Several Robins Arrive On This Late Winter 2022 Day

 

Wide-angle view out the closed west door

On March 7, 2022, AM, a tree full of Robins is noted roosting in a bare tree out our westward deck doorway.  It is raining here in Central New York today and coupled with those mid-60s temperatures experienced in these parts yesterday, a good deal of our winter snows have disappeared.  And with Spring just around the corner, seems our fair-weather bird migration is underway -- a strongly welcome sight indeed.

Closer image of nearly three dozen Robins

Note:  Event not posted to Facebook -- Gave up Beer and Facebook for Lent! 😎

     

True Costs And Real Worth Of Electric Vehicles

Free clipart from ecteezy 

I have not done rigorous due diligence on the true value of this electric vehicle issue. If basic physics is correctly recalled, whenever energy is converted from one form to another form high-efficiency losses happen... this process of transduction is inefficient basically due to friction (in heat losses). Just an old retired guy with another rant -- can't personally do anything to resolve the issue anyway. Got to admit I do wonder about the electric vehicle solution.  What is the truth in the entire "energy efficiency cycle" as applied to the gas/oil/propane-powered vehicles vs electric vehicles question? Where does the electricity come from used to charge batteries and do the future recharges?  Those sparks come from thin air I guess.  Who does these total electric justification calculations anyway – is this authority an independent body (non-political)? Seems a significant percent of power grid electricity production comes from burning fossil fuels, and certainly a substantial majority percentage of electricity production is fossil related when nuclear is included.  How is transduction inefficiency factored into electricity production/delivery estimates of the true cost of electric vehicles? Additional demands on the national power grid are a certainty with a growing number of electric vehicles – no genius here, it's simply common sense.  The power grid is already there, so there is no cost for the increased electrical demand associated with necessary and frequent electric vehicle battery recharge.  Is it correct that increased national electrical grid expenses are not passed on to the electric vehicle owner who is directly responsible for the aggregate national electrical demand increase?  And who among electric vehicle owners will pay for the upkeep of American roads and highways currently funded by taxes on petroleum fuel products?           

And too, the entire issue of what is done with the occasional non-functional new batteries or older non-functional batteries, or those older battery replacements that are past their mean-time-between-failure? Old batteries are toxic waste.  Are battery manufacturers being held accountable and responsible NOW for the eventual disposal of old or non-functioning batteries? Probably a small portion of old batteries can be recycled (but at what cost?) -- is that unknown cost reasonably estimated and factored into the true cost of charging electric vehicles? Sure hope the battery manufacturers and those who use them are planning to dig a giant hole somewhere (hopefully in China) to bury these old battery toxins. Are those disposal funds now being set aside in an untouchable lockbox somewhere to cover these future non-functional battery disposal costs? Planning for the future is required now -- and setting requirements aside to cover predictable future costs is necessary now. Oh well, we will all be dust in a few years -- why be concerned? Or is it the future general population's tax-base responsibility for toxic waste disposal -- no doubt paid by federal grants authorized by the public-sector Politically Correct clean energy enablers -- spending now our descendant's future dollars?

Granted, at some point, it may make sense to buy a small electric vehicle to make short runs to the shop, for entertainment, etc.  But when that 400+ mile trip is in the cards, travelers might need good old petroleum-fired vehicles to reach that final destination. The same related questions exist on the worth of those rides equipped with both electric & gas capability. Just what are the true electric vehicle savings and associated impact on future environmental costs? 

Freedom Day 2022, A Day To Forever Remember

 

Why am I not surprised? Google, you are an American company! NO mention is found this morning citing the day's significance on Google's opening home page... instead Google chooses to celebrate the lunar new year. Today in United States of America history, February 1^st is National Freedom Day – an anniversary remembrance and celebration signed into existence by President Harry Truman. Give 'em Hell Harry! On February 1, 1865, Republican President Abe Lincoln signed the resolution that permitted what would become the Thirteenth Amendment to our United States Constitution.

Let me refresh Google management's memory and what seems to be the memory of a majority of American citizens. Remember this now: 

Amendment XIII “Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

President Lincoln's action on this 1865 day forever codified and ended slavery in the United States as long as we have a U.S. Constitution... an immensely significant day in American history. WE THE PEOPLE of the United States... should each be thankful for the many freedoms we are afforded as citizens of our very fine country! Forget this freedom, or how freedom was won, and our freedom will continue to melt away.

Another Fine Song (easy) For The Beginner Baritone Ukulele Player, Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door

 

“Knockin' On Heaven's Door”

Written and performed by Bob Dylan,

featured in the 1973 movie

“Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid.”

Also a 1990 single release by Dylan.

 (No CAPO)

G        D        Am7 / C (alternate) | x4

G                        D                   Am7

Mama take this badge off of me

G         D              C

I can't use it any-more

G                 D                          Am7

It's getting dark, too dark to see

G            D                                  C

Feel I'm knockin' on heaven's door

G                     D                                  Am7

Knock-knock-knockin' on heaven's door   

G                     D                                  C

Knock-knock-knockin' on heaven's door

G                     D                                  Am7

Knock-knock-knockin' on heaven's door,

G                     D                                  C

Knock-knock-knockin' on heaven's door.

G                      D                 Am7

Mama put my guns in the ground

G         D                        C

I can't shoot them any-more

G                         D                       Am7

That long black cloud is comin' down

G              D                                 C

I feel I'm knockin' on heaven's door

G                     D                                  Am7

Knock-knock-knockin' on heaven's door 

G                      D                                 C

Knock-knock-knockin' on heaven's door

G                     D                                  Am7

Knock-knock-knockin' on heaven's door,

G                     D                                  C

Knock-knock-knockin' on heaven's door.

Oh-Ohh, yeah-yeah

G             D            Am7 / C (alternate)   | x2

To play with Dylan on YouTube click HERE

A Couple Of Thoughtful Ancestry Based Expressions

Cousin Wende of the FaceBook based ancestry group The Sheldon Family Association reminded us of this very fine ancestry poem expressed here to help brighten your day:  

Dear Ancestor

"Your tombstone stands among the rest; 

Neglected and alone.

The name and date are chiseled out

On polished marble stone.

It reaches out to all who care

It is too late to mourn.

You did not know that I exist

You died and I was born.

Yet each of us are cells of you

In flesh, and blood, and bone.

Our blood contracts and beats a pulse

Entirely not our own.

Dear Ancestor, the place you filled

One hundred years ago,

Spreads out among the ones you left

Who would have loved you so.

I wonder how you lived and loved,

I wonder if you knew

That someday I would find this spot,

And come to visit you."

- a poem by Walter Butler Palmer (1868-1932), allegedly written in 1906 while Mr. Palmer visited the cemetery where his great grandparents are resting.

And too...  

a few months back, these scholarly written words by Ms. Della M. Cummings-Wright were re-published for your kind consideration -- click HERE to view. 

     

A New Resolution For Active Family Genealogists

A Generic Ancestry.com Family Tree (source: Ancesty.com Home)

 

Hello 2022

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Think about taking a break from new genealogical research.  Respectfully, go back and review what already exists in your family tree(s).  A re-evaluation of prior cited sources should be a major focus of the proposed family tree review. The frequency of error in public family trees is truly amazing, and this is particularly true with Ancestry.com public trees.  Red flag questions should be considered where family tree profiles are based on other Ancestry.com family tree(s).  Ancestry.com family trees are certainly not primary sources and frequently not even reliable secondary sources.  At best, consider using data in public Ancestry.com family trees only where solid primary and/or several reliable secondary sources also are discovered.  Of course, most veteran family genealogists likely hold a shortlist of very reliable family tree owners whose research can be trusted without much question.     

Ancestry.com subscribers know that Ancestry management presents data in other Ancestry family trees as "hints" -- and sometimes the "hints" presented are single-sourced only to other Ancestry.com trees.  Many of these trees are NOT backed by primary sources and could be classed as untrue "wishful thinking."  Using such weakly sourced Ancestry hints to make profile entries to your family tree is a prescription for error.  Published public family tree data provided by the self-proclaimed "Beginner Genealogists" is nothing less than an error-filled genealogical circular firing squad.  To copy these trees will make your tree far less accurate.  

So here's a challenge to veteran family genealogists.  In the course of your research, search out and investigate cases where Ancestry "hints" are single-sourced only to other Ancestry-based family trees and/or simultaneously backed by shaky secondary sources.  Report these genealogy dangers to Ancestry.com management.  The growing problem of misinformation caused and fostered by Ancestry.com marketing management should be arrested.

Ancestry.com's marketing philosophy actively encourages beginner subscribers to use the family trees they host as valid information sources.  Many trees are unreliable and are very weakly sourced!  It's not unusual to find beginner family trees abandoned by their owners after doing some very weak and marginal family research.  Such family trees are frequently found in the public Internet cloud where other beginner genealogists frequently include this error in their new family trees.  Be aware of this problem. 

A respected Syracuse University professor Dr. Rockfeller in his computing class a half-century past made this statement: "...never put anything in an electronic communication that you wouldn't yell to your mother across a crowded room."  Bottom line -- stop uploading disingenuous writings that are unsupported by primary sourced facts.  Stop copying or uploading "wishful assumptions" to the public Internet cloud.  If a family tree profile is a work-in-progress, state that fact with a clearly stated warning posted within this new tree profile.  Bad public domain information propagates through the Internet cloud and into many beginner family trees.  Furthermore, all family trees should be considered works-in-progress, especially when these trees are unsupported by valid primary sources or single-sourced to other Ancestry.com family trees.    

                      

           

WISHES FOR A VERY FINE & MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

...and Merry Christmas DJ!

Stock Photo Of My Current 2018 Ford F150 XLT "Sport"

Stock Photo Of My New 2022 Ford F150 XLT "Sport"

Some might say I have little imagination -- and they might be right.  If a 2021 Ford F150 with zero mileage was available somewhere in October 2021 (and none was)  -- a truck exactly configured like my 2018 F150 -- it would have been purchased.  It seems no such 2021 F150 was available anywhere in the USA in October 2021.  But... a new 2022 could be ordered --  so this new 2022 Ford F150 pickup was ordered.  The new truck is configured exactly like my 2018 F150.        

Email received from Ford A couple of days ago -- 

YOUR VEHICLE IS ON ITS WAY

Dear DJ,

Your new 2022 F-150 XLT SuperCab Sport has shipped and is on its way!  Our current estimate for delivery to Steet Ponte Ford is between December 26, 2021, and January 1, 2022. Once it arrives, a dealership representative will contact you to arrange a final delivery.

Sending high hopes to readers that

Santa will be as generous to everyone. 

Merry Christmas To All... 

And To All A Goodnight!

The new 2022 ride finally arrives (see comment)