Articles
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The Tyranny of Run-Flat Tires
June 9, 2025
Read moreWe have discovered just how evil “run flat” tires are. Many vehicles today come equipped with so-called “run flat” tires. At some point, car manufacturers gave up on good engineering and decided that rather than equip a vehicle with a spare tire, they could save space and money by giving the customer… nothing! No spare. No tools to remove the tire. No jack. No space in the trunk or under the car to store a tire. Instead, we get tires that you can drive on, for a bit, in a punctured condition. That will get you off the freeway; maybe it will get you to a tire shop, if you’re not driving in the middle of nowhere. But that shop is not going to repair your run-flat tire – no, you’ve driven on it! Now you need a new tire. Oh, the tires aren’t new? Well, you’re probably going to need two new tires, as they must match in diameter. Ah, but your car is all-wheel-drive; now you may need four new tires, as they must all match. And did we mention, run-flat tires cost quite a bit more than the regular kind? Oh good grief.
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Thoughts on the Trump + Elon takeover
March 31, 2025
Read moreSince things keep going from bad to worse in the Federal Government workforce, I thought I’d start writing my thoughts as we go. (ADDENDUM: I just couldn’t bring myself to keep doing it, too depressing…)
Today, Elon (via OPM, but it was Elon; he X’d it) sent email to all Fed Employees requiring them to write up at least 5 things they accomplished in the past week, and send it to OPM and their supervisor. On X at least, he said resonse was mandatory, and non-response would indicate resignation. An OPM spokesperson said any action would be up to the agencies.
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Thoughts on a Marin County bike ride
February 22, 2025
Read moreI did a longish exploratory/adventury/scenic ride, from my friend John’s boat in Sausalito, up into Mill Valley, across a fire road, out to Tiburon, and back to the boat. Maybe 35 miles? Hard to estimate; there was a bit of steep climbing to get to the fire road, and the route on Paradise to Tiburon is pretty rolly… plus, it was on the small-wheel “clown bike” All-Packa, which definitly entitles one to bonus points for effort!
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Faith's Memorial in Maine
June 21, 2023
Read moreWe flew out to Maine to spend some time with the Towle side of the family. It’s mosquito season in Maine, but this is when everyone could come, so here we are. I packed my “bug shirt”, which was a good choice as Anna and I were assigned trail-clearing duty and spent the afternoon in the woods.
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Catching up
June 20, 2023
Read moreOnce again, I fell off the blog wagon. Early in the pandemic, I found I had extra time on my hands, with which I might keep up with writing on the blog. I did OK for a while, but it didn’t take long for the work environment to catch up to the new work-from-your-livingroom situation, and expand to fill all the hours formerly spent in the office, and then some. Thus, I have been woefully neglectful in posting things to this blog; I’ve tried to at least occasionally put something on the chad-o-matic blogger site, but we use that site more to give the extended family a sense of what we’re up to, than for any longer-form writings. So, this post will be a bit of a catch-you-up on what’s transpired in the last year or so.