Wednesday Rambling

Wednesday night, and I find myself without much going on, nor much motivation to get in to anything.

Today was a quiet shift at work, and we all know that a quiet shift is a good shift.

Last night, the garage door opener died, for some strange reason. I came home fully expecting to spend most of the evening troubleshooting it. I read the instruction manual, got an idea of the wiring problems, then went out, unplugged it and disconnected the wiring. I did a voltage check and some continuity checks, then started plugging things back up to do the serious trouble-shooting. It came to life when I plugged in the main cord and it is working fine. I either inadvertantly fixed the problem while disconnecting and reconnecting the wiring, or it had an internal reset circuit that activated when I killed power to the unit. Anyway, it rebooted just fine and is working happily now.

Milady is working this evening, and that is the reason I am at loose ends. Were she home, I'd be sitting on the couch harassing her. As it is, I am without adult supervision.

Turkish mausers are a really good deal if someone is in the market for a beater rifle. They are mainly chambered for the 8mm Mauser round, which launches a 200 grain bullet at 2500 fps. That ought to be sufficient for just about anything on the North American continent. Those rifles are running in the hundred dollar range, and it looks like one could be made into a fine beater rifle for a hundred more. Something to think about for the after-Christmas, deep winter blues. Working on a rifle is a good thing.

I'm confused about the effort it will require to rebuild South Louisiana, and it seems as if some of the efforts will be working against each other. For example, some folks want levees so that New Orleans will be safe from a storm surge. They can't insurance unless there is some guarantee that the area won't flood again, so they need levees to geet insurance to rebuild.

However, levees channelize water. The big levee system along the Mississippi did just fine during the latest storm, yet those same levees that hold the river, also prevent the water from entering the marsh. That fresh water entering the marsh, with its rich load of silt, is what makes the marsh in the first place.

A big portion of South Louisiana has been channelized for oil exploration and flood control. I was taught that those levees contributed to marshland loss and the best thing we could do for the marshes would be to bulldoze the levees and let the silt rebuild the marshes. When we bulldoze the levees, we lose flood protection.

So, how do we intend to rebuild marshes while we build levees? It is a quandry, and minds better than mine surely have the answer. Feel free to educate me in comments.