Examiner, Examinee

Sun   26 Aug 2007   23:15 by Kevin McGehee 71° and cloudy in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [AK4MC] [Coweta County]

This afternoon I showed up to what would have been my first amateur radio license testing session as an accredited volunteer examiner. I was one of eight VEs who showed up (three are required to conduct a testing session). We had quite a time sitting around jawing at each other. There wasn’t anyone else to talk to, seeing as how no candidates turned up to take any tests. Chris had been hoping to be ready by today for her Extra upgrade, but the Salt Lake City trip put a pause in her studying so now she’s shooting for a session in a neighboring county the first week of October. But even if she had been ready today, she would have been the only candidate there, and as her husband I would have been unable to sign off on her test. Oh well. There’s another Coweta VE session toward the end of October. Maybe we’ll have some takers then.

Whoo-hoo! Finally, Some Rain!
Fri   17 Aug 2007   16:51 by Kevin McGehee 99° and thunder in Coweta County, GA 3 comments [Coweta County] [Nature]	Well, maybe. There’s thunderstorms headed for The McGehee Zone World Headquarters, and I can hear the thunder as I type this. Whether there’ll be actual rain on the premises is yet to be known. And whether it, assuming there is any, will lower the temperature or just raise the humidity, likewise.

Heat Index: Ggggaaahhgghahhhh…

Thu   9 Aug 2007   17:54 by Kevin McGehee 98° and sunny in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Coweta County] [Nature]

I’ve been watching the temperature reading on my browser (1-ClickWeather, a Firefox extension) for the last hour or so, waiting for the “99” to turn to “100.“ It didn’t. As you can see in the little block of gray italics just beneath the title of this post, it is now only 98°F. here. Which (in the tradition of alarmists who insist that every heat wave, active hurricane season, <update> tornado, </update> or massive snowstorm is PROOF, BY GOD!!!1!! of Global Warming™) is PROOF, BY GOD!!!1!! of GLOBAL COOLING!!!!1!!!!one!!! You read it here first. Update: Corrected title—although with dewpoints in the 70s I think “misery index” is equally applicable.

Buy Food Here and Get Gas

Wed   8 Aug 2007   14:42 by Kevin McGehee 97° and partly cloudy in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Coweta County]

It wasn’t all that long ago if we wanted to fill up the gas tank and take advantage of Kroger’s customer-loyalty discount on gasoline, we’d have to go to Douglasville. Since then a new Kroger has opened in Newnan that has a gas station, and an established Kroger over in Peachtree City has opened its own gas pumps. And now our nearest Kroger is about to break ground on a gas station of its own. Soon it’ll be a challenge to find a Kroger hereabouts that doesn’t sell gas. I had about written off the possibility of a gas station in our neck of the woods, because at that intersection there are already three gas stations—including one that had, until fairly recently, been reliably in line with the QuikTrip gas station a few miles away. With a Kroger station going in right next door, maybe Flash Foods will settle down and try to stay competitive again. The customer-loyalty deal at Kroger is that if you have a Kroger card you get a default three cents off on each gallon you buy—but if you spend enough money in their supermarkets (using the card, of course) you get a certain number of fill-ups at ten cents off per gallon. And when you have a 25-gallon fuel tank to keep happy, that’s not a bad deal. Flash Foods has an incentive card too, but unlike Kroger you can’t scan it at the pump. To get any rewards with that card you have to come inside the store. Which is another—and less user-friendly, in my opinion—way of doing pretty much the same thing. Wherever gasoline and food items are sold together, the in-store merchandise helps the store hold its gas price down less “up.“ Incentive cards tie these strategies together more directly but they differ only in degree.

It’s Spring
Fri   11 May 2007   22:26 by Kevin McGehee 72° and thunder in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Coweta County] [Nature]	The grumblestorms have sprouted—the local radar picture looks like a bubbling cauldron. Rumble, rumble, flash and grumble. Breezes blow and raindrops tumble.

Ask and You Shall Receive

Wed   21 Mar 2007   17:44 by Kevin McGehee 74° and fair in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Coweta County] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

When Wifey-Ki-Yay and I lived in Alaska, I had fairly regular contact with local elected officials, including very liberal ones who wouldn’t have considered voting for me on a bet when I was a candidate (and the feeling was certainly mutual, as a rule). But when I wanted to get the borough assembly to adopt a resolution calling on the federal government to loosen a rule then in effect regarding the international use of internet encryption tools, the elected official I went to with the idea (borough assembly seats in Fairbanks are elected at-large, so I had a choice), and who introduced the proposal at my urging, was one of those very liberal people. Our political differences aside, we were actually very cordial to each other all during our acquaintance. Which is one of the reasons why the venom that flies around on the internet these days doesn’t sit well with me, but I digress. A couple of weeks ago I emailed my county commissioner—whom I last mentioned by name, not kindly, here. The subject of the email was the fact that the two developer-erected street signs in my neighborhood were damaged by termites, and asking whether this was something for the county to attend to since we don’t have a homeowner association. Commissioner Schlumper passed it along to county Public Works, but not before seeing that above-linked commentary. Today while taking my still-not-regular-enough walk I noticed that the more badly damaged of the two street signs had been reset on a termite-proof mount. The original post and sign was still there but the wood was no longer in contact with the ground; it no longer leans 30 degrees off vertical. The other sign, though damaged, was apparently judged still straight enough that immediate repair wasn’t required. I had expected (and half-feared) that the signs would be replaced by standard county-made street signs, but I have no doubt my neighbors prefer to keep the originals if at all possible. Had I genuinely doubted Ms. Schlumper would help, I would have found some other way to bring the signpost damage to the county’s attention. And I’ve already had reason before this to reconsider my previous unwillingness to vote for her. Update: Turns out that termite-eaten street sign post was repaired by our neighbors, not the county. But the county did put up a regulation street sign at the entrance to our neighborhood, where it was, actually, needed. So, Commissioner Schlumper is still okay.

I Did Not Know That
Thu   15 Mar 2007   23:24 by Kevin McGehee 61° and fog in Coweta County, GA 3 comments [Coweta County] [Wackadoodle] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]	Nobody ever tells me these things. Today was EATAPETA Day—Eat A Tasty Animal for PETA—and I had no idea about it until a few minutes ago. Fortunately, I eat an animal every day, just in case. And today I ate cow. Because I live in Cow-Eater County, that’s why. To hell with those Chick-fil-A spokesbeasts.

AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!

Thu   22 Feb 2007   15:18 by Kevin McGehee 69° and sunny in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Coweta County] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

Last June, the possibility arose of a new Wal-Mart being built, a mile-and-a-half in driving distance from my front door. I was not happy. By last December, the idea of putting a Wal-Mart in that location seemed to have gone away. Well, it came back. Plans are in full swing for a new north Coweta Wal-Mart to be located off Highway 154 at Interstate 85 — the McCollum-Sharpsburg exit 51. An initial site plan has been submitted for the Wal-Mart development, which will include three outparcels. It will be at the southwest corner of the I-85 exit. Under the current plan, Wal-Mart is seeking a variance to the buffer required by Coweta County regulations around Rural Reserve zoned property — in this case, Coweta County’s new water tower. A public hearing on the variance request will be held before the Coweta Board of Zoning Appeals on Tuesday, March 6 at 6 p.m. in the Probate Courtroom of the Coweta County Administration Building at East Broad and Perry streets. The variance is needed so that Wal-Mart can have the number of parking spaces required. » Times-Herald:   North Coweta to get Wal-Mart North Coweta does not need a Wal-Mart. And it certainly doesn’t need a Wal-Mart less than five miles away from the existing one. I won’t rehash my reasons against putting in a new Wal-Mart here; the original hash can be found at the “I was not happy” link above.

AJC: No Longer a Regional Newspaper

Fri   16 Feb 2007   8:39 by Kevin McGehee 26° and sunny in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Coweta County] [Media Ochre] [Yippee-Ki-Yay!]

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will cut its circulation area by dozens of counties, offer buyouts to 80 newsroom employees and spend $30 million to upgrade a printing plant as part of a multifaceted revamp of the paper’s operations. The AJC, which has one of the largest online operations among regional newspapers, plans to shift more resources to focus on digital news. As part of the change, the paper will trim its circulation territory to 73 counties, centered on metro Atlanta. The pullback will take effect April 1 and means the print version of the AJC will no longer be available in Alabama, South Carolina, Florida and many parts of Georgia. The paper also will overhaul its Thursday community editions, cutting them from 13 to four. The zones that remain will be larger than previous publications, focusing on the most populous areas of metro Atlanta—Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties. The AJC’s Home & Garden will be shuttered and replaced with a new section, HomeStyle, which will be carried in the community editions. The changes come as the AJC, like other newspapers, grapples with big shifts in news consumption and advertising spending. » AJC:   AJC announces restructuring Georgia has 159 counties. This move cuts the AJC’s circulation down to less than half the state. Also, the reduction in community editions will eliminate Coweta County and neighboring Fayette County, which currently share one of the nine to be discontinued. In effect, the AJC is scaling back from a wide-ranging regional newspaper to a somewhat more parochial metropolitan paper. I don’t think the AJC’s mindset is changing—only that they’re admitting what their mindset has been all along.

Liveblogging the Great Coweta County Ice Storm of 2007

Wed   17 Jan 2007   18:43 by Kevin McGehee 42° and cloudy in Coweta County, GA 0 comments [Coweta County] [Nature]

7:44 p.m.: How sleet it is! Not much, actually. But we have seen a little bit, over in the area of Interstate 85 and Bullsboro Drive. It petered out as we headed eastward toward Yippee-Ki-Yay! World Headquarters, and probably hasn’t caught up yet.   11:19 p.m.: What’s that smell? According to the radar we do appear to have been skunked—at least so far. But the working theory is that new moisture will come up from the south to refuel this Threat to the Survival of Mankind™, so we’ll just have to see what the morning brings us. What, you thought “liveblogging” meant I’d have to stay up all night? What kind of masochist do you think I am?   8:46 a.m.: Drip, drip, drip… Well, we had rain overnight, but it hasn’t been freezing on the ground here at YKYWHQ. I wonder if the forecasters are still holding out hope (!) for ice?

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