Clothes Dryer

I am back from Washington, but my bathroom project isn't finished. So I am without my birds, Kiwi the Grey and Manu the Foster-Amazon until Tuesday. More time to fool around on the Internet. From The Chicago Tribune:

But even in real life with a budget, my family and I have scored big with one simple lifestyle change—we hang dry all of our laundry. It has reduced our power bill, and turned us, like converts to a new faith, into proselytizers.

I am, of course, aware that the dryer uses a lot of electricity. And this is a nice idea, in a Laura Ingalls way. But what the article (which you can find here) fails to mention is that after "do not leave your bedroom windows open", the most common piece of advice given to people that suffer from allergies is, "do not line-dry your clothes outside". The wet clothes will pick up all of the allergens you are trying to avoid before you even wear them.

So it is a nice thought, but not happening in my house.

Volunteering in the Airport

One last thing about the airports. USA Today had an article about Volunteer Aides helping confused travelers at the airports:

Last year, about 1,600 Travelers Aid volunteers — including many people who retired from the travel industry or love to travel — assisted some 6.5 million people at 25 airports, including Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas/Fort Worth and Washington Dulles. That's up from around 4 million a year before 9/11, when travel became more difficult, says Travelers Aid CEO Ray Flynt.

God Bless them, because I just could not take that gig. You can find the rest of the piece here.

They Told Us It Would Get Worse II

After the debacle of trekking to Washington, I spent my few days in town and came home today. I have never seen DCA so crowded in my entire life.

There were weather problems yesterday, but by the time I arrived at 12:30 the drama should have been long past. I checked the Departure board. My flight was all running as scheduled. The next flight was cancelled. And one later in the evening.

It looks to me that United is scheduling the O'Hare/Washington flights every hour, then canceling the ones that do not sell well enough. If that is going to be business as usual, we won't be able to count on any flight. And I am going to seriously consider driving when I have to do my Tour of the Offices this fall.

Coincidentally, I saw today that MSN Money has an article on the 12 Most Outrageous Fees and the travel industry was highlighted. Here is my favorite bit:

The careful-what-you-ask-for fee. If your Air Canada flight is delayed due to weather or heavy traffic, agents will be happy to help you find a hotel, restaurant or flight -- as long as you've paid a $25-to-$35 "On My Way" fee. Once this was something airline agents did, you know, just to help out. But in this age of fees in flight, the travel experience has been deconstructed.

For example, check out this list of fees from Delta Air Lines, which will now charge a $3-per-bag "administrative fee" for curbside check-in and a $25 "handling charge" for awards tickets that use another airline.

What do the airlines say? Basically, you asked for it. You wanted cheap flights, and you still demand cheap flights. But with already slim profit margins and rising fuel prices, fees are the only way airlines can remain competitive.

They Told Us It Would Get Worse

I am flying back to Washington DC in the morning, so I went online tonight to check in and print my boarding pass. If you are not in this habit, please start. It really saves time at the airport. And by going online earlier...

I found that my 8am flight had been cancelled and I was automatically rebooked on the 11am. By clicking around a bit, I was able to find the last available seat in coach on the 10am flight. In the middle seat of the last row.

Everyone and their dogs told us that flying was going to become even less pleasant. In fact, the route from O'Hare to West Palm Beach is discontinued, along with the route to Ft. Lauderdale beginning this September. Those are the airports closest to my grandmother. She is going to have to pick me up in Miami - I'm not sure I can afford the cab.

However. The Monday morning 8am flight between O'Hare and Reagan National Airport is sacred. Is sacred too strong a word? No. Rumor has it that after September 11, there were five minutes of discussion involving shutting Reagan Airport down permanently. It is too close to the Capitol, the White House and the National Mall. Why did the discussion last only five minutes? Because it would inconvenience the members of Congress to shut down that airport. They use it.

When it first became apparent that United Airlines was in serious trouble, which I remember to be not long after September 11, we were told that service was being scaled back. I remember thinking, "Damn. Can't count on flights every hour on the hour (between Reagan and home). Poor me." That was sarcastic. But the truth is, there wasn't much change. Maybe they pulled a 2pm sometimes, but overall there was always a flight. And often, if I was at the airport early, standby was still an option. I imagine because every midwestern Member of Congress flies through O'Hare to fly into Reagan.

So the fact that the Monday 8am flight was cancelled the night before a flight worries me. What the heck could be next?

What Does it Cost to Have a Pet?

Liz Pulliam at MSN Money is one of my favorite online writers. She does a lot of work for people that are badly in debt, and also has some practical help. The best piece of advice she gave for me was the idea that people are obsessed by the idea that we need an emergency fund equal to six months salary (or expenses, depending on who you ask). So many people find that unattainable that they don't even try to save it. A better idea is to try to have $500 saved. A crazy number of urgent, unplanned expenses come in at around that number - transmission leak, radiator stuff, vet bills. And if you have that $500, you are not sticking it on a credit card that you can't pay and digging yourself a hole. So. True.

This weekend, she has a piece on the cost of pets. The idea is to be aware of the total expenses before adopting a pet. She included a great table, which I can't seem to publish in Blogger. But the totals show the lifetime cost of a dog is between $8,000 and $9,000. And the cost of a cat, that tends to live longer, is around $10,000.

Northern Illinois Lego Train Club

I knew we had a train club in the area. I did not know that we had a Lego Train Club. I didn't know there was such a thing as a Lego Train Club. I took my nephew, Alex, to their show at the Barrington Library today. And then stole this picture from their website because I never remember to bring a camera anywhere.

If you put about eight dining room tables together, that is how big the display was. They had built an "el" train, a Metra train, Hogwarts Express and several others that went around different themed displays. Including the Jedi Temple. And that black building in the picture is the Sears Tower. I was very impressed and the kids were very excited. I had a hard time getting Alex to leave.

The only downer was that I there wasn't much at his eye level, so I had to carry the kid around the table. A lot. I am looking for some Advil now.

At the Refuge - Maxine

Maxine is a darling Goffin's Cockatoo that is very serious about who she likes and who she doesn't like. She only likes other Cockatoos. And apparently, she is at the Refuge because she bonds too tightly to her people.

Wednesday night, I was in her room pulling water dishes to go into the dishwasher. Maxine jumped right out of her cage with no preamble and no invitation. But she was just sitting on her door and - it looked to me - flirting with Leo, the Goffin's in the cage across from her. While she was out, I pulled out her dirty paper and put in a fresh sheet. She was still flirting with Leo. So I went to the other room to get her fresh food and water.

When I came back down, she was on top of the cage of Henwen, a new Umbrella Cockatoo. I was nervous for a moment because:

1. Maxine doesn't always play nice with others.
2. Henwen is three times her size.

But Henwen was the one afraid! Henwen jumped to the bottom of her cage in a panic. It looked to me that Maxine was only curious about the new bird in the room, but she refused to step up so that I could move her away.

Lucky for me, Maxine is a bird that doesn't mind being in a towel.

Maxine is available for adoption and you can read more about her here.

Consumer Report - Costco

The Costco near my house has put in a gasoline station. I went there for the first time today.

My Observations:

1. The cost was $4.23 per gallon, which was two cents less than the BP up the block. The BP had about the lowest price around this weekend, but it is not reliably so.
2. It was 10:40 a.m. on Monday and I snuck into the last open spot for a gas pump. Not a good sign.
3. Remember that Costco is members-only and accepts American Express or debit cards. Not a problem for me, but not easy for everyone.
4. To get to the Costco, you have to go into the Costco parking lot. Not exactly swinging through at a stop light.

Conclusion:

Two cents per gallon is not worth going out of my way, and certainly not worth having to wait to get to the gas pump. But I'll use it if I happen to be over there. During the week.

Have You Heard This Plan Yet?

Have you heard of The Pickens Plan? I saw a television commercial for it a few days ago and finally went to the web site this morning. The scariest thing is a widget with the current cost of crude oil. I had been looking for one to replace the puppy thing to the right, but I can’t look at that every day.

Anyway, Pickens is a (former?) Texas Oilman pushing a new energy program. This was from a Press Release:

Step #1: Using the United States' wind corridor, private industry will fund the installation of thousands of wind turbines in the wind belt, generating enough power to provide 20 percent or more of our electricity supply

Step #2: Again funded by the private sector, electric power transmission lines will be built, connecting these wind power generating sites with power plants providing energy to the population centers in the Midwest, South, and Western regions of the country.

Step #3: With the energy from wind now available to operate power plants serving the large population centers in key areas of the country, the natural gas that was historically utilized to fuel these power plants can be redirected and used to replace imported gasoline and diesel as a fuel for thousands of vehicles in our transportation system.

I don’t know if this is going to work. Natural gas isn’t exactly a renewable fuel, and it isn’t getting any less expensive to heat my house. But points to Pickens for trying something. You can find the TV ad here.

At the End of the Day

After I woke up, fed the birds, went to the Library Sale, took the packages to the Post Office, went to the doctor, had lunch, spent another hour at the Library Sale, did the grocery shopping, closed up the Refuge and picked up McDonald's for dinner:

I sat in the family room, talking to my mother and eating my dinner. Kiwi the Grey came over wanting a French Fry. I gave her one and sent her back to her perch. She finished it. Knowing she wanted another, I looked her in the eye and said, "No more. You stay there."

Not 30 seconds went by before she dive-bombed me and took a french fry out of my hands and flew with it to her perch.

She went into time-out.

So I took Manu into the shower. Kiwi likes to be in the room with the shower on because she likes the steam and starts grooming. Manu got right into the water. When I thought he was perfectly drenched, he lifted his wings and turned around as if to say, "Excuse me, you missed one right here!"

This terrible picture is Manu perched by my window trying to dry off before bed.