Monday, April 09, 2007

Al Gore is a Hypocrite!!

The Story of Two Houses

Look over the descriptions of the following two houses and see if you can
tell which belongs to an environmentalist:


HOUSE # 1:

A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on
a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In
ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average
American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and
natural gas runs over $2,400 per month. In natural gas alone (which last
time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times
the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or
Midwestern "snow belt," either. It's in the South.

HOUSE # 2:

Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university,
this house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction
can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and
is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the
house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk
300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in
winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil
or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a
conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is
collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater
from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into
the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house.
Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding
rural landscape.

HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville,
Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and
filmmaker)
Al Gore.

HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford,
Texas. Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private residence
of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

So whose house is gentler on the environment? Yet another story you
WON'T hear on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC or read about in the New York Times
or the Washington Post.

Indeed, for Mr. Gore, it's truly "an inconvenient truth."

You can check this on Snopes, here

Friday, April 06, 2007

18 years and counting!

And no, that is not how long it's been since I have posted anything. Or how long it will be till I post something. That is how many years (come April 8th) that I have been married to my wonderful wife! I really think that I am going through some kind of midlife crisis or something. Because I think about how old I am all the time. And get a little melancholy thinking about all the years that have gone by and what I haven't got accomplished. But then I think about who I have shared the ride with so far and realize what a great gift from God my wife has been! Truly, no one could have been better to live this life with. Her understanding and long suffering has been amazing. Don't get me wrong, we have had our fair share of troubles and heartaches, some caused by circumstance and others by me. But all and all it has been a great 18 years so far. One of the coolest things about my wife is her ability to "get" things. The little nuances of jokes, stories and things. It would have driven me nuts a long time ago to have to explain everything out. She "gets' it. Along with that is her great sense of humor. This is one funny cat! Her ability to laugh at herself as much as anyone else is amazing. And don't you dare do anything that would be detrimental to one of our children!! My goodness, that motherly instinct is strong!

Babe, all in all, I look forward with great anticipation to our years together as we grow old together and watch our children grow and marry. Then of course, grandchildren. Just as long as they don't get in the way of my golf! Love ya!