My Soap Box

Sam Walton, bless his heart, in an attempt to win customer loyalty through lower prices has turned to the nation of China as his number one supplier, despite claims to the contrary. Sam had better watch out. The Chinese have a habit of reproducing American successes and beating us over the head with... Sign in to see full entry.

Stretching nearly a mile across the Columbia River is the Grand Coulee Dam, third largest in the world, 1 st in power production capacity. Nightly in the summer months throngs gather to watch an outdoor laser light show that plays across the entire length of the dam. It is dams such as this that... Sign in to see full entry.

There has been much castigation lately concerning musicians that profess their political preferences during their performances. Notably Linda Ronstadt and Dave Matthews. This should not be news if anyone is paying attention. It has happened before, it has happened all along and will continue to... Sign in to see full entry.

Is other people’s real life. I spent the weekend with a couple from North East of Tampa Florida. They regularly checked the Weather Channel for news of the storm. What to us was video footage, was to them a far off view of home. This morning they could no longer reach their daughter who had been... Sign in to see full entry.

One of the best things that can be done to stretch your wood dollar is to make sure your wood is properly seasoned. Dry wood burns hotter, cleaner and produces fewer residues than wet soggy wood. For EPA test purposes, the wood is specified as being between 18 and 23% moisture content. Wood from my... Sign in to see full entry.

My modem connects, makes a lot of noise! Takes a half hour to down load an e-mail from my boys that just says “HI!” We have been experiencing phone line difficulties these past two weeks. Now the ‘puter doesn’t stay connected for very long, or has trouble dialing out. You know, if I were a person... Sign in to see full entry.

A certain blogger, to be named, has posted a story that is completely false! Why would anyone do this? Many see Blogit as a source of information, but with so much information, how can we separate the wheat from the chaff? We as readers don’t have the time or usually the resources to check the facts... Sign in to see full entry.

August days grow shorter and soon our thoughts will turn from keeping cool to keeping warm. For some of us, this means heating with wood. Wood heat is attractive to many, mostly, with the rising cost of heating oil and natural gas, wood can be a viable alternative. I have used wood heat for nearly... Sign in to see full entry.

“What difference does it make” you may ask yourself “if we know that our atoms are made up of quarks and things like that?” I’ll tell you what difference it makes. To a research physicist it means a healthy paycheck. To think tanks, it means another day on the clock. Witness a typical think tank.... Sign in to see full entry.

Isolated. Alone. Frightened in the dark. That is how I feel after a series of severe showers paraded through the area. Frequent power outages weren’t as much a problem as a phone line that is exceptionally noisy. This of course raises hell with my dial-up modem and my cordless phone. The really bad... Sign in to see full entry.