Busy weekend; we drove down state for Debbie's mom's birthday. It was a surprise party, which explains why I didn't have anything here about what we were doing and where we would be. Anyway, the surprise was complete, largely as a result of a month-long campaign by her children to lie to her at every conceivable opportunity. The party went well Saturday afternoon. The main course was deep-fried turkey. That alone was the price of admission. We stayed the night Saturday and started working our way back home around 1pm or so. We got home in time to unload the car, relax for about 5 minutes, then head back into town for evening service. I didn't have time to shave or change, so I was there scruffy and in jeans. Of course, I had forgotten that we were planning on having Communion. Normally I serve, being a deacon and all. That would have really looked cute. Fortunately, I was spared because there were enough other deacons appropriately dressed that I got to take a buy this time.

The solar panels kept us in business while we were gone. We are having a hard time keeping the batteries up to charge mainly due to temperature compensation. The inverter reduces the load automatically when the battery temp goes below 70 degrees F, which means the capacity is effectively reduced by some fraction. What that means is that what we get from the solar panels is almost completely offset by what we lose to the temp compensation and the extra we are using to run the heat at night. I had thought about looking into a way to heat the power shed. We won't be able to do that this winter, but I will certainly be working on something before next winter. I had hoped to work on getting additional solar panels before worrying about other improvements, but maybe a heat source makes more sense as the next step.

The X-Prize has been won by the flawless flight of a private spaceship. In 20 or 30 years, this date will be important. Make sure you remember where you were and when you first heard of this.

Fred Reed has a new article that needs to be discussed. It won't be. As a nation, we will (or our decendents will) suffer for that. As many have said; there are things we can't fix and there are things we won't fix. We know how to educate people because we have done it in the past. What man has done, man can aspire to. We simply no longer wish to. I've been watching the Kalkaska schools implode over the last few years. It isn't pretty, and the natives realize they have been screwed and are getting restless. Dark age indeed.

I need to go home and do homework. Later.