LOCAL: CAPSLO Shelter Volunteer Bob Christenson

One of the great things about living in San Luis Obispo County is the high level of volunteerism in the community. Many of these folks are in the limelight, such as Chris Cohan, who contributed $2,000,000 (2 million dollars) towards the construction of the Cal Poly Performing Art Center. Indeed, Mr. Cohan has the main building named after him: The Cohan Center.

Other folks also contribute in time and money, but either intentionally or deliberately, fly under the radar. Such a man is Bob Christenson, who has volunteered extensively at the local CAPSLO Homeless Shelter Overflow. You can read about Bob in an article in the Tribune newspaper, entitled "Strangers have always depended on his kindness".

Many of you know that I have a passion for doing what I can to help those who live here locally who are not in housing and must live in shelters or find shelter out doors. What Mr. Christenson does, along with many others like him, is typical of what many in our SLO community does to help those in need.

The Tribune article above describes Bob and others like him as "unsung heroes". You too can get involved, help out and be an unsung hero as well. For more details, please contact me: TimWaag@GMail.com. For the month of December 2012, John C. of Carmel Lutheran Church in SLO is hosting the CAPSLO Homeless Shelter Overflow - if you want to help, call John at (805) 440-five-six-to-to.

LOCAL: Severe Limits for RVs and Trailers on SLO City Streets

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UPDATE 11/9/2012: On Nov 9, 2012, at 8:41 PM, John Ashbaugh, John wrote:
Thank you for sharing your views about the Oversized Vehicles ordinance. As you know, the Council has postponed consideration of this ordinance while additional outreach is conducted. I prefer not to comment at this time on the substance of the ordinance, particularly through email. I  prefer, instead, to continue to listen to input from individuals and organizations with an interest in this issue.
I invite you to take a careful and objective look at the proposed ordinance, as well as the factual evidence that was presented to the Council this week to justify the proposal. Feel free to continue to contact the Council to express your views, and help us to improve the ordinance prior to adoption.

John B. Ashbaugh
San Luis Obispo City Council

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UPDATE 11/9/2012: Another person writes in support of my position:

I'm with you Tim, I have a RV that will not fit in my driveway, so I park it in front of my house for a day or two to get it ready for the next trip. Also I have relatives with RVs that will stop for a night or two on their way to somewhere else. Stupid law that tries to micro-manage society based on someones vision that does not fit.

************ORIGINAL ARTICLE 11/9/2012*************
San Luis Obispo City Council is seeking additional public opinion on a proposed law to SEVERELY limit the parking of Motor Homes, Trailers, and Boats on SLO city streets. Clearly, I OPPOSE this proposed law on many different levels. It would be solving a problem that largely does not exist. It would continue to discriminate against homeless people living in their RVs who have nowhere else to go. It would put severe restrictions on out-of-town guests passing through in their RVs who want to stop by in SLO and visit their friends and family. It would put unreasonable restrictions on people like me who own a boat and park it on the street overnight attached to my truck (the tow vehicle). It would impact numerous small-scale business people, like construction contractors and gardeners, who use utility trailers in their work, and often park them on the street overnight (such as at a job site).

You can read the details of this proposed law in the SLO's Tribune Newspaper: City Council: SLO's parking law put in idle. 

EXAMPLE 1: This law would no longer allow me to do the following with my truck, boat and trailer: retrieve my boat from storage outside of my neighborhood (I store it at Weipert's in SLO and pay $50 a month for the privilege), park it in front of my house for a day or 2 before using it to get the boat ready for use (charge batteries, wash deck, load gear, etc.), then take the boat out fishing or diving for the day, return the boat to my house to wash it and make any repairs to it from the day's use, then take it back to storage the next day. For this, I will be cited and fined by the city under this ordinance.

NO, I cannot park it in my driveway, because the boat does not fit without blocking the sidewalk - no doubt another city violation (as it should be). NO, I cannot get it the same day that I use it: I leave at 4am to tow it down to Santa Barbara to take it out to the Channel Islands to fish and dive. Just parking it in front of my house before I leave at 4am would be a violation, according to this Tribune report.

EXAMPLE 2: My Aunt and Uncle are full time RVers, and just finished a May - September Camp Host gig at a campground in the Sierras. After all that, they want to stop by and visit their favorite nephew for a few days, or maybe a week or two. No, their 5th wheel does not fit in my driveway either. What are their parking choices for their rig? Rent a storage space for a week? NO, nobody rents by the week - only by the month, with a large key deposit and a minimum of multple months, plus many storage facilities are FULL with no space available. Park it outside the city limits? MAYBE, but doesn't this just push the problem to city of SLO neighbors in the county areas surrounding SLO?

EXAMPLE 3: A few years back, we got a city permit and added a balcony and deck off the back of our house. We used a local contractor, who did fine work for us. In order to facilitate his efficient construction work, he tows a 15 foot trailer behind his construction truck. This trailer is filled with construction materials and tools, and provides secure storage for his necessary work materials. NO, he can't park his trailer in my driveway, because I use my driveway to park in my garage. The contractor often leaves the trailer parked in front of my house during the construction period, so that his employees can access the trailer and tools at the job site, particularly when the business owner is at a different job (or out doing estimates for future jobs). Under this law, he cannot leave his detached trailer in front of my house. Nor can he take it to his home to park on the street in front of his house. He must bring it to a paid storage facility EVERY DAY, and pay his employees to retrieve it EVERY DAY. Who pays for this? Me, because the time it takes to storage and retrieve, and attach and detach the trailer, should (rightfully) be charged to me, his customer. This makes him more expensive and inefficient. Maybe he decides he will only take jobs in 5 cities because they do not have the restrictive trailer parking situation.

This is all the time I have to devote to deterring this undesirable law that our new SLO City Council is hoisting upon us. For the record, SLO City Councilman Dan Carpenter says that there is NOT a growing problem in this area, and is concerned about enforcement issues. Go Dan!

The city lists the supposed PROBLEMS that this law fixes, and I will address that later (if I have time). Suffice it to say that the problems that the city claims this law fixes are not real problems, in my opinion.

LOCAL: Remembering SLO Philanthropist and Business Pioner Greg Hind

Our family business had the honor and privilege of working for some of Greg Hind's many successful companies over the years, and we are sad to hear of his sudden illness and passing - our hearts go out to his family and loved ones and friends - he will be missed by many. We honor Greg by being the best person that you can be, as he was. 

Sue worked with Greg a few times and knew him much better than I did. However, I still have a HIND branded windbreaker that I bought from one of his SLO stores in the mid 1990's. Its still my jacket of choice when its time to Mountain Bike in the cold and rain, and I always think of Greg when I put it on - it looks almost as good as the day it was new! Thanks Greg for making such a great jacket. Us outdoor types get attached to certain pieces of gear that we have owned, used, and loved for DECADES, and my HIND jacket is one of them. Happy Trails to you, Greg. I wish I knew ye.

On another note, I met for coffee with a friend of mine this morning, and he had told me he decided to get out and go Kayak surfing in honor of Greg's memory this morning (11/6/2012) out at Pismo Beach. I think that is an awesome way to honor Greg - way to go, Barrie :-)

Greg was the San Luis Obispo Citizen of the Year in 2010, which you can read about here.

You can read about his passing in the local SLO paper the Tribune here. Photo of Greg (below) from the Tribune newspaper link.

One more link: an article on his Pioneering Sportswear Company at BicycleRetailer.com.

NATIONAL: Get Out and Vote on Tues. Nov. 6, 2012!

ELECTION TUESDAY 11/6/2012: Everybody - please IGNORE the advertisements, and instead, do some research and make intelligent choices. We were raised by our parents to believe that if you do NOT vote, then you shouldn’t complain when OTHER PEOPLE make the decisions for you. We taught our children the same thing. It is a responsibility of our citizenship to get out there and vote. Thanks!

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE: It shouldn't be called "Political Advertising", but instead "Political Propaganda". Now THAT'S Truth in Advertising!

I was just reading an article in Time Magazine (August 20, 2012, page 4 "A dark take on the 2012 election"). In it, the Huffington Post was lamenting the $2,000,000,000 (that's right - $2 Billion) that  would be spent on the 2012 Presidential Election, once all is said and done. Readers writing to the Times "Inbox" complained about how the campaigns were definitely "not informative". In the long history of America, as far as I can tell, Political Campaigns have NEVER been intended to be informative - they are intended to GET VOTES, with a fair amount of character assassination thrown in.

Wow - where to begin? Who amongst us decides who to vote for based on the "Political Propaganda"? Are we that ill-informed that such Propaganda is our best source of information on where the candidates stand on issues, and indeed, even understanding the issues? Even with the vast resources of the internet at our fingertips?

SUGGESTION: Ignore the political Propaganda, and instead do some research and find out BOTH:

1) what the candidates put out as policy proposals, and

2) what they have ACTUALLY DONE (and not just said),

with a HEAVY EMPHASIS on 2).

Educate thyself, and don't fall for the political advertising that is really "Political Propaganda". Should the Citizens of the United States do that, all the "Political Propaganda" spending in the world won't change our minds on the issues in front of us. The Yo-Yo's at the Huffington Post should be goading their readers into educating themselves on political issues, rather than their resorting to the absurd hand-wringing.

On the same page of the Time Magazine, the readers write in about how saddened they are by the many jobs that could have been created with that $2,000,000,000 that is instead being spent by Obama and Romney. Right. Because government TARP spending of an unknown amount ($800,000,000,000? That's $800 Billion. $3,000,000,000,000? That's $3 Trillion) created so many new jobs?

Note: after doing a little research, its impossible for a non-insider like me to add up how much the federal government spent on the bailouts, but this New York Times link gives us a fair idea.

What the Time magazine readers don't really understand is that SPENDING ON ADVERTISING (think Google or Facebook, whose primary revenue source is advertising, as two rather large examples) does indeed create jobs. Bet Google and Facebook employ a few folks. Ask ANYONE IN ADVERTISING how many jobs $2,000,000,000 in spending on Ads (TV, Print, Radio, Cable, Internet, etc.) creates. I would be willing to bet that it creates more jobs per $$$ spent than the bailout did.

Use your brains, people! Don't be Zombie Propaganda Puppets!

NATIONAL: Moonwalker Armstrong Passes into the Stars

UPDATE 11/1/2012: I recently finished reading Armstrong's ONLY authorized biography, written in 2005 by James R. Hansen entitled "First Man: the Life of Neil A. Armstrong" (some details: Simon & Schuster, NY, NY, 2005, Illustrated with diagrams & photos, 7x10 inches, 769 pages).  Overall, I'm happy to have read the book, but it was just an above average effort. Much of the book I found to be boring because, frankly, Armstrong was a fairly boring person (if you can believe that) who led an amazing life of accomplishment. He was so focused throughout his entire life on his engineering and piloting, and on his personal privacy, that among the Apollo astronauts, he was probably the only real one with a snoozer of a personality. I'm not saying that to be unkind, because he epitomizes the definition of a great American. He was humble, focused, and not out for his slice of fame, though it was  right at his fingertips throughout his entire adult life.

The highlights of the book are the same as the highlights of his career accomplishments: numerous X-15 experimental aircraft flights out of Edwards Air Force Base, 78 successful fighter combat missions in the Korean War, and of course, being the first man to set foot on the moon. Shortly after his successful Moon walk, he worked for NASA for another year or so, then hid out as an engineering professor at his alma mater, Purdue University for about 10 years. After that, he became a spokesperson for Chrysler Corporation (nobody seems to remember that!), and lived a quiet lifestyle out of the public eye.

I'm sure there are better book reviews of "First Man" out there than mine, but I think you will most enjoy the Apollo years, which of course gets the most pages of attention - as it should. Given the importance of Armstrong's achievements,  I recommend this book, though not highly. Should you only want to read one "Moon Book", I much prefer "A Man on the Moon" by Chaiken. I also recommend the 12-part HBO TV miniseries narrated by Tom Hanks that was based on Chaiken's book: From the Earth to the Moon.

UPDATE 8/27/2012: Read this article on Armstrong. I am inspired to add comments on the man that was Neil Armstrong. His family, over the weekend, came out with statements about the life of the first man that walked on the moon. As noted below, Armstrong considered himself to be "just a nerdy engineer" who was just "doing his job". His family's statement said this:

"Neil was a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."

Armstrong epitomized the calm, assured tone that astronauts prized. Mr. Armstrong wrote his authorized biography in 2005. From Wikipedia:

"Armstrong's authorized biography, First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, was published in 2005. For many years, Armstrong turned down biography offers from authors such as Stephen Ambrose and James A. Michener, but agreed to work with James R. Hansen after reading one of Hansen's other biographies." 

I just ordered a used copy of the book at Amazon for $9 including shipping - I look forward to reading it, and adding it to my Apollo / Gemini / Moon Book collection.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Well-known, soft-spoken American astronaut Neil Armstrong passed away on Saturday 8/25/2012 at the age of 82. I am a HUGE Apollo and Gemini program follower, having read and watched dozens of books and programs on this amazing era in American accomplishment, and am saddened to be reading in the paper this moring about his passing. Armstrong represented what a determined, hard-working America can accomplish.

Armstrong was a smart and strong man, with many accomplishments beyond being the first human to set foot on the surface of the moon. After receiving fame for his Apollo 11 moon accomplishments, he retreated to quietly and humbly teach and work on his Ohio farm. Before his Apollo fame, he earned an aeronautical engineering bachelor's and master's degree, and flew 78 combat missions for the U. S. Navy in the Korean War in 1949.

His moonwalk on July 20, 1969 capped America's victory in the Cold War Space Race that began on October 4, 1957, with the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 Satellite. The end of the Race marked the meeting of Kennedy's audacious deadline set in May 1961 to have an American walk on the moon before the end of the decade (1970) was out - a goal that was met 5 months early with Armstrong's "Giant Leap for Mankind". Another astronaut of Apollo fame, John Glen, spoke of Armstrong's steely nerve when landing the Eagle on the surface of the moon, using all but 15 seconds of fuel when going for a safe landing on the moon. Armstrong calmly transmitted this message that caused the world to rejoice: "Houston, Tranquility Base Here. The Eagle Has Landed".

Armstrong stayed out of the spotlight of celebrity and glamour that followed the Apollo Program Astronauts, but came out in 2010 with concerns that our federal government was shifting attention away from a return to the moon and towards private companies developing spaceships. Apollo inspired a generation of young Americans, yet it seems that our energy and imagination is no longer stirred by the passions of programs like going to the moon. That is a sad testimony to where our country is headed, with massive debt, unending liabilities and no ability to ever fund an Apollo-like program again.

On that day in 1969, America showed the 600 million world-wide viewers that the American spirit can accomplish amazing things - things that seemed impossible a few years before. Fortunately, the Mars Curiosity Rover is inspiring similar, though less intense, feelings among Americans about what we can accomplish when we put our minds to it. We need to put our eager, enthusiastic, bright Americans to work on programs like Apollo. Tom Hanks said it best with his Letter to Congress in 1995. We'll see what happens next.

My favorite Apollo reading is the book "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin that was later turned into a 12-part HBO Special "From the Earth to the Moon" narrated by Tom Hanks. I urge you to honor Neil Armstrong and the accomplishments of that generation, and look it up, and read the books or watch the series. 

Another Apollo favorite of mine is the 1995 movie "Apollo 13" starring Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon. Apollo 13 takes us on a wild ride of a moon mission when the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded, crippling the service module. The daring of our American engineers and control center staff turned our saddest tragedy into our greatest moment. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water, and the critical need to jury-rig the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew returned safely to Earth on April 17.

When I worked at TRW in the 1980's, we still had aeronautical engineers working there that were called in to work when things went so wrong on Apollo 13. They told the stories of checking their software and hardware developed for the Apollo Program, and coordinating rescue saving knowledge to Flight Control. I was honored to have known and worked with these people for the short time that I did.

American legend Neil Armstrong - thank-you for your strength and resolve, and being part of an incredible team that accomplished incredible things, and made us proud to be Americans.

NATIONAL: The Extreme Folly of Corn Ethanol

I've been wanting to write on this subject for a LONG time! Ethanol is such a losing proposition in so many different ways that I don't know where to start...

This is all I have time for now, but there will be more to come. Thanks for reading.

BASIC ETHANOL STATISTICS: I'm just going to collect and throw out some basic ethanol statistics that I can refine over time.

• The US uses 40% of its national corn crop to create ethanol.
• The EPA mandates that 13,800,000,000 (that's right: 13.8 Billion) gallons of ethanol be mixed int our gasoline supply in 2013.
• Ethanol production is HEAVILY subsidized by taxpayers, and will have to be for decades (or perhaps forever) because it just does not pencil out as a fuel additive that makes economic sense on its own.

CONTRIBUTES TO WORLD HUNGER: For a variety of reasons (worldwide drought among them), hunger epidemics are sweeping the world today - primarily in Africa, the Middle East and South America including Mexico and Central America. This 3rd world hunger is made worse by the run up in the price of corn, a world food staple, by the US conversion of this food source to a gasoline additive. President Obama has stated that he believes that the US, as the wealthiest nation on the planet, has an obligation to fight world hunger. Unfortunately, the drive to convert food to gasoline (in the form of ethanol) has made that fight that much more difficult.

INCREASES FOOD STAPLE PRICES IN MEXICO: Mexico is perhaps the hardest hit by this corn-to-ethanol policy in the United States. With corn tortillas making up the bulk of diet calories to the Mexican poor, ethanol policies in the US are believed to have driven the price of corn tortillas up by a factor of 3 in Mexico. Where is the compassion for our poor, hungry neighbors to the south? When it comes to the supposed "solution" of ethanol to the problem of global warming, the policy is basically "to h*ll with the poor"- or so it would seem from where I am standing.

INCREASE GLOBAL WARMING: Scientific American magazine says in their 2009 study that "Ethanol will NOT reduce Green House Gasses". Ethanol made from corn produces about 50% more green house gasses than fossil fuels, as is stated in  this study.

ETHANOL TRANSPORT ISSUES: Unlike fossil fuel-based gasoline, ethanol cannot be transported by pipeline, and must instead be hauled our highways in trucks. That is because, unlike fossil fuel-based gasoline, ethanol absorbs water that accumulates in pipelines and is dissolved in the ehtanol. fossil fuel-based gasoline, on the other hand, does NOT mix with water (think "oil and water don't mix", or that boat fuel filters remove water by letting it settle to the bottom of the fuel filter (because water is heaver than fossil fuel-based gasoline). Also, ethanol causes pipeline corrosion issues that fossil-fuel based gasoline does not - read about it here.  

I found an article at The Economist that says it best:

Corn-based ethanol is quite simply the largest scam ever perpetrated on U.S. society. It yields AT BEST a break-even in energy, an energy-returned-on-energy-invested of zero. It also creates more emissions than it eliminates for two salient reasons seldom mentioned.
The first is that adding ethanol to gasoline yields a more volatile mixture than the base RBOB. That has required the establishment of separate manufacturing lines to produce chemicals which re-lower volatility to its original level. Secondly, ethanol is hygroscopic and then corrosive. It cannot be transported via pipeline, the most economically and environmentally efficient means of transportation. Hence, ethanol is trucked around the country by soot-emitting 18-wheelers. An entirely new distribution infrastructure has been created to mix it with commodity gasoline (RBOB) at the local wholesale level. In addition, it uses enormous volumes of water, estimated at 82 gallons per gallon of ethanol by the Argonne National Laboratory http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/energy-futurist/the-energy-water-nexus-2. That's about one trillion gallons per year!
The corn-based ethanol rules in this country have benefited no one outside of its own value chain. There's no word for it other than egregious.

PHOTOS: Just for Fun!

A few photos from a recent backpacking trip that I liked. Click to enlarge: