An oldie but a goodie, from 2006. I don't have many Michigan winter pictures simply because I'm not fond of going out in the cold and it's always cloudy over here by the big water - but once in awhile we get some great scenes like this.A short one this week, got lost in my own head again (hate it when that happens!) and have been distracted - here are a few items I noticed:
A rare Winter Solstice total lunar eclipse will happen Tuesday night. So, if you are up and outside and it's clear at 3:17am, take a picture, would ya? This hasn't happened since 1638, and won't happen again until 2094.
"Michigan seems like a dream to me now". Someone is running around Saginaw and spray painting the lyrics to Simon & Garfunkel's "America" on abandoned structures. If you don't know the song, the lyrics are here. Now you understand. And you gotta admit, it's more creative than gang tags. Paul Simon wrote the song during a stay in Saginaw in 1966.
The Chevy Volt is now for sale. 45 Volts rolled out of Hamtramck last Monday afternoon headed to the east coast, and the first delivery was to Jeff Kaffee of Parsippany, N.J. on Wednesday morning. Kaffee traded in his '05 Toyota Pruis, saying, "The Prius is a fine car, but this is definitely the next step forward." 160 total left the factory last week; Michigan sales will come sometime in the spring. (hey, wait a minute...)
We may need to get Mr. Kaffee one of those honking bulb bicycle horns - Congress has declared that electric and hybrid cars are just too quiet for safety's sake, and they are going to mandate that the cars make some sound so blind pedestrians, kids, joggers, and I'll throw in animals, can hear them coming at speeds below 20 mph. As of now, the Volt has a "chirping" sound that the driver can activate, but new regulations will make a sound mandatory. Hope they can all get together and find something uniform - next thing you know we'll have "car ringtones" or something if they don't.
Ford announced that they will build three electric or hybrid vehicles at Wayne's Michigan Assembly Plant, and when you throw in the regular gas powered version of the Focus, it will be "the only plant in the world to build vehicles with four different powertrains on the same assembly line". Pretty impressive. Production on the Focus Electric will start in 2011.
The Flint Police Department is now closed on weekends to walk-ins following the latest round of cop layoffs. The city, ranked #4 in the "most dangerous cities" by CQ Press, has laid off a total of 66 officers this year due to its budget deficit. Certainly "more tax cuts" are called for here.
Businessman Jim Shaban of Windsor has the right idea - he is going to sell power for a solar rooftop installation back to the Ontario grid, and use that money to finance a film studio. "We're going to take any revenue that we take from green energy, and we're going to put it back into creating film jobs." Ontario has its own film tax credits, and the Windsor area is hoping to capitalize on Michigan's credits and proximity to attract more projects.
Magglio! Welcome back. Stay healthy please. Tigers line-up is starting to look pretty good for next year....
Got your shopping done? As usual, I don't, and I'm starting to panic a bit. Anything big I missed? Throw it in the comments...