Electric School Buses Are A Huge Win

I was happy to see that the Biden Admin is helping to fund the purchase of 2,500 new electric school buses around the country. With the instability of diesel prices switching to electric will help school districts plan their transportation budgets. Plus, there’s the reduction in noise and nasty crap that kids have to breathe and at least some of the funding is going to areas that tend to see themselves as pretty remote from our federal government.

Hazelnut Flour

I Absolutely love hazelnuts and have wanted to try baking with hazelnut flour for about forever, but I’ve always held off on it as the stuff is OMFG expensive. Anyway, I took the plunge and bought a couple pounds of the stuff last week and used it for the first time today mixed 50/50 with barley flour in waffles (the most fool proof recipe I could think of). That’s the hazelnut flour on the topside of the pic. I didn’t get a pic of the one waffle I’ve made, because I scarfed it straight from the waffle iron. It never even hit a plate. That waffle was delicious: crisp outside, light and fluffy inside, nice nutty flavor.

Hazelnut flour is larger grained and fluffier than regular flours so some figuring out of equivalents and weighing is needed (I just eyeballed things today), but if today’s results are anything to go by it’s worth the extra cost and fiddling.

More On The Shrinking Rural Midwest

Just thought I’d drop this NPR article about how inflation is one more thing causing people to leave the rural Midwest. Much of the rural Midwest has been losing population for a while now and EVERYTHING that’s going on is going to accelerate that trend.

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/25/1112915507/inflation-rural-america-gas-prices-economy

Rural Iowa and Roe

There’re no shortage of studies and articles looking at Iowa’s declining rural population. 1 2 3

I’d like to point out that the recent SCOTUS decision and Iowa’s current policies towards abortion will work to continue this decline. The politicians claiming to be Saving Iowa and keeping conservatives in power with these polices are actually helping to shift the population and the balance of economic and political power away from rural Iowa and towards the cities along the eastern third of the state; cities that are more liberal than rural Iowa and are close to Illinois and Minnesota where abortions will remain available.

Knowing What We Know Now

Knowing what we know now. Knowing that Jan 6th was and is a serious threat to our country and our way of life. Knowing that the people that planned Jan 6 and pulled it off knew it was illegal. I stand by my previous statement. We need to show some moderation towards those who merely walked into the capitol after the fighting was over. For the planners and fighters: fuck’em. Lock them up and throw away the key.

Schofield Hall

That’s Schofield Hall on the University Of Wisconsin at Eau Claire campus hiding in the trees. It’s named for the first President of the University, Harvey Schofield. The building was designed by the architects Van Ryn & Degelleke. Built in 1914 it was the first building on the campus. Today Schofield Hall houses administrative offices.

Schofield Hall

That Doesn’t Happen Very Often

I was out running errands on my bike today and ended up walking the bike up a steep hill. That doesn’t happen very often and, at least in this case, it wasn’t a fitness thing. It was a I’m building up heat and can’t get rid of it thing. A “real feel” temperature of 97 with a humidity of 60% is no joke and I was starting to get rather toasty. Walking the bike stopped me from heating up and let the breeze that was blowing cool me down a bit.

Saddle- Not Sore

Just a quick update.

A couple posts back I mentioned I swapped saddle on my bikes taking a Brooks C-15 off my, rather upright, Surly Bridge Club, replacing that saddle with a wider C-17, and putting the C-15 on my road bike. I’ve gone on a few rides on both bikes with their new saddles and they’re both working out wonderfully.