Toilets, toilets, everywhere and not a place to sit

You though I was going to go for it didn't you. Well I try to keep this fairly PG. Inspections and pipes and leaks... We have four full bathrooms and not a working toilet in sight. Or bath or sink etc. I'm beginning to think fondly of outhouses and hand pumps. And really with a lead water main how much worse could the well water be? Actually a whole lot worse so we won't go there.

Anyway Plumbers are on the way.

I just hope they don't get swept away in the storms. We had a Tornado watch last night till 10pm, my first!

No joy though, or actually lots of joy no tornado.

Apparently the ones that were coming our way were particularly fun. Big long tornado followed by lightening thunder torrential rain and golf ball sized hail. Now that is FUN.

We just had the lightening and thunder and torrential rain (though not nearly as torrential as the folks to the south) and some howling wind. Only lost a few small tree parts. The beast has been looking for someplace to dig into and hide from it all. Downstairs in a cave of boxes seems to be the best he can do. He left the room with a look at me that said "only a fool stays above ground in weather like this!". And with a "so long sucka" he trotted off to find a cave.

I need to see if I can dig out the recorder because we are getting some nice wind and hardly anybody is out making noise.

Foghorns in the moonlight, playing for you all night

OK, it's a steal of sorts from a song, but can you name it???

So I heard them last night but they were really going this morning. But it's not SF???? Well Det. is on the river and we have some heavy fog right now so... No buoy bells though.

The goal is to get the house looked over by someone who will spot problems that we haven't caught. Get an actual time for a plumber to look at/ fix at least the kitchen and one bathroom. Get a firm time from Comcast and get a garbage can.

Now since the city "inspected" and declared the house "habitable" you might be wondering why there are so many basics that are not working. Me too. Though it was explained to me that since municipal inspectors are not liable for anything they say they will often say whatever is easiest. There is probably a lot of push to declare anything that anybody is talking about inhabiting "habitable". And how are you going to tax an uninhabitable house?

Hey another fun fact. Michigan is a "right to carry" state so basically unless they can prove you shouldn't have a gun you can buy one. You need a permit to buy a hand gun but rifles and shotguns are free of even that.

Concealed weapons are a different matter, you have to not be a convicted felon and pass a safety test with a score over 70%.

Well I need to get packin ;~)

BTW "Tuba's in the Moonlight" - Bonzo Bog Band

At the whims of WiFi mooching

Till I get Comcast out to actually get a real internet feed to the campsite, I'll call it a house once some basics finally get working - like indoor plumbing, I'm "dependent on the kindness of strangers" (though I Blanch to say so).

So postings are erratic as is email and all things web related. Ironically the 3GS which in a lot of ways I like a lot less than the original iPhone seems to find WiFi just about everywhere. Now is Apple would put some SPAM filtering on the mobile mail so it was of any use!

For some reason the 3GS has the same problem with cases and the proximity sensor, you don't get the screen back when it comes away from your face (till to take it out of the case). But has added some new twists. The touch screen is now very sensitive and is active even when the proximity sensor says you have it up to your head??? The result is that I am forever hitting MUTE or pause (what the heck is that???) when I use it like a phone. Obviously the testing was done almost exclusively with ear buds or bluetooth. You can use it with out a case but it's like holding an ice cube, very slippery, so that isn't very recommended. I just can't figure out where the logic is in killing the display but leaving it activeHowever it apparently has a much better Wifi antenna that a MBP, so there ya go.

The other day we had SUN! and I was pleased to see the weather was better than the Bay Area.

But it didn't last and we are now back to grey chilly and wet.

But Sunday, Easter, I saw my first Cardinal, the bird not the guy in a funny hat. The Bay Area has a lot of colorful things but the birds are generally Black to gray to dirty white (crow, pigeon, seagull respectively). So the blazing red of the Cardinal was quite a nice surprise. We actually saw three yesterday!

I forgot to mention that the other day I went to the last meeting for the season of "Open City - Detroit". It's a sort of group of small businesses or want to be small business. It was good but they met at Cliff Bell's and that was very cool.

And I found out that the symphony is selling tickets for $20!

Now if I can just get a working toilet life will be looking up.

Another day in search of a bath

Another sunny day morning. I was going to use that as the title but apparently titles cant have strike-though letters...

Anyway I woke up to most of the windows in the house all fogged over.Turns out the fog was on the outside. It's warm and humid (80%) and the house is so cold that the out side of all the windows (except the "warm room") frosted over.

I thought I would open everything up and warm up the place. That might have been a mistake since just about every surface instantly had condensation on it...

But I figure if I let it air long enough it should balance out and dry up. One can hope anyway.

I cleaned out the garage gutters which were full to over flowing with compost. In fact there were a few plants that had taken root up there. But it looks better and maybe the rain coming will wash them out.

The beast has been grazing all morning and after helping clean the gutters needed to relax.

I should drop by the Eastern Market today just because. But the big quest is to get to this hot tub place I found and soak the last week off. I hope they have a shower or I may leave a ring.

I also found a cool recourse. Habitat for Humanity has retail outlets! That are open to the public.

** side note there have been a stack load of fire trucks flying by out side. They don't seem to be stopping close by but??? Considering how understaffed the DFD is it must be a fairly big deal to get this many heading to the same place. **

Back to HfH. They sell all kinds of stuff at a big discount. Nothing is regularly stocked so you have to hunt often if your looking for something specific but still.

This may be a solution to the electric stove also since they just started selling tested and guaranteed appliances. And they will take old ones so maybe a good place to dump the old electric stove, space wasting dishwasher and electric water heater (seriously... Don't know what those guys were thinking.

Well off to soak, I hope.

O'h one other weird thing I have found is that almost no companies have web sites out here. Big ones and chains yes but hardly any local shops. I'm so used in the Bay Area to checking a places web site to see if they really are likely to have what I want. I can see some places not having one but none of the local computer stores have a web site! Gives one pause.

OK now I'm really gone.

Some interesting views of this city

This is a "making of" on a a music video. Since it's youTube you can see the music video also but the making of is more informative.

This is another one with a different twist.

WE are not in quite such a heavy rebuild, but turns out there are some burst pipes so ... First the roof before the forecast 4-5 inches of rain in the next 9 days or so and then I NEED to get some indoor plumbing working!

AS for us we had a sunny day yesterday so the beast was happy.

And I got to clear out the vines that lived on the roof of the garage till the winds brought them down.

Once we get another dry day I can get all the rest of the junk off the roof.

Our contractor cleared a bunch off the main roof when he took a look at the wind damage. So it's better but we need to get it patched ASAP.

I'll be moving a bunch of stuff around because we are going to have to open some walls and ceilings tracking down the burst pipes.

So much for the assumption that the place was winterized in time!

Not sure if this is a bad cleaning job or there was a bit of a water fall

You only really see it with the light skimming it so?

However there are some other signs of water or age.

This is the same wall from a different angle and you can see where the plaster has puffed out.

It might just be age and the sad fact that it's been empty for a couple of years so has had some big temp swings. And the idiots who had it last did a lot of stupid things to the house. They were apparently hot on "doing it themselves". I'm not opposed to that since I intend to do a lot of the work my self. BUT you should have at least some basic knowledge of what your trying to do and these doofuses as far as I can tell didn't know a screw from a nail. So everything they touched one needs to recheck. Subtle things like they disconnected the ground to the house, connected copper to steel pipe with out dielectric unions, nailed and screwed things into plaster walls. Just a heads up to all you would-be fixer-uppers, plaster has pretty much zero strength. You NEED to go into wood or something structural or it will all come down the minute it has weight and a wiggle. One thing the had up with two aluminum roofing nails, it came off when I touched it. This closet "improvement" didn't fair much better.

As you can see 1/4" of sheetrock screw into old plaster is falls a little below building standards.

But now I'm getting into a new branch. The This Old Detroit House, think PBS will pick us up?

Boxes, boxes everywhere and not a place to sit

So I have made a dent but...
Not enough to brag about

So I will be digging out of this for some time...

Water is connected. Tomorrow a Bath??? Monty hopes so.

We can't just turn it on because there is no telling if and where there may be burst pipes so we need to do it slowly and check for leaks.

Another "surprise" is that our water main is made of ... lead.

That is apparently common in these old houses.

That filter on the drinking water just moved up a notch. There probably isn't much that can be leached out of the pipes after 102 years but maybe I'll just not find out.

I went to a meeting of Open City Detroit. It's a group of small business and start up entrepreneurs. It was interesting, and one of the main folks it turns out lives in our hood! And it looks like Meg White apparently throws some very nice parties. So goodies on the horizon. Also maybe tomorrow I can get to the post office and pick up a goodie package from SF!

Well Go GIANTS!
and so long from the big D.

Film incentives the right and the wrong

Seems OT but it either goes here or in the sound BLOG and since it's a VERY hot item here in the big D here is where it goes.

Michigan may do away (essentially) with it's film incentives. California got a touch but it's getting fought so?

Since I have moved to MI I'll focus on the logistics here but this really applies to all states.

There are two papers that get dragged out and held up to prove film incentives cost money.

The first is this one Film Incentives Report

It's by the "Tax Foundation" which used to be reputable but then got bought by the Heritage foundation. They fired all the economists and it now is used to churn out what ever report they want to support their causes.

The second one is State film subsidies

A report by a supposedly OK outfit named Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

However it reads like a rewrite of the first and and uses the same erroneous arguments. So?

There are a few points that the folks supporting the incentives can't seem to get across to the general public. The anti incentives folks have set the argument and the pro folks are doing what the dems have done for years, defend against stupid accusations.

It seems to be a right wing thing to go after film incentives and the only reason I can think of is it's easy press to link them to.

Hollywood "liberals", which becomes a kind of code for all of "those people".

The arguments all come down to:

And how "we" should not be paying "them" all this money.
And all the best jobs go out of state.

The implication is that the state is giving money out of it's treasury to subsides the film industry.

The thing is EVEN IF the incentives all went to "those people" the states still make a bunch of money.

But we are talking TAX incentives.
The production pays a stack of cash in taxes to the state and when all the bookkeeping is done (a year or two down the pike) the production gets a refund.

It's not a subsidy it's a tax refund.

The "money" the state pays to the production is a slice of what the production payed to the state in the first place.

The only way this ends up costing the state anything is if you assume that all the films would have shot there anyway. Judging by the number of projects that pulled out of Michigan on the threat of the incentives getting curtailed that is an obviously wrong assumption for just about any state.

And lets get back to "those people". Yes "those Hollywood" types are going to be the headliners but they are also a drop in the bucket of film jobs.

I have news for you the majority of people in the film biz are not any of "those people". Hollywood power is smack in the middle of Orange County. One of the most conservative areas in the US. Hollywood was home to Charlton Heston and Ronald Reagan.

What is very ironic is that most of the jobs on a film are trades jobs. Carpenters, painters, electricians, metal workers, Teamsters, etc. A lot of these folks are very blue collar and pretty conservative. Many of the "flaming liberals" that get dragged out are actors. Actors are generally 1%-5% of the people working on a film. I have met more NRA members in film than ACLU members.

It's cracking me up the spell checker keeps wanting to change Charlton into Charlatan. But I digress.

For a state with incentives this could mean hundreds of jobs hired locally. And true IF you don't have local talent in the "best job" category then your not going to get many of those jobs.

But that is exactly why the state gives out "tax credits" to all kinds of businesses and even out right subsides. To grow your local talent pool and to keep businesses in your state.

And with out the incentives you don't even get the "worst jobs" (which in film generally pay pretty darn good).

Lets take a look at Michigan's budget. Now it has been claimed that Michigan "paid out" $100,000,000 in incentives. If that is true then they collected $238,095,238 in taxes, hung on to them for a year or so and then kept $138,095,238.

i.e. Michigan MADE 138,095,238, it didn't loose $100,000,000.

Look at it this way if you pay me a dollar and eventually I have to give you 42 cents back who is benefiting? I mean if the state wants to make the reverse deal with me I'm game. You can use the comments to tell me who to send the bill to.

But lets look at the bigger picture. Since we are outraged that those liberals are taking all that money to create jobs, who else might be sucking at the public teat? How much does Michigan actually pay out in "tax credits"?

Well it looks like that number is $1,351,500,000.

Here is the budget report.
Budget Report

So the state of Michigan is subsidizing companies to the tune of over one and a third Billion dollars and the only money the want to cut is one hundred mill that brings in film jobs.

I don't know where all the credits go. I'm sure none of it goes to companies that out sourced jobs to other countries. Right, and I just bought a hunk of the Brooklyn bridge.

If you think about it film production is one of the few businesses that can't out source, unless it moves the whole shebang.

OK I'm done. If someone is trying to kill incentives where you live use this info and shove it where it counts.

Spring time in the great white north

There are a bunch of things we should do today but there is a winter advisory out on the roads so maybe staying close to home is a good choice.

We've had a warmish rain and yesterday they had high wind alerts. Not super high by Bay Area standards BUT they get a real winter here so the trees are weaker right after winter and they get a lot of branches breaking off and downing power lines. But waking up to snow was a surprise!

For the benefit of those not familiar with the history. This house has no heat at the moment. It hasn't been bad since the weather has been fairly warm and I have a electric radiator in the bedroom we are using at the moment.

But it shouldn't last too long. We are supposed to have thunder storms tomorrow and the next day. 8~).

I may have to shift the boxes far enough away from the fireplace to get some crackling heat down stairs...

The big D at last...

So Monty's final Motel6 stay

The cargo seems mostly intact

Something I was not sure of considering the various road conditions (Illinois and Indiana I will single out for truly horrendously bad road maintenance, With all respect to Illinois, Indiana takes the cake for charging me for the worst roads I traveled on).

I checked off the "avoid toll roads" on the GPS and it send me a few blocks north into Michigan...

The rural back roads highways in Michigan put the best I saw in Indiana to shame. And "Road construction" meant the shoulder was not available as opposed to the Illinois version which is semi's playing chicken on a two lane stretch with a paint line separating the opposing traffic.

We finally pulled in around 1pm. With a lot of help from our contractor and a guy he brought in we managed to unload the truck by night fall. Good thing because it's been raining ever since.

Today I returned the truck. A bit more involved than it sounds since I had to reattach my car and the tow dolly (need to get back from the truck rental in a town with virtually no public transit) and then find some place I could fill up the yellow whale (Pensky charges $8/ gal to refuel - they really don't want you to bring it back less than full).

But all went well even if it took longer than expected. I then went straight to the Russell street Grill for breakfast(in the afternoon) and some produce shopping at the Eastern Market.

There is a lot more to do but at least none of it involves a 26ft truck towing a car and a dog who doesn't like trucks.

So long for now.

CheersSK

Bye Bye Iowa Illinois and into Indiana

Our last full day on the road, I hope.

Last nights Motel6 was the clear winner Avoca, if your interested. Tonight's (and probably the last for some time) is a step or two back. Not it's fault but the water comes out frothy with a tinge of green. No ice machine, normally not a huge deal but when your getting in late (in Indiana that is anytime after 7 pm) nothing is open and dinner is week old tortilla chips and warn Pepsi it matters!

OK we started out in rain. There was apparently a big rainstorm last night but cozy in our five star Motel 6, with double pained windows, we didn't notice. It stopped long enough to load up but da beast still tracked mud in on everything.

But he is a bit calmer in the truck so that's good. He doesn't always sit with his head down looking like he's trying not to puke.

WE also had a stack of celebrities today. We drove through the town where John Wayne was born, then Ronald Regan's birth place then the Hoover Historic site???

This one I thought was funny. Heading east to West Liberty.

If this wasn't so shaky, this is a truck after all, you would notice that our millage is 2011. Seemed appropriate.

Monty is looking out at the Mississippi

And we make into Illinois.

But wait we didn't stop there...

The beast is SO happy not to be in the truck.

So some observations.

Iowa was fun to drive through, even though it was raining. Rolling hills interesting to look at and the roads were pretty good.

Illinois on the other hand was a bit more like Nebraska view wise, but the roads! I swear 1/4 were "under construction" I don't know if this is a good move at improvement or if they are always "under construction" but I80 is a mess. A bunch of times your down to two lanes, one each direction. When you have big trucks flying at each other on "under construction" pavement it's nerve wracking. Once you get close to Chicago any pretense of repair is pretty much out the window. There are pot holes a truck could disappear into. I hit one and everything not tied down in the cab went flying. Le dog was not amused. I was down to mountain crawling speeds to try and save some of the cargo. But then we get to Indiana...

Indiana is a rare driving experience, thank god. In Indiana they repair pot holes by filling them in, a little. Most of the I80 is basically one big pothole with stripes. But they don't stop at that, they add to the fun by not lighting any of it. Exits with shopping are lit up like daylight but the roads and road signs are not lit at all. Actually that is not strictly true. The toll booths are lit up very nicely. They are unmanned and take some kind of state issued pass or cash (bills only and no change (so that $1.40 toll is $2 cash. There is a name for practices like this but the server would yank my post if I used it. You can also pay with a credit card. So far, my two hour adventure with Indiana road hell cost around $15 in tolls. I though it was a bit steep till I realized that if you just think of what this experience would normally cost you it's pretty cheap. While driving I thought that the closest I had come to this kind of thrill was to ride the barely hanging together Big Dipper at the Beach Boardwalk. Indiana highways are like ridding an old scary roller coaster with out a safety belt, for an hour straight not knowing when it all falls apart and you die. And hour of the Big Dipper would cost more than $15, and I got two hours for that!

Michigan still has a chance to slide lower than Indiana but I have done a fair amount of time on the roads around Detroit and I doubt that the rest of the state can be bad enough to bring the score down to Indiana's level. Plus even if it's as bad they don't add insult to injury (quite literally) by charging you for it.

AND with all this money they are ripping people off for WHERE is it all going??? Certainly not into maintenance. I want that gig. I give you a really lousy version of what your looking for and charge you through the nose for it. Oh and you don't get a chance to say no.

Next post from Detroit.

On the road again.

I was going to do a real post since this rest stop has Wi-Fi but the silly laptop apparently never went to sleep and so is dead. And no way to power it because that very cool MagSafe connector apple won't let anyone use except them. One step forward one back. Apple is a little like that cool kid on the playground that looks cool but doesn't play well with others. Except for the cool looking part that sort of describes computer geeks when jobs was young so...

Guess I need to get back on the road. Monty wants to go explore.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Why Oming? Why not.

OK so this is two days worth because last night I ended up sleeping in the cab with the dog - no Wi-Fi. I'll get to that later, but first.

Motel 6 has been the place of choice because they are "pet friendly". But there doesn't seem to be much consistency between places, in just about anything. The first one was "no problem" with the dog but $3 for Wi-Fi. It worked so fine. The second one was OK with the dog but I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and Wi-Fi was free. The third one didn't have any "pet OK rooms" and basically tossed us out on the street.The first one recognized I got a discount, the second had a big sign "We already discounted the rooms so no other discounts apply". Who know about the third since I ended up sleeping in a truck.

Everything was OK in the first, the second didn't have hot water. After about 10 min it got up to luke warm (this was at midnight so I don't suspect a whole lot of showers had just depleted the supply. It didn't actually matter since it turns out they didn't put any towels in the room. And again with the third I wouldn't know since I slept in the truck (get a theme here?).

IF they advertised that they had a FEW pet rooms I wouldn't be so pissed but they say pet's, no problem.

Now my cousin would have probably gotten a few free rooms out of it all but really I'm driving 18+ hours a day with a dog and a hassle with the management is one thing I don't need to add to the pain. But I do think I will have some choice words in the survey they sent.

OK back to the real story.

After the towel-less, hot waterless stay we left in a light snow fall - O' the joy...You can kind of see it here.

It actually got a bit snowy driving.

You can see the slightly white out perspective. Not too bad but also not something you want to start learning how to do with 10 tons of truck dragging a car over the rockies.

I have to say the view was a lot more interesting than some of what we have been going through.

This is around one of the "continental divides" I say one because a sign flashed by on the highway saying "continental Divide" and then about fifty miles further another one said exactly the same thing. Neither had a rest stop so we couldn't really get the shot you of course want to see.

My question is what's between the signs? Does the west and east overlap or is it a big no-man's land? Or is it in fact the "middle" that politicians keep talking about? I have news for them, NO BODY lives there!

OK we passed out of Wyoming and in to Nebraska. Nebraska is I believe the "huckster" state. I was told they got the nickname because they convinced the rest of america that Corn was the only real food.

Nebraska is also known as the Silo state. All those ICBM's that they launch in Colorado shoot out of silos all over the prairie. The though that came to me looking at the prairie was "some body must own all this". It's america after all. Is there any land not owned by somebody? My second though was why would someone buy it? I can see national parks and all but why an individual would buy land out there is beyond me. But it's probably because I'm basically a city boy and there are, I am sure, folks who would rather drop dead than spend a week in a big city.

I'm probably being unfair to Nebraska but after a fair amount of miles on this trip this was the first state I had a truck try to drive me off the road. Actually two different trucks forced me and the great yellow whale to swerve into the emergency parking lane to avoid getting in a wreck. And in both cases they had a free lane to the left. It's also the state that made me sleep in the truck. Ironically in my search for a place that would have an open bathroom at night I ended up parking across the border in Colorado.

On the plus side Nebraska was the first place Monty actually interacted with snow.

And There was Buffalo Bill's "trading post"

And Penny's Dinner

I meant to get a better picture but I forgot till we were on our way out of town. It's in what looks a little like a train car or a big Old school RV, and it was really good.

OOOO fount a better picture on the Web

Not sure you can tell from this shot but the wind was howling and everything is kind of hazy because the air is filled with dust.

On other news I was wondering how loud it is in the truck. I know it's loud but how loud?

Well "there's an app for that", and I already have it.This is the "quiet" cruising level. It's a bit louder when it has to shift down for hills. I'll have to do a OSHA check but I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be doing 90dB 18 hours a day for very long.

We are now in Iowa, at a Motel 6... But this one I think is going to reset the high bar.

Oh and for a last shot. Monty finally relaxed a bit in the truck. Maybe because we slept in it last night???

Also I have some video but I need some time to look and edit so maybe in the final wrap up?Later

Overland to Evanston

Monty leaving his mark on Winnemucca

Todays progress

Monty saddled up

Checking out the Salt Flats

Seagulls at Salt Lake

ADA at work, Handicap Truck Parking. I'm not kidding, every truck stop has a couple of handicap parking slots. Kind of ridiculous when you realize you have to climb a ladder to get into the cab.

One lesson I have learned on this trip is that when your driving something big that you can't back up it's important to use any bathroom you can park at because it may be a long haul till you find another. Never pass up a rest area!

So we are out of Utah in a day. We are a bit over 800 miles so far, almost 600 today. When you consider we can't go over 55 and in the mountains we are often more like 35-40, not so bad. We are running around 8 MPG, which sounds god awful till you realize that if we were burning gas in this beast it would be closer to 5. I'm optimistic that after we get out of the mountains we can scoot the MPG up toward 9.

Other revelations. 5 hour energy stuff tastes pretty bad but really works well, and very useful when faced with a couple of hours of driving through salt flats. Utah gets a bad impression if you head in from the west on I80. You come out of the high desert of Nevada and descend in to the salt flats. The flats look like miles and miles of dirty snow, and then they get sort of amber. All in all it looks filthy. Some of it is wet and looks a bit like a post apocalyptic wasteland. Also the salt and dust makes your eyes burn and gives an over all impression of a VERY smoggy day in LA.

The reality is probably a lot better than the impression but it tarnishes your out look before you get to the Salt Lake which is quite striking.

later days

SK

Welcome to Winamucka

So Monty and I finally made it out of the City, and the state! in a big old truck. No video, and there might not ever be since handling the truck is a very full time job and I don't know where I could prop it up and get anything interesting. But ???

So the route is

and todays part is

I made it to a Motel 6 and the dog is snoring at my feet right now. It was a hard day for him, he's not a truck dog. But he did seem to like to watch the world go by out the window.

Two things came up today that were kind of surprises.First a lot of I80 is in bad shape, there were times I though I was on a pogo stick. The worst is some patches in Nevada where I think some shady contractor used cheap cement because the slabs seem to dip in the center so you end up hitting very regular ridges. At certain speeds it gets awful. I ended up down around 35-40 to keep from bouncing off the road.

The other thing is that although the truck is heavy it is also tall and is pretty much always like driving a VW buss over the bay bridge with gusty wind. You have a lot less "extra" lane with the truck and with the buffeting you are constantly correcting your course. And since you can't see the line you need to rely on the side view mirror. If you can see the line next to the rear wheels your not over it.

OK parting shots.

Da Truck on the Lincoln Highway bridge rails

Leaving the City

Monty's smiling because Donner pass is open and I wont have to eat him.

Well that's it. If I have internet tomorrow I will do another installment-30-