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Jeb sent me this article where the guy says rechargeable batteries are rarely cost-effective. Here’s what I wrote back:

He’s right to some extent, but it surprises me that he doesn’t have a digital camera in his house. Those go through batteries pretty quickly and just about everybody has one. Though maybe he has one that uses a special battery instead of standard AA’s. Flashlights go through batteries pretty quickly too if you use them regularly, though I think I’ve only had to recharge mine twice in the six months or so that I’ve owned it (that may go up as I take the dogs for walks more often at night with the shorter days). The Archos eats through batteries too, as do some CD players that people might use every day. At the store I see packages of 24 disposable batteries and I have a hard time believing that someone buying a package like that couldn’t replace at least a few of those with rechargeables.

Continue reading “Are Rechargeable Batteries Cost Effective?”

After the floods it didn’t seem like very many bridges were washed out, but a few have been identified that they want us to replace. Today my group went out and looked at this bridge. The entire middle support fell over and somehow the bridge stayed up despite having no support. We have to work up plans for a new bridge as soon as possible so that construction can start and we can re-open the road. But meanwhile the road will still be shut for 6-9 months. I don’t want to put on the blog where the road is. These pictures were taken by other people, so I am not in any of them.

Before:

After:

I have been pretty good about not getting anymore flashlights and really don’t need anymore flashlights, but I did end up buying a really small AAA light recently (I’ll write more about it later). I wound up getting it from a website called GoingGear.com because they had reasonable shipping rates and a 10% off discount code. I was surprised to be charged sales tax, but it turns out they are located in Smyrna.

GoingGear has some neat stuff. It is mostly camping gear. They have a neat video about the iTP flashlight I got on their home page. Under “most popular items” they have an array of “firesteel” products. These are rods made of iron, magnesium, and rare earth metals that you can rub quickly with the back of a knife and flaming globs of magnesium come off to help you start a fire. The YouTube video he has on this page shows how it works. Anything that makes showers of sparks like that and helps me start a fire when I don’t have a lighter or matches and only costs $2 is something I need to have. However, I will admit that I don’t think I have ever in my life needed to start a fire when I didn’t have matches or a lighter. Still, *firesteel*! So I got the “bobcat” size (larger than squirrel and mouse sizes, smaller than moose or wolf sizes).

Also in the firebug category were these powdery rocks that catch fire fairly easily when exposed to the sparks and help you then get a real fire going with some more tinder. The powdery rocks even float in water and repel water themselves, so you can make a fire when it is pretty damp out. Another kind of neat video here.

The last kind of neat thing he demonstrates in a video on his home page is a line of pens and notebooks called Rite in the Rain. These let you write (in the rain?) on paper that is water resistant and the ink doesn’t run even when submerged. I could see where if you had some kind of field work to do that sometimes had you out in the rain (like a park ranger or something) that would be neat to have. I did not buy any of that or the wet fire stuff, but it was neat seeing it in action.

Along with the economy in general, my web site revenues seemed to have put the worst behind them, but the recovery is slow. I had three months in a row where I will earn a payment from Amazon (greater than $10 worth of commissions earned) whereas last quarter I only had one. AdSense is still anemic, but I got $5 in September. Somebody bought a couple of LED flashlight bulbs, so that sale almost certainly came from a link on the blog when I wrote about those. The most expensive item I sold was a Casio Men’s Pathfinder Multi-Band Solar Atomic Black Watch for $167.92. That locked in a payment for the month all by itself with a commission of $10.08. For the quarter I sold 40 items worth $1,060.52, earning $54.38.

When I first bought my house, Mr. Deckbar donated his old Lawn Boy mower to me. It was just like the one we used to have and I used it for several years but each Spring it was harder to get started. Norm turned me on to Starting Fluid which will bring just about any engine to life (it is pure octane, actually ether I think) but even with that it was sluggish. So I checked out Consumer Reports in 2003 and they had a Yard Man mower that they liked and said did a good job of mulching. With the old mower I would bag and compost the clippings sometimes, but mulching is better because it just recycles the clippings into the ground where they help the grass grow.

Continue reading “Yard Man, Meet Lawn Boy”