(Since the start of January.) But we might finally be past it. The forecast suggests we’re through the worst of it: 
It looks like we won’t need the humidifier anymore either.
It looks like we won’t need the humidifier anymore either. Jack pads
When we put our jacks down and lift the coach to level, we’re applying a lot of force to each foot. The coach is so heavy, on warm asphalt, we can actually punch permanent potholes in the surface. So whenever we’re on asphalt, we always put jack pads down under each jack foot. That dissipates the weight and makes it less likely that we’ll screw up a nice RV pad. They made these jack pads bright yellow because if they weren’t so obvious, a person could forget they were there and drive of without them.
On a related note, thank you brother Tom for bringing that renegade bright yellow jack pad home to us from Seattle after our last stay there. We’ve moved on. Now we’re back at Sandpipers in Edinburg. Yard birds
Olive sparrow.
Curve-billed thrasher.
Black phoebe.
Pyrrhuloxia.
Spider web in the morning dew.
Right. Not really a bird. Green Jay.
Northern Cardinal.
Black-crested titmouse.
Bewick’s wren.
Cedar waxwing.
Yucca in bloom.
Also, not a bird. Pyrrhuloxia and northern cardinal together.
Greater roadrunner.
Blue-headed vireo.
Yard pigs.Javelina
Curve-billed thrasher. Black phoebe. Pyrrhuloxia. Spider web in the morning dew.Right. Not really a bird. Green Jay. Northern Cardinal. Black-crested titmouse. Bewick’s wren. Cedar waxwing. Yucca in bloom. Also, not a bird. Pyrrhuloxia and northern cardinal together. Greater roadrunner. Blue-headed vireo. Yard pigs.Javelina A cold misty morning
Windmill blades disappearing in the low hanging clouds, we made our way 90 miles northwest to Falcon State Park. No more mist by the time we got here; the weather cool and cloudy but not cold. We’re not on a trip, we just went out for a couple days in the bus. We got a very nice camp.
With a very nice yard.
We hung out some bird feeders, and the seed on the ground is a hit with the local javelina.
Henry watched from the dashboard.
We don’t think he needs to have anything to do with javelina tusks.
With a very nice yard. We hung out some bird feeders, and the seed on the ground is a hit with the local javelina. Henry watched from the dashboard. We don’t think he needs to have anything to do with javelina tusks. I read an article
It made the case that wind energy was useless as an alternative to fossil fuel because today, it provides 0% of the world’s energy usage. After building and installing all these windmills we see, wind-produced energy makes up less than half of one percent of the world’s energy usage. That rounds down to zero, therefore it’s useless. Of course, that’s a ridiculous conclusion, even if it is based on real data. It’s just a way to frame the data to fit one’s own purpose. By including All the world’s energy, not just the places windmills have been installed, the windmill effect is diluted to zero. Given the same data, I suspect wind energy produces far more than zero % of the energy usage in the places windmills have actually been installed. There may be legitimate arguments against the use of solar and wind energy, but those are diminished by dishonest framing of data to deliberately understate the results. Maybe windmills take more energy to build than they produce. Maybe they kill too many birds. Maybe we’d have to cover the entire planet with windmills or solar panels to produce enough energy for everyone. Those are all arguments that could be explored. One argument against solar and wind energy is that they aren’t as affordable as fossil fuels and have to be subsidized. If we’re looking broad picture though, we should consider total cost of each source, not just immediate cost; not just the cost measured on financial statements. We should consider what it costs, financially and environmentally, to build the energy producing machine, what it costs to produce electricity, what other precious resources are used during production and operation, and what it costs to dispose of any waste produced during construction and operation. What we pay at the pump for a gallon of gas for instance, or what we pay at the meter for a watt of electricity, may not include the cost of clean-up, or for the effects of global climate change. We may not be paying the total cost of our current energy usage; we may not even know what it is. That’s a calculation we need to be making as we contemplate our energy sources for the future. It’s not helpful for us to take a position on what we want the outcome of an evaluation to be (be it wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, or fossil), then look for ways to justify that outcome. It would be much more productive to make an honest analysis of the information available and see where the facts lead us.