In a previous time, the ice cubes had to be made in the freezer section of the refrigerator.  A metal pan held held metal dividers that had to be warmed or shifted with a lever  to separate the rectangular prisms from the separators in the tray.  When plastic became popular, a plastic tray made “cubes” with trapezoidal faces.  These trays ejected the ice everywhere but into the glass you were trying to fill.

Back even farther, chunks of ice were broken from the same block of ice that cooled the food in the ice box.  An ice pick was poked at the ice until a chunk came off.  The block of ice likely came from an ice plant where ammonia refrigerant cooled a couple of gallons of water in each mold to make thousands of blocks every day.

Even farther back and maybe still today where it is more economical than not, ice was sawn from surface of a lake or even a purpose-built pond. Hauled and stored in an ice-house with sawdust packed between the blocks to keep them from sticking and to insulate.

Just some thoughts on a day when the temperature is 97 or so.  A bit of a breeze make it tolerable.  And ice water makes it enjoyable.

With rivers, there are many ways to look at them. The towboat captain looks at them as a highway with traffic, dangerous curves, rough spots, narrow lanes. The fisherman looks at them as a place to find a quiet out of the way spot to anchor, sit or stand and try to fool the fish. The Corp of Engineers looks at a river as something to be controlled. And the river looks back and thinks to itself “What a foolish idea”.

The farmer looks at the river and hopes that it comes up and refreshes that bottom land and then goes back in the banks and quietly flows away soon enough that he has time to plant, wait, and harvest before frost comes again. The River Street resident hopes that it does not come up at all.

Heraclitus said “You can never step in the same river twice”. So it is with the passage of the Health Care Bill the country is immutably changed.

Change for the better and change for the worse. The net result remains to be seen. For some it will be a blessing. For some it causes difficulty. For others just the change will be painful as the comfort of the old-same-thing is replaced by the new-same-thing.

Changed it is. Get used to it.

But at home, I only boot Windows when not connected to the Internet.  I only use Windows to play games that only run in Windows, most particularly Flight Simulator.  This way I can avoid catching some dread virus or trojan.  I use Ubuntu now and previously used Debian unstable.  Keeping these systems safe is a relatively easy matter with System Update or apt.

Now comes news from New South Wales that one should not use Windows for on-line banking.  Hmm.

If the unions wanted to do something useful for their members, they would lobby the government to insure that overseas workers had the right to organize and strike as American workers do.

The unions would then organize and lead the overseas workers to bargain for the pay and benefits that American workers have fought for and won.  But the current crop of union leaders are to busy scamming the American workers and the American public to truly benefit anyone but themselves..

There must be some way out of here. Said the Joker to the Thief…

The Paro airport in Bhutan is in a bowl in the mountains. The surface is over 7000 feet. How do you fly out of here in a Cessna 172 (or anything else for that matter).

I put the Paro airport in and took the defaults. Runway 33 faces a cliff way too high to get over. Forget treetops, this is solid rock. Let’s get real. You would not be headed in this direction without serious headwind. Adjust weather. Crank in an appropriate headwind. What would make you choose 33 vs 15. Do you need all that fuel? Lighten up. Leave those souvenirs behind and also that passenger. Know the Pilot’s Manual. Best angle of climb is key here. Review the route. The best mountain route is not always shortest.

Hints: The route to the north is a dead end. But you will always feel like you can make it. Wrong!
A well executed tight 180 to the left might work. Give it a try.
This will take you out to the SE which is probably the way you came in.

There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief.
Gotta beware gotta beware…

Credit to Bob Dylan and Jimmy Hendrix for the music playing in my head.