Katia: maybe yes, probably not

Still on course for us, but will probably be steered east, out to sea. Worth keeping an eye on, though. Tropical Storm Lee, approaching New Orleans with 20″ of rain, might actually help break the Texas  drought depending on where it ends up.

Boy, am I ever irrelevant

(Bumped, because there are some fun comments here. If you don’t follow the comments, you’re missing the best part of this blog. The comments don’t necessarily reflect management’s opinion, but they’re often insightful, funny and accurate).

Some new fashion store opens on the Avenue and their customer base is children of rich folks . Further down the Avenue, Richard’s takes care of those kids’ parents. I haven’t shopped on the Avenue in years and the stores certainly haven’t missed my patronage, but it’s an odd feeling to be shut out of your hometown’s main drag. Life changes and we move on.

Clever, but he should have at least paid his motel bill

A guy’s a/c unit fails so he checks into local motel and swaps  his busted one for the working one in his room. But he left without paying his room bill. Might have gotten away with it if he hadn’t stiffed them on the tab. On the other hand, he could have gone to Home Depot  and saved himself a whole load of trouble.

Electric (coal powered) cars – no one wants them and there’s no way to power them

Propeller beanies won’t do it. But, once again, our intentions are good! Shouldn’t that count for something? Actually, no.

Maybe we should just rent the White house out for the rest of his term

Fresh from Martha’s Vineyard, Obama heads for Camp David. Do you get the impression that this man hates his job?

Corrupt umpires?

Probably not, but what’s up with an umpire changing his strike box in the ninth inning? Hitters adjust to an umpire’s zone during the course of a game, but when that zone suddenly changes in later innings, it makes you wonder. Maybe the ump was just tired and wanted to go home, but ….

No problem with me

CIA turns into a killing force against terrorists. Human rights activists object but I’m not going to miss a single one of these guys, who want to kill me, my children and my fellow citizens. Bombs away!

Heh – sent me by a friend who thinks it sums up our current situation. And he’s a Wall Streeter.

What, Walmart can’t hire a competent PR person?

 Five-year-old bitten by a bat at Walmart, undergoes rabies treatment, and Walmart won’t pay for it? They probably aren’t legally protected here – I’d think customers are entitled to a safe shopping experience  - but regardless,  you won’t pay a few hundred bucks to treat a kid injured in your store? Are these guys absolutely nuts?

UPDATE: Just as an aside, before my beloved Katie went to Peru to live in the jungle for 9 months studying beasties, she endured the same rabies vaccinations. Terribly painful, for a 23-year-old. To put a 5-year-old through that must be even more awful. Wal-Mart’s cruel indifference will cost them, I predict, a hell of a lot more than had they just taken care of this child. Idiots.

What we need is a good, rousing speech from our vacationer in chief

 Job growth is exactly zero.

Wall Street Journal and this dummy think alike

It’s a pathetic state of affairs when Exxon agrees to risk billions with the world’s greatest kleptocracy, Russia, because it can’t work with our own government. Out on the Vineyard, Obama is working on a plan to keep this going.

Hamptonites lose power, claim discrimination

Because they’re rich. The utility denies it.

Not exactly a vote of confidence

Yield on Greek 2 – year bond hits 47%.

Something to revisit after power is restored

A lot of residents are still without power. Obviously, their needs should come first but when things settle down, it might be a good idea to rethink our town’s policy on tree pruning around power lines which, I believe, is the strictest in the state, severely limiting CL&P’s ability to clear limbs from around the wires. This storm heightened my awareness of the problem and so I’ve been eyeing trees as I drive around town.

For an example, next time you drive down Put’s Hill, take a look at the tree branches enveloping the power lines – I’m amazed that the wires withstood the winds because they’re literally buried in the trees. Some of this may be because CL&P hasn’t been doing enough to maintain things down here, but some blame can be assigned to our tree pruning policy. I recall the head of CL&P saying, after last year’s Nor’easter, something like “you can have beautiful, tree-lined streets or you can have electricity, but you can’t have both”. I’m not suggesting we clear cut our streets but, again, after Irene’s damage is taken care of, it would make sense for our town leaders to sit down with CL&P and discuss what can be done to do a better job of protecting power lines.

Obama’s job machine

Nice summary from Forbes on his success so far. Not so encouraging.