/find my cable.  I’m also able to send/receive files via bluetooth (which VZW says I can’t do.. wheeee).  Still, if I do any file transfers, I’ll go find my cable and bump all the way up to 12mbps…

While I don’t agree that “everything” on this list is wasteful, it’s pretty lame that some of this is on there, after a whole campaign against earmarks, and “trimming the pork” on bills coming from both houses.

What GOP Leaders deem wasteful in Senate stimulus bill – CNN.com.

The highlights:

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient.
• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.
• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.
• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters.
• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees. — This is my favorite, because HOW DARE I SPEAK OUT AGAINST HYBRID CARS, right?  Do a little homework to see how much energy and pollution is wasted and created by building a hybrid car.  Then figure out how many HUNDREDS of thousands of miles you would have to drive your current car to achieve that same amount of waste.
• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River. — Nothing personal, but if you choose to live near the Mississippi River, it’s your own fault.  Get flood insurance, or move to the top of a hill or something.  Why should I have to pay for it?

The rest don’t annoy me as much as these, but most of that list is “wasteful”.  Amtrak?  Really?  They’re on the way out!  It’s almost cheaper to fly than it is to ride a train now!