I pick up my granddaughter each day after school during the school year, take her home, cook her supper and help her with homework. Somewhere during that time span she tunes in the television to a show called, “I Carley”. The show is about two friends, ages around 11 or 12?, and they do an Internet show called, you guessed it, I Carley. Part of the show is when bells and whistles sound and a loud, booming voice says, “Time for Random Dancing”, at which point the hosts and the IT geek begin doing gyrations considered to be dancing. I suppose this can be considered filler space.

On the same token, I guess my random thoughts and comments can also be considered filler space yet I seem to get pretty good responses from readers to my random thoughts and comments. Maybe I should change it to random thoughts, comments and questions, as I more often than not ask more questions than I try to answer, which makes my job easier. After all, anyone can ask a question. They only risk looking stupid, which I’ve done more times than I care to mention.

President Bush has agreed in principle with many other world leaders, with exceptions, to reduce the carbon emissions in the world by 50% by 2050. 50% of what? Is that 50% of the current emission rate or 50% of projected emissions? Does this mean everyone will cut back 50% or that the U.S. can cut back 75% and leave others to grow and prosper as they will?

And what will reducing carbon emissions accomplish? The truth is nobody knows, no more than they know what growing emissions will do. Has it gotten to the point now that an exiting U.S. president has nothing left for valid accomplishments to achieve before leaving office, that they have to tackle something like global warming? At least other presidents thought trying to get a worthless treaty signed between Israel and Palestine was a big accomplishment. How about being the first president to invite a polar bear to the White House and as him what he thinks about the high price of gas?

What happens if we rid the world of all man-made carbon emissions? Will we then all freeze to death?

Ever ask yourself why, in the high-tech world we live in, we can create and accomplish so many remarkable things, yet some things are laughable? Here’s an example: I just got my van back from the garage - yes they had it for one week! It cost me $600.00 because of one rubberized belt that wraps around a system of pulleys that make things work.

Think about it a minute. This basic concept has not changed since the auto was put together well over a century ago. Granted the belts have gotten better and they last longer and the pulleys themselves are made better but this is basically a hunk of rubber, sometimes more than one, that without it, nothing else would work.

The mechanic said it was a fluke, what happened to my car. Evidently a strip of the rubber belt peeled off and “flukily’ got wrapped around a pulley, which in turn caused tension which resulted in the timing belt skipping about 4 notches.

I wonder if the space shuttle uses rubber belts? Does Air Force One? How about Al Gore’s brain? Does he even have a brain? We know most politicians don’t……have a brain that is. Maybe their brain is a belt. Oh, man! I’m being so random.

And to go along with the mechanics of an automobile, the mechanic was telling me that my spark plugs should have been changed 50,000 miles ago. “What happened to the 100,000 mile change?” I asked.

Of course there are exceptions to everything and I own them all. No, you can’t have any. They’re all mine! It seems Chrysler doesn’t want to use the good plugs, so the mechanic says, “Hey, every 25,000 you should yank them out and replace them! They are easy to get at and takes no time at all!”

“That’s great!” I said. “But I was looking the other day and I couldn’t see any easy way to get at the back 3 plugs.”

“Oh, yeah!” he said. “It’s easy when it’s up on a lift.”

Enough of the car! Well, not quite yet. I have a confession. Since I owned a 1965 Dodge Coronet 440 back in the early 70s, I have owned mostly Toyota cars, with the exception of a short time I owned another Chrysler product.

For the most part my Toyotas (I still own and drive a 1993 Corolla I bought new) have been remarkable vehicles. Not for the only reason, but this time I thought I would try American again - you know? Buy American! Since then, my American-made car has cost me $3,700.00 in about 8 months time. Hmmmm! Should I stick with American?

Since being at camp this summer, I have been perhaps a “green’s” worst nightmare. I burn an open fire in my outdoor fireplace nearly everyday. I got an old refrigerator I run in the shed to keep drinks cold in - probably the gaskets are bad. I have used about 30 ounces of bug spray from an aerosol can and I eat a lot of foods that make me gassy. What say you, Mr. Green Weenie?

Under someone’s idea of life the way it should be, I’d have to go shopping for some carbon credits so I could roast my next hot dog! Excuse me. I’ll be right back. Got to toss another log on the fire. One that I sawed up with my gas powered chainsaw - one that I read contributes more “pollution” than several automobiles.

I got to go finish getting ready for a seminar I’m conducting tomorrow for members of the local chamber of commerce on how to maximize your website. Sounds fancy doesn’t it. What it really means is I’m going to help them understand that you can’t create a website and then look at it once a month waiting for it to do something for you. This should be fun!

Tom Remington

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