Hey...It's not really Springtime yet. It's still cold here. Old Man Winter is still visiting my house, and I can't get rid of him.
You ever wonder why we call Autumn, "Fall". Why do we call Spring, "Spring". Has it really sprung yet? Spring is great for preparing the garden for Summer. My asparagus is beginning to yield...slowly but surely, and its some good eatin'. That early spring green is fun to watch.

The birds are coming back too! There are so many Eastern Bluebirds in my yard and the Carolina Chickadee. I like watching them around the bird feeder and bird bath.

Yep, watching the Daytona 500. What a race. 194mph sideways is probably not a good feeling during a crash. I guess they are used to that though. I'm not a fan of restrictor plates, but the crashes would probably occur at 220mph.

I still remember the days of Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty and A.J. Foyt (when the cars were still discernable between Ford & Chevrolet). It's not the same, but it is faster and probably more dangerous. Now the cars are basically frames of alloy & plastic.

Whatever happened to the Montreal Expos? Does the mascot not move with the team franchise?

The temperature has changed drastically for February. It's not spring yet, but sure feels like it outside. I had to use an ATM today to get some money and was shocked by the surcharge. Most of the time I use my ATM card for FREE, but this was an instance where I needed cash. The surcharge was $2.95 for $20, that's 15% interest that the bank is making, and that's only from one end of the ATM. I wonder how much the banks eventually make off of that one transaction. I feel like I got robbed.

I'm going to start my own bank, with my own ATMs. What a lucrative business...banking. It's no wonder that most college graduates have "business" degrees. Engineering is for nerds who don't know anything about money...like me. The one course that I took in college was too theoretical (a calculus based macroeconomics class). From that point on, I changed my major from business to engineering. When you are 17 years old, money is not as interesting as distilling gasoline or designing control systems. Engineering was a major that appealed to my sensibilities. As I get older, money appeals to my sensibilities and engineering seems like a hobby.

Reading the book "The Earth is Flat" has shown me that while other countries are concerned about engineering and technology, the United States is honing management & business skills. If only I had known 20 years ago that the United States would become a "distribution center" for everything. The world has become a place where anyone with a computer is now an engineering, design, computer and technological expert. America has reinvented itself as a "service sector" oriented society that only points customers in the right direction to the self-checkout. Unfortunately, the United States has designed themselves out of any job that requires skills. Granted, communication, leadership and management are skills, but not everyone can implement them simultaneously for every job. Such is America's future.

==> My children's education through college will consist of the following courses:

College Algebra - for adding & subtracting their checkbook.
Speech Communication - for effective speaking to teams.
English - for effective writing of emails.
Business Management - for being the boss.
Business Law - for effective understanding of the workplace.
Introduction to Computers - for everything else in the universe.
Sociology - for understanding different people.

That's it....that will be their major....7 courses for life. It's the shortened version of the college experience. And of course, the fraternity or sorority for getting their first job.

I'm not cynical, just realistic.

I heard that in Europe that the Water Treatment Plants are downstream and the Sewage Treatment Plants are upstream. I don't know if this is true, but it does make sense, except in times of sewage crisis, when effluent cannot be treated effectively. It does allow self-regulation though. Have you ever wondered how our sewer lines work in our cities? Gravity does much of the work, but how does it get to the Waste Water Treatment Plant? Somebody told me that they use pumps, but that seems odd. How does the pipeline for sewerage stay current? What about sewer leaks and infrastructure damage? I also heard that the street sewers mix with residential effluent. Anyway, without septic tanks (which are self-contained), I don't understand sewerage systems.

I've always wondered if water is diamagnetic or not, because of the polarized molecule. As a solid, can it be magnetized? Maybe it takes impurities in order to have permeability. Its a thought. Water stores so much potential energy, I'm always amazed why this energy is not harnessed more. Freshwater falls all over our planet. Wasted potential energy, clean energy that can be developed without large dams.