Category: Uncategorized

I got my water bill today from Dekalb County. They announced that, effective January 1, the price of water was going up to $5.41 per 1,000 gallons. Of course they don’t tell you what the old price was, so I figured it out and got $4.30. That’s an increase of 26%.

Then I wondered when the last time they went up was. I keep a spreadsheet of past utility costs and discovered that prior to January 1, 2003 the price was only $3.50 per 1,000 gallons. That means water has increased in price 54% in only two years!

There’s a picture of Grant that shows up on the main blog page every now and then where he is smoking a cigar on the porch down in Bradenton. That’s one of the funniest pictures I’ve ever seen.

Here’s a link.

Yesterday it got very cold with the high in the 30’s. Then last night it started raining and sleeting. By this morning there was a layer of ice on everything and it continued to rain and sleet off and on all day. My car is covered in icy armor with icicles hanging down off the bumper and over the license plate. Katie and Clio do not like the ice. It crunches under their feet and covers up the grass. They don’t seem real sure about where they can go to the bathroom.

I didn’t go anywhere today, just sat around the house and watched TV and played on the computer. I pulled out the Powerbook 5300 Jeb gave me and figured out why the power adapter isn’t working: there’s nothing wrong with the adapter itself but the tip appears to be broken. So I cut it off and I get voltage through the wires, but will now need a tip. Meanwhile my Powerbook 520 seems to have died completely. I’m not sure why it won’t work anymore, but I think it is a fuse in the Powerbook itself (or the keyboard won’t work and that’s where the power button is).

I couldn’t even walk up the slight hill of my driveway without going into the grass where I could get footing. The street is mostly ice, but people have been driving enough that there are two tire tracks that are clear. I haven’t lost power, but I charged up all my batteries just in case. I’ve heard a couple of big branches snap and fall, but nothing major yet. Tomorrow it is supposed to go into the 40’s so all of this should melt.

Anytime I have a promotion hanging in the balance I like to do something that will guarantee I don’t get it (and it worked). This year I decided to weigh in on the current “public-private initiative” for a private company to finance and build improvements to SR 316 to Athens. They would pay for this by charging tolls and it would cost something like $8 to drive from Atlanta to Athens using SR 316. If you want, you can still comment on this proposal (for two more weeks), but only if you agree with me. I wrote, not as a DOT employee, but a guy whose brother and family live in Athens. I sent it to the Commissioner of the DOT but found out later that it was supposed to go to [email protected] who is the Chief Engineer (and my boss’ boss’ boss’ boss). They sent me a nice form letter a few days later. I also cc’d the e-mail to my State Representative. I sent the e-mail on a Saturday (not at work) and within a few hours she had responded by e-mail and said she would bring it up when she met with the DOT board the following week. She also asked if I supported a higher gas tax and I replied “Of course!”

Continue reading “Georgia 316 Toll Proposal”

After my DVD player died and I was able to bring it to life, I noticed a button on it I had never used before. It was the Progressive Scan button. I bought this DVD player partly because it was progressive scan meaning that instead of showing you every other line of the picture 60 times a second it would show you a fresh frame 60 times a second. But apparently it would only do that if you pressed this button and I had never done that.

Continue reading “Movies to Video”