Incursio

I don't need to say too much. The pictures speak for themselves. These pictures were taken at ONE spot on NF-45 forest road in Mt. Hood National Forest. The road is also known as "Memaloose" or "Maymaloose" road depending on which sign and map you read. It is maybe 50 miles outside of Portland, southeast on Hwy 224 - along the Clackamas river. The country up there is some of the most beautiful scenery on the planet. The ridge lines, and the deep jagged canyon from millions of years of raging water in the Clackamas river are something wonderful to behold. Driving up this road, we passed at least 5 spots that seemed to be popular with shooters, before we turned around. The road is a steep one lane paved road, and our GPS said we went from 700ft. at the river to 3000ft. almost instantaneously. At some points there are steep 1000 foot drops on either side of the road. It is breathtaking. Until you come across the shooting sites, which make you nauseous. I ...

Tonight between the hours of 8 and 9 PM, hundreds of houses were burglarized. Local law enforcement agencies are looking into a possible connection between the occurrences, and have asked that any witnesses please come forward. And in other news, power companies report minor brownouts across the region occurred around 9:05 PM as demand spiked on the power grid.

If you have ever crate trained a pet dog, you will have found that dogs will do everything within their power to not shit where they sleep. A dog will hold it until their face turns blue. Unless of course they are already blue, then they will just get a darker shade. And if you (and the dog) have had the misfortune of getting stuck a little to long, and the dog HAS had to go in their crate, the minute the poor canine makes eye contact with you - you know it. The dog will feel as though they have betrayed the universe by pooping in the crate. Well, humans are assholes. We could learn a thing or two from our dogs. We only have one earth. Only one. No "fall back" or "plan B" exists despite what you may see in the Star Trek movies or read in the Cristopher Stasheff or Orson Scott Card novels. I imagine that some day some poor wasted species - a distant relative to the Human - who has had to survive underground or in bubbles without being able to breathe ...

House Bill 2210B was voted on and PASSED in the Oregon House just now. This measure is designed to encourage the Oregon based growing and production of biofuels. These including tax credits for producers or growers, some easing of restrictions of where biofuels production facilities can be sited, and a standard for quality and volume of biofuels in Oregon use. However one thing that catches my eye, is the consumer tax credits: Sections 24-28 provide for: "BIOFUEL CONSUMER INCOME TAX CREDIT" 25.2.a - "A resident individual shall be allowed a credit against the taxes otherwise due under ORS chapter 316 for costs paid or incurred to purchase fuel blends for use in an alternative fuel vehicle." The sections go on to describe the details, and the amounts. But basically - for E85 or greater use, or B99 or greater use can get as much as 50 cents per gallon up to $200 max per year tax credit for using biofuels! That will be a nice benefit for those of us wh...

American diesel fans get screwed... OK, maybe we don't get screwed. But we do have it tough. After having owned a Volkswagen TDI diesel for three years, and enjoying the torquey motor with regular mileage in the 45 to 50 mpg range - I really like my diesel cars... Currently we drive a Jeep Liberty CRD, which is powered by a 2.8L common rail diesel engine. It is a great vehicle. Extremely capable in many areas, it's 30mpg on the highway is not too shabby for a vehicle of it's type. And it's 300 pounds of torque really make towing fun. In fact, the CRD simply feels like it is not happy unless it is climbing or towing. Now, where am I going with this? Well. What do we have currently for diesel options in the USA? Mostly big trucks - which not only are really big - are expensive since the diesel options only come in the heavy duty versions. Volkswagen offers diesel in several of their passenger cars. There is the Mercedes E 3 series with diesel power, althou...