Driving nearly 7 hours each way on major interstates, I was struck by the fact that nearly every single car dealership we passed in every major metro area we passed through had acres and acres of space but VERY FEW CARS on those acres of pavement.

Not Ford, Not Chevy, Not Dodge, Not Toyota, not Kia ….Not any marque that I saw….all nearly devoid of cars on the lot….No cars. The few that we did see might have been used cars…(Hard to tell as we sped by at highway speeds). But the dearth of cars and truck for sale was obvious.

Ever since the (sham) election on Nov 3, 2020, the Media and the DNC folks have said “Get over it”….”Move on”. And we should. It is a given that we cannot do anything about it.

And now, on Jan 6 2022, they should take their own advice….The Jan 6 2021 protest was a year ago…deal with it.

Get Over It. Deal. Move on.

I guess they have nothing else to talk about, nor anything else to try and keep our attention while Biden and company screw up our economy and our country.

They claim that the Jan 6th protest was a terrible day. Perhaps it was. But so was the debacle that was the 2020 election….The theft of the vote of the American People….the disenfranchisement of the American Citizen….hey can say whatever they wish, tell us all what they would like us to believe….but most American people, white, black, Democrat and Republican, Male and female, gay or straight,,,,few still believe in the integrity of the election process….That is possibly the greatest damage the DNC has done to the country..,And despite the continued protests of clarity and integrity and the continued memes of “Investigations”.no matter what they say in their speeches…Few in this country who can think believe them.

But they really should take their own advice.:

Get over Jan 6th.

Innit interesting ….

So the EU is now “Redefining”  Natural Gas and Nuclear Energy as “Green” sources of energy….Because they need those sources of electricity now that Wind and Solar have shown themselves to be unreliable.

The European Union has drawn up plans to label some natural gas and nuclear energy projects as “green” investments after a year-long battle between governments over which investments are truly climate-friendly. The European Commission is expected to propose rules in January deciding whether gas and nuclear projects will be included in the EU “sustainable finance taxonomy”.

What is happening is that much of the Nuclear generation capacity is being shut down, and nearly all the coal plants already have been, and many Natural gas fueled generation plants are either being phased out or are planned to be soon….and Europe is about to go dark because not everyone can import their shortfalls in generation by “borrowing” from their neighboring countries…..at least not all at the same time. Brownouts and blackouts are about to become very common there, and this will kill the industry and tourism….which will kill their economies.

The Greens got what they wanted, except that they are learning that their god of “sustainability” has feet of clay……And that the regular citizen doesn’t want to live in the dark like their world citizen.

So, of course, the Progressives (doing what progressives do…) are “redefining” what is “Green Energy”….

While the Media and the Left (but there I go again, being repetitive) like to define the protest at the Capitol as an “Insurrection” …..it was a Protest. Had there been plans for an insurrection, there would have been a lot different outcome…and folks would have come prepared for much more violence. Weapons of war would have been present…..and there would be no question of what was intended.

But insurrection sounds worse, doesn’t it?  And, lets face it, by the media’s definition, it was mostly  “Mostly Peaceful”….

But since the Left and the Media (there I go again) get to set the language, they get to make it sound bad…And they are using the protest to bash the Right because they get to control the message.

And those who protested at the Capitol are being hounded by the Judicial system…

But innit interesting that no one…absolutely ZERO persons….have been charged with “Insurrection” or “Treason” or ay related charges? Strange. One would think that an “Insurrection” would require some Insurrectionists, wouldn’t you think?

I mean, the forecast is for snow, and ice, you drive anyway.

The road is blocked, you get stranded. You are unprepared for the stranding, not enough gas or food or water….(Or, even, GASP! Terlet paper…OMG!)

Somehow this is supposed to be someone else’s fault and someone else’s problem….

People trapped for over 20 hours in snowy conditions on I-95 in Virginia

Hint: Don’t drive when road conditions are gonna suck. Be smarter than that. When the semi trucks start pulling off en-mass, you might wanna ask yerself why. …

Had the condtions for yesterday been for the kind of weather we are having today, I’d not have gone and driven nearly 7 hours each way, but rather waited for another day when there wasn’t a high likelihood that I would be trapped or endangered by weather.

I’ve been trapped by accidents in winter weather…..and I was always prepared enough to survive easily. If yer not well prepared, you are a sheep, a victim, and expect others to endanger themselves because of your stupidity and shortsightedness.

It’s not like there aren’t many weather apps for phones, tablets and computers that cannot tell you what to expect a few hours ahead as you drive, fer chrissakes. Of course you gotta be smart enough to actually look and use that data.

ETA: 48 MILES of people trapped. Are they too stupid to take the nearest exit and another route? I mean, if you are trapped right next to the actual accident site I can understand….but 48 MILES of trapped people? Could the State not have shut down the highway?

There have been blizzards on I-65 in Indiana and on I-57 in Illinois (about 40-50 miles apart), both North-South roads) and the highway departments of both Illinois and Indiana have no hesitation to close the highways when the conditions warrant it for 50-80 miles. Why can’t Virginia do it?

The Media and the DNC (but I repeat myself) are carefully ramping up the hype over the “Jan 6 Insurrection” anniversary tomorrow.

So sometime during the 14 hours that I was gone delivering supplies, the blog went down.

I emailed the tech folks late last night and they got it fixed.

The trip:

The drive down wasn’t bad, we took a whole Tahoe full of supplies (an overload, really) to folks who are gonna distribute it to people that need ’em. More stuff, actually than if we would have flown them down, as things like extension cords are heavy. All told we had a bit over a half ton of extension cords, power strips, generator  oil, gas cans (empty)  and other things that had been requested…..all donated by local people and businesses here in Indiana.

I gotta say, I haven’t done a road trip like that for a long time…it was fun, but whereas once a 20+hour trip, stopping only for gas and bathroom breaks was nothing at all, nowadays a 14 hour trip is kinda tiring.

Having said that, we got there, delivered our supplies, turned around, and left. The devastation was….impressive. This wasn’t the first tornado scene I had witnessed (I’ve been up close and personal with the whirlwinds) I have to say that the damage at Mayfield was shocking…perhaps because of the way they build things there, perhaps this was just a really strong tornado, either way the area affected was devastated. As I said, I have seen tornadoes up close and personal, and others shortly after their passing, and this scene still impressed me….even weeks later.

I  was supposed to fly with another dude to Mayfield Ky to deliver some relief supplies today.

We loaded the plane, paying particular attention to Weight and Balance,….special care as to what we loaded and where in the plane as this was gonna be a max gross weight takeoff. Just enough fuel to get there plus an hour reserve fuel. The rest was cargo and the two pilots.

This was a cold day, temp 9F or so…the coldest I have ever taxiied the plane

Pulled the plane out of the hangar, fired it up, taxiied….all good.

Then when I pulled the power back to stop for the “Before Takeoff” checklist, the left engine died. I restarted it, and it seemed to run fine….but the tach on the panel showed zero RPM.

I’m not sure what happened, or if the engine stoppage was related to the tach failure or not…could have been coincidental and the engine stoppage at idle was simply a function of the cold temps.

Either way, It looks like we will drive the supplies down, rather than fly them. 6 hours driving rather than 1.6 hours flying each way.

Plus whatever the repairs cost…..

Shit.

‘Twas pointed out to me yesterday that Soylent Green was set in 2022.

Now, I am not gonna say there are parallels to today, and I am not gonna say there ain’t.

Draw your own conclusions.

Innit interesting  though, that the dystopian films and stories from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s (and some even earlier than that) are somewhat prophetic?

Prepare accordingly…..

2021 is leaving, 2022 is upon us. In most years, I would take this as a new set of chances, a new beginning….

Sadly, I fear that 2022 will be an even bigger Dumpster Fire than 2021.

I mean, I really hope it isn’t, and I am going forward as if it will be better in many ways.

But I fear our leaders will fuck it up as badly or worse than 2021. I have faith that they will not let a chance to bring defeat from the jaws of victory pass them by.

Having said that, I wish each of you a better (much better!) 2022 and a prosperous, happy,  upcoming year.

May it come to pass. .