National ID Bill Slinking Into Law

There is a very real threat to what remains of our civil rights about to become a bill. Its been attached to a military appropriations bill and will create a national ID card called Real ID. It is not well thought out legislation, it allows no exemptions for people who have legitimate reasons for concealing their address, such as law enforcement, the judiciary, people who are being stalked. It is also planned to include RFID data which has been demonstrated that it can be read at a distance of over 10 yards, not the 10 inches that Homeland Security claims.

Theres a lot of problems with this bill, but the thing that I hate the most is the fact that its being back-doored by being attached to an appropriations bill. It has not been debated, it has not been discussed publicly. I think it should be stopped and gone through a more formal process.

This web site will give you more information and also a link to let you send a fax to your congresscritters.

http://www.unrealid.com/index.html

One thing this is kind of urgent the bill goes down for a vote TUESDAY, MAY 10.

AIR CONDITIONING!

It's less than four weeks until Wayne is wed. I was hoping that Russet might come down after she finished her last work shift (she's now off until the middle of June as she's driving to/from Ohio) but it was kinda warm, so about three weeks ago I decided to check out my air conditioning. So I go to the thermostat and turn it on.

Nada. Nyet. Bupkis. Nothing.

This is hardly surprising, my heat pump is 32 years old(!). It generally needs a couple hundred poured into it every year or so. The thing that disturbed me was that not only did the A/C not work, the heater didn't, and I couldnt run the fan either. And no noise from the roof.

One would think that if the fan motor had died, youd at least get some noise. Come to think of it, the fan motor was replaced just a few years back, it shouldve been fine.

So I call the company that has been servicing my unit over the years. Guy comes out, goes up on the roof, pronounces a dead transformer and approximately $300 to replace it.

GAG.

And he recommends just replacing the antique. Getting a new unit has definite appeal, it would be A LOT more energy efficient. Then I speak with their salesman -- $4,000 to $5,000 for a new unit at one of the lowest SEAR ratings (a scale for determining efficiency that starts at 10 and goes higher as the unit gains efficiency). A 11-12 sear is that $4-5k range, an 18 SEAR is on the order of $8,000. My old unit? It would probably rate a 5.  So regardless of what I got, I would save money on my electric bill.

Still, that's a frightening amount of money after four years of unemployment, bankruptcy, getting married, and working on three month contracts.

So I held off on the new unit, and Russ and I discussed the concept of me snow birding and going up to Cloudcroft for the summer and telecommuting, a viable strategy as my current position allows me to VPN in and remote control my PC. Well, I go and talk to my dad, and he just about loses it when I tell him what needs to be done and how much its going to cost. I just about lose it when he tells me that he had to replace the transformer on one of his units and the part cost him. drum roll please.

TWENTY DOLLARS!

You know, theres fair profit on parts and labor, and then there's usury.

That was early last week, IIRC. He came out today and replaced it, and as of this afternoon I once again have A/C.


The Russet tie-in is that she came down last night tohelp me with something tomorrow. So it would appear that my fiance is safe from melting for now.