Saturday, November 15, 2008

Ruins and Petroglyphs


Today (Saturday, November 15) Leslie and I went with Robert and Palma (and Locke and Carol Sue and Stan and Tammy and Larry and his grandson) and we went four wheeling over on the other side of the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. First Robert took us to this private ranch (he had permission and a key to the gate) and we drove and then hiked in to these neat old Anasazi ruins with a bunch of petroglyphs. (I’ve attached a photo of Leslie and me in front of one of the little cliff dwellings.) The four wheeling was a little precarious in spots, as we drove sideways along a sharp incline along the edge of a canyon, with Leslie and me both leaning uphill as hard as we could. Some of the spots were bad enough that Les (and the other wives) got off the back of the four wheelers and just walked. Then we went over to the other end of the dunes to see some cool petroglyphs that Stan and Tammy knew about – they were really neat but they were sure an extended drive to get to. Even so, the company was great, the weather was perfect, the four wheeling was fun, and no one wrecked or hurt themselves – so it was a successful outing.

Monday, November 03, 2008

The U.S. to become the next Bolivia

From my perspective, as a power engineer, there will be no winner tomorrow [in the Presidential Elections], only losers. Both candidates have attacked the whole energy industry, which I take personally after devoting 20+ years to providing affordable and reliable electricity to thousands of consumers here in the US and hundreds of thousands in developing nations overseas. So for me the two candidates are "bad" and "worse" - there is no "good." Just today I heard from my wholesale power supplier that back in January Obama promised "skyrocketing" power bills and "bankrupt" power companies - that was a shocker (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08FgJP-RCGs) - I don't see ANY winners in that scenario. I just see us becoming the next Bolivia or Bangladesh. Well, I guess I'm as qualified as anyone to function in that future - I've already worked there. But it still makes me very very sad.