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POWER TALK
LETTERS
Give Your Magazine a Second Life
The Quinlan VFW Post 12042 is asking Texas Co-op Power readers to pass their magazines on to Texas service members in harm’s way.
Put your magazine in an envelope and mail it to:
“Any B Company, 3-144 Infantry Soldier in Iraq”
2200 W. 35th St., Bldg. 42
Austin, TX 78763
They will be bundled and mailed overseas. Service members can use a touch of sweet Texas. We hope folks will help us brighten their spirits.
Steven D. Stewart
CW4 (Ret.), USA, Adjutant
Trinity Valley Electric Cooperative
Douse Those Lights
Your timely magazine is an added “plus” to good utility service. I totally agree with
several recent comments about the increased light pollution at night. I would like to point out that the most flagrantly abusive polluters seem to be the schools that have gone up over the last several years.
S.G. King
Pedernales Electric Cooperative
Correction:
October’s “Hit the Road” column listed several attractions at the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation that have been discontinued. For information on camping, fishing and swimming, call 1-800-926-9038. For special events such as pow-wows, call (936) 563-1100 or go to www.alabama-coushatta.com and choose Events from the Media pull-down menu.
PLUG-IN CARS: ARE YOU READY TO SWITCH?
Combustion-engine vehicles are second only to electricity generation in contributing to carbon dioxide pollution in the U.S., emitting nearly 1.9 billion tons of CO2 in 2005, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
By contrast, a hybrid car emits about two-thirds of the greenhouse gases produced by a combustion-only vehicle. Is America ready to trade in the combustion engine for a battery? Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), which are rechargeable from your home electric outlet, promise to be even cleaner and more efficient than the hybrids now on the road. Plug-in hybrids converted from hybrids such as the Toyota Prius get up to 70 miles per gallon.
General Motors expects its Chevrolet Volt, a PHEV, to go into production in 2010. Once plug-in hybrids become commonplace, a maximum reduction of 612 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year is possible.
Farther down the road, some in the electric industry are hopeful that an experimental vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology might alleviate peak electricity use. “Although there is some skepticism among experts about the feasibility of V2G,” according to The New York Times, “the big players see a future in which fleets of hybrid cars, recharged at night when the demand is lower, can relieve the grid and help avert serious blackouts.” Some of the leaders in PHEV experimentation are based in Austin.
TALK TO YOUR THERMOSTAT
I am with United Cooperative Services out of Cleburne. I have a second home in Johnson County. I was leaving the heat setting on 50 degrees, which was as low as it could be set. I know there were many days above 32 degrees but below 50 degrees when I heated the house even though it was not required to protect the plumbing.
With my new telephone thermostat, I watch the weather, and when it is predicted to be below 32 degrees, I call the house and turn on the heat for the duration of the freeze. I think this has cut my winter heating costs in half. In the summer, I call the thermostat and turn on the A/C a few hours before arrival to cool the house.
A programmable thermostat is about $100. This telephone thermostat, available at www.talkingthermostats.com, was something like $250. It more than paid for itself that first winter. It will work with an answering machine.
William H. Hughes
Fort Worth
HAPPENINGS
The fourth annual Books on the Bosque festival in Clifton offers up book reviews and writers’ sessions by 13 authors, photographers and illustrators November 9 and 10. Clifton is 30 miles northwest of Waco in Bosque County. Laura Wilson, known for her outstanding documentary photography, including Avedon at Work and Watt Matthews of Lambshead, will appear. The keynote presentation will be by four Dallas newsmen who covered the Kennedy assassination and wrote their memoirs, When the News Went Live: Dallas 1963. For more information, call (254) 675-3724 or go to www.bosqueconservatory.com.
GONZALES COUNTY COURTHOUSE IS AN ARTISTIC TREASURE
In Gonzales, where Texans fired the first shots at Santa Anna’s soldiers, sits the Gonzales County Courthouse. J. Riely Gordon built the many-turreted structure in a Richardsonian Romanesque style in 1894. The primary materials are red brick from St. Louis and locally quarried limestone. The building is unique as Texas courthouses go, since its clock tower and roof have not been removed and the façade has not been replaced with stucco. The courthouse interior also provides historic beauty, with three original paintings from the 1870s by German artist Carl Reuter.
—From The Courthouses of Texas, Texas A&M University Press, second edition, 2007
RESPITE FOR RETURNING VETS
Veterans Day, November 11, falls on Sunday this year. With so many veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, Texans are thinking of ways to honor them beyond that Sunday only. Bed-and-breakfast proprietors in Fayette County have come up with a program to do just that, the Texas Veteran Project. Bed-and-breakfasts, guest cottages, inns and hotels are offering returning veterans a complimentary one- or two-night stay as part of the program.
Eldon and Kathy Aydelotte, owners of Arbor House Bed and Breakfast at Las Brisas Farm, were inspired to start this program by their own son, an Army doctor serving in Iraq. “It occurred to us that all returning military from Iraq and Afghanistan will need lots of nurturing to move on with their lives when they return,” Kathy Aydelotte said. “I can think of no better place than coming to the country to get grounded—with clean air, slow pace and wonderful, supportive people.”
One soldier the Aydelottes played host to said, “None of us come home the same person. We bury our war experiences; we don’t talk about it. It is hard to adjust. To be able to receive the support is very helpful.”
The Aydelottes say this is a way to thank veterans for their service to the country and to “recognize the sacrifices of their time, talents, and in many cases, health.”
Most of the participating inns are served by Fayette Electric Cooperative. For more information on the Texas Veteran Project and a list of participating businesses, go to www.texasveteranproject.org.
LITERARY TEXAS
These Texas towns (listed with their county locations) have derived their names from comic strips to great literature.
Benhur
Limestone County
Bronte
Coke County
Iago
Wharton County
Ivanhoe
Fannin County
Mutt and Jeff
Wood County
Tarzan
Martin County
Tennyson
Coke County
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