Chester Creek, Duluth MN 2008

The last several months I've just been out of sorts, anxious, unsettled but I have not been able to put my finger on the problem. Well yesterday I realized what the problem is, I have not been in the woods; I haven't gone camping, hiking, canoeing, anything and my soul has been missing the outdoors. I've ridden my bike in the woods and I've taken a few strolls here and there but nothing like what I need. 

Yesterday Kathy and I took a road trip to Duluth to visit her niece who is going to school up there. The drive was beautiful and as always Kathy and I had a fun time traveling together. We arrived in Duluth around 10:30 AM, picked up Christine and Rob, Christine's fiance and off to breakfast we went. After breakfast Christine and Rob showed Kathy and I where they plan to get married; it's a beautiful spot in Chester Creek park.  The four of us then hiked along Chester Creek; the smell of the leaves, the birds, the water running over rocks it was like music to my soul and that is when I realized how much I miss being in the woods. 

I used to go camping at least once a month and sometimes more often. Kathy, Marly and I would even rent cabins along the North Shore in the winter. I had it down to a science, I would have everything packed and ready to go Friday night. On Saturday morning I would get up and go to work, come home and back the truck up to the trailer (ok, call me a wimp, I had a pop-up camper), toss the dogs into the truck and within two hours we would be at the campgrounds with everything set up. The dogs and I would spend the weekend just chilling in the woods, it was great. Kathy and Marly had a camper as well and we would plan weekends together, get sites near each other and have so much fun exploring the outdoors. Marly was so funny, they had to have a TV in their camper, Marly did not go anywhere without her TV. 

I'll never forget the time there was a group of us camping together and everyone had gone to bed except Kathy, me and a bottle of Jagermeister. Kathy and I sat around the firepit, taking nips off the Jager, laughing and talking about the good ol' days and at one point we must have gotten a little too loud because the next thing we hear is Marly "KATHY!" and Kathy says "what?" Marly: "you know those campers you hate?" Kathy "yeah" Marly "WELL YOU'RE ONE OF THEM!!!" of course Kathy and I giggle and head off into the campgrounds so that we don't disturb Marly. We still laugh about it. God I miss those days.

The camper has since found a new owner, my dogs have met their maker, Kathy lives in California and we just unveiled the headstone on Marly's grave this morning. As I sit here writing this post, I'm flooded with memories and I ask myself how did I get to where I'm at today? It seems like such a short time ago and now my life is a speeding by so quickly that I can't keep up with it. We've all grown a little older and hopefully wiser, the only thing that has remained the same is my address and phone number everything else in my life has changed. I can't complain about the world I've created for myself but sometimes, especially on days like today I miss the past, I miss the people, my little dogs, it just seemed so much simpler back then. I know I've became a little cynical over the years and I'm trying to change that, I know I'm pretty set in my ways which has made it difficult for me to maintain a relationship and quite frankly I knew long ago that I would probably spend my life alone, I can't say that it's what I want but I haven't found a person yet that can allow me to be me and until that happens I'll just remain on my own. 

One thing I know for sure is that next year the canoe is coming off the wall in the garage, I'm finding my tent and I'm going camping. I don't care if I have to go alone but I am taking my ass to the woods. I have always wanted to pack my gear, well not the canoe, on my bike and take off for a long weekend. Winter is just around the corner so I have plenty of time to plan it and who knows maybe I can even talk a few people into joining me. I can incorporate two of my favorite things, riding my bike and playing in the woods.  

Miss Marly, I hear your laughter, I see your smile and I miss you every day, until we meet again my friend...

Energy Bill

A while back I made a comment/joke about how my electricity bill will be cut in half after my little brother moves out; today I received my first Xcel Energy bill since he moved. Guess what? My electric bill is less than half of what it was last year for the same billing period! This lead me to examine my bill a little closer and I realized that I have no idea what I am being charged for. Yes I can figure out the electricity usage and the gas usage but what the hell is all of that extra stuff? 

I started going through my bill, now this is not a fun thing to do and quite frankly if I was not just hanging out waiting for a friend I probably would not have done this, well, maybe I would but it is not something I normally do. Ok, so as I was saying; I start going through my bill line by line and the first thing I see? "current energy charges" and under that "current other charges," well current charges was easy enough that's the total I have to pay this month.  After searching a little more I figured out current other charges was my  HomeSmart charge; HomeSmart is a program Xcel Energy has for your home appliances. 

Now onto the more intricate parts of the bill:

Basic Service Charge

Energy Charge Summer

Energy Charge Winter

Environment Improvement Rider

Fuel Cost Charge

Resource Adjustment 

City fees

Transit Improvement Tax

City Tax

State Tax

whew I'm exhausted and this is only the Electric  charges, now you can add gas charges:

Basic Service charge

Cost of Gas

Gas Affordability

Distribution Adjustment

City fees

Transit Improvement Tax

City Tax

State Tax

It's crazy, so off I go to the Xcel Energy website to try to figure out what all of this means. First stop "understanding my bill" and from there "Billing Glossary," now we're getting somewhere. I perused through the glossary checking off what was on my bill with each definition, for the most part I found each of the charges but there were a couple I could not find so now it's on to the telephone. Xcel has a 1-800 number you can call to speak to a representative, it took a few seconds to press the appropriate numbers in order to be put on hold waiting, tick tock, tick tock, please hold, muzak, tick tock, advertisement for Energy Star furnace, more muzak, tick tock, apology, please hold, tick tock... advertisement for furnace filter.. Hello this is Ryan how may I help you? Surprise less than 3 minutes and I had a service representative, an actual live person on the line, yippee!  

Hi Ryan, I have two questions for you about the charges on my bill, first question, "what is the Transit Improvement Tax?" Ryan: hmmm did you check the back of your statement "understanding your bill?" Me: quickly turning my statement over " I checked the Internet site and um no there's nothing on the back of the statement either" Ryan: "let me check...Ok here it is effective July 01, 2008, five counties, Dakota, Ramsey, Anoka, Hennipen and Washington tax to be used to fund improvements to light rail, commuter rail and bus transportation."  Whew, it's something new on the bill, no wonder I don't know anything about it. Now question number two: "What is the Environment Improvement Rider?" Ryan: "that's an increase that allows Xcel to recoup some of the cost for the new King Plant in Oak Park Heights, and the cost to convert the High Bridge plant in St. Paul and the Riverside plant in Minneapolis from coal to natural gas." Ryan: "most of the charges on your bill are to pay for the cost of getting power to your house." OK Ryan, thanks for your help. You're welcome is there anything else I can help you with? No, thanks enjoy your day. Thank you for calling Xcel, bye. Bye.

Hmpf I should have asked him why there is a Winter and Summer energy charge, I guess that can wait for the next statement. One thing I noticed is that both your City taxes and State taxes are applied to your City fees in addition to everything else. It's a little deceiving how they are listed because you get a subtotal which makes you believe that that is what you're being taxed on but your City fees are added to the subtotal before your taxes are assessed. And another thing; you pay City fees, City taxes, Transit Improvement taxes and State taxes on both your electric charges and gas charges separately, this just does not seem right. The money is all going to the same place why charge them separately? Oh yeah, more money for the City and State. 

I also noticed that I used exactly the same amount of Gas/therms per day for the same billing period last year as I did this year, 0.6 but the cost is $.08 higher this year. I am happy that my electrical bill is half of what it was a year ago because from what I hear our gas prices are going to double this winter. I can't say as I recommend picking apart your energy bill but it is nice to know what it all means so if you have a free afternoon, maybe you're stuck waiting for a service person or a friend who is running late then you too can check out your energy bill.  

Have fun :)

Let the Curling begin!

Friday night saw the beginning of the Mixed league, my team and I played at 5 pm. We had a really good game and not just because we won but we threw good rocks. I had gotten to the club early and warmed up with Amy and Lisa, which I believe really helped my game and I plan to continue this early arrival. There is also a handful of people who stop at the Happy Gnome prior to the Friday night games, I don't know if I will make that a part of my routine or not but once in a while will be fun. I could not believe how sore my legs were on Saturday morning, I have ridden hundreds of miles on my bike this summer so one would think my quads are in pretty good condition but NO, they were screaming in protest. 

Saturday was a fairly calm day, I had a number of things to get done around the house before Kathy's arrival so I spent the morning working at home.  Around 3 pm I headed to Ham Lake for Mary Jane's retirement party. I cannot believe she is officially retired, the lucky stiff, I wish I could retire. After the party I returned home, changed clothes, picked up Val and we headed out to the club for some dancing. It was a fun night, I have not gone to Pi in a very long time, I've not been impressed with their music. We met a handful of people whom I had met over the summer, they had gotten there early and had a table saved for us. The beginning of the night was dedicated to country music which I know little or nothing about but it was fun watching people dance or in some cases attempt to dance. Around 10 pm the dance music began and that is when the fun really started. My legs were still pretty sore from Friday nights curling but after a couple glasses of wine and a few dances they warmed up and I was shakin' my butt the rest of the night. 

Quick Cherry Dessert

Now that the weather is getting cooler I can start turning the oven on and that means baking season it upon us!!! Apple pies, pumpkin pies, cookies, breads, yummy and I wonder why I get fat in the winter? 

I made banana bread a couple weeks ago and it turned out OK, I'm not a big fan of banana bread but I had a bunch of bananas that were getting a wee bit too ripe and I needed to do something with them so banana bread it was. After I finished I realized I should have made a banana upside down cake, now that's delicious! Maybe next time. 

Tonight's baking adventure was Quick Cherry Dessert another favorite of mine and simple to make. I'm doing a little experiment because I only have whole wheat flour and the recipe calls for white flour, I'm sure it will taste fine but I have a feeling it's going to look a lot different. It's in the oven now and should be done in about 20 minutes so we'll find out then. In any case I've decided to share my recipe, I have no idea where I got this from but it is quick and easy and tastes wonderful, feel free to give it a try and if you need me to I can come over and taste test it for you ;)

Quick Cherry Dessert         (preheat oven to 350 degrees)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine - I only use butter 

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp almond extract

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling

powdered sugar

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and beat until light and fluffy. Add the almond extract, stir in the flour and baking powder and mix until smooth.

Butter a 9 X 13 inch cake pan (I have used a smaller pan and it worked fine), turn the mixture into the pan. Spoon the pie filling onto the cake, in 16 spots, spacing 4 spoonfuls evenly in each direction. If you can actually do this you are better than me, I just space the spoonfuls around the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes or until golden and cake tests done. Filling will sink into the cake while baking. 

To serve cut into pieces, place bottom side up on serving plate and dust with powdered sugar. It is also super good with whipped cream and/or ice cream. Everything is good with ice cream. It's great served warm.

I have no idea how many calories, fats, sugars, whatever is in this recipe, it's dessert you know it's not on your diet but eat it anyway and spend an extra 10 minutes at the gym. 

Dear Mr. President

The American kids thank you in advance for your assistance with making Halloween more real and more scary this year.

The Cost of a Stamp

POSTAGE COSTS ARE A BARGAIN. When the price of a First-Class Mail stamp rose just 1 cent — a 2.4 percent increase — last May 12, it’s remained a bargain compared to most products. From May 2007 to 2008, white bread increased by 14.9 percent, milk climbed by 15.4 percent and gas rose by a whopping 20.3 percent. In addition, USPS offers a product, the Forever stamp, which allows customers to lock in today’s prices. The Postal Service also offers online discounts. Try finding those benefits at your local grocery store or gas station!

Investment Recommendations

I'm not an investment broker but I can read and if I had any money these are the three companies I would invest in:

BAE Systems

QinetiQ

American Technology

Why you ask?  Just think Pirates! I'm leaving it at that and if you make tons of money off these companies don't forget where you heard it from;)

you need to move quick before the government contracts come in...

700 BILLION DOLLAR BAILOUT

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of it's releases.

A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes at the rate our government is spending it.

Would we be walking with the dinosaurs 700 billion seconds ago? Hell I don't know, my calculator does not hold that many zeros. I was so happy when the first bailout failed but now I've been checking out the second bailout and it looks even worse. We all know the only way to sell something to the Republicans is to add more tax breaks! And to sell it to he Democrats you have to add more special interest money. Here are a few highlights that I was able to gather.

Health plans for large companies - add mental health parity measures = increase in health insurance premiums

Obscure tax breaks such as wooden arrows used by children and money for litigents in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, what the hell?

Raising federal deposit insurance limit to ease accounting rules on valuing assets, now add to this "ease rules that force companies to devalue assets on their balance sheets to reflect the price they can get on the market."

Extend the deductibility of State and Local taxes for people in states without income taxes, HUH? it helps Florida and Texas.

Help for rural schools, disaster aid, some more tax cuts for the wealthy.

FDIC allowed to borrow unlimited money from the Treasury Department.

This is the best part: SPEND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO BUY BAD MORTGAGE RELATED SECURITIES AND OTHER DEVALUED ASSETS HELD BY FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS.  

Who in their right God damn mind would buy bad mortgage securities and devalued assets??? Where is this money coming from? Us the tax payers? Can I get some of this bad investment money? Hey Mister President, dude over here owes me a hundred bucks, I lent it to him and now he doesn't want to pay it back. Will you give me a hundred dollars and like if dude ever pays me back I'll get it back to you???

I have to be missing something in this bailout scheme.