WUI (Writing under the influence)

WSJ: The central contradiction in modern liberal politics is that Otto von Bismarck's entitlement state for cradle to grave financial security is no longer affordable. The model has reached the limit of its ability to tax private income and still allow enough economic growth to finance its transfer payments.

The sooner people get it, the sooner we can start saving this country from being ruined. It's a shame it has taken 70 years of progressive politics and $14T of national debt with many more trillions yet to come. Many states are broken as well; mostly by public employees unions and their PERSes.

Make no mistake. I'm not paying for it nor will my children pay for it. I came here to seek freedom. I will never become a slave of the state again.

A few years ago I had replaced all water supply pipes. At the time, PEX was not an option and copper was just too expensive and labor intensive so I went with CPVC pipes. The drawback is the noise when the water starts running. In new construction, pipes can be secured to minimize or even eliminate the noise. But in retrofit, as was my case, sometimes it's not possible.

In any case, I remember I was replacing one section at a time over several days. I didn't want to move into a motel to take showers or eat out so I used a lot of valves so some water was always available.

This came in handy when I finally decided to connect the poker room. I simply turned off these two valves and started working. My wife will not be able to do laundry for the next two days. That's all.



Then, I removed 2" sections from hot and cold water supply pipes, inserted two 3/4" T's, added 2 more valves, and connected everything to the PEX pipes with some SharkBite elbows. These things are expensive but they save so much time. I just hope this whole thing will work when I turn the water on.



But I can't turn the water on just yet because I always run out of material even though every night I try to write down what I need. Needless to say, I didn't have enough 1/2" elbows to finish the piping in the new bathroom.


Not wanting to drive back to the store, I started building the floor.

It turns out that before I can request an inspection of the basic framing, the electric, plumbing and sheeting work have to be ready as well. The basic reason is that the framing that was OK before wires and pipes were placed inside the walls may have been compromised afterward.

Nevertheless, shouldn't such an inspection be called something else?

In any case, this is where I am right now and, hopefully, I will be able to finally pass the framing inspection by the end of the month.

While I was concentrating on building the bathroom, there was still an unfinished job: the wall between the garage and the addition.



It doesn't seem right but after things are created some of them have to be destroyed.















So pipes can go in.






















This may look wrong but it isn't. There is enough space here that the pipes can go on top of the studs. The shower stall is narrower by about 2" all around. Perfect! No destroying this side.

It looks like our local paper published my response to our mayor's insane idea to bring light-rail to Forest Grove.

This is what I sent last Friday; I haven't seen the printed version yet but I've received e-mails/phone calls telling me the letter made it. I hope it will appear online soon; there is a two-day delay to force people to buy the dead-tree copy. Unless the editor is fired, I'm not paying; he is such a tool.

Mayor Truax,

Would it be too much to ask you to place the question of whether we want light rail in Forest Grove on the November ballot? With all the problems it brings and with its exorbitant price tag, I think it should be the people of Forest Grove -- and not you alone -- to decide if we want this boondoggle.

Before you start spending our money -- and make no mistake, the money Obama is printing is still our money -- can you first fix all the broken sidewalks in the Old Town?

Don't you know or refuse to accept that light rail is the least efficient mode of transportation? The traffic congestion never improves because the rail doesn’t go where people want to go. More importantly, this thing is just insanely expensive. You could build another TV highway, put several buses on it and still have some money left to fix the street in front of my house. There is a huge pothole that fills with water whenever it rains; I’ve been complaining about it for 10 years now but nobody cares. I guess the problem is too pedestrian for you.

If you want to erect another monument to government arrogance and your own vanity, here is an idea. Pave the rails over, paint some stripes and, look, there is a bike lane; you can even call it after yourself. How about Truaxway? You will solve two problems: you will take crazy cyclists off the TV Highway and forever bury the temptation for the ruling class to flush our money down the rail.

I'm waiting for the inspector. I'm (almost) done with all the framing and sheeting. I've started working on the internal plumbing and electric. I have to make a few small framing changes inside to make one section of the original wall built from 2x4s a little bit wider to accommodate water supply, vent and drain pipes. In any case, I'm done working outside for a while so I don't much care about weather or time of day.