Entergy (ETR – Cramer’s Take – Stockpickr – Rating) price target raised at Jefferies to $127 from $125. See higher wholesale power prices in Northeast. 2009 estimates upped to $7.90 from $7.55. Maintained Buy rating.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

I resolved one of Karen’s big travel concerns last week — and I must admit this fix does make it easier for me, too.

Navigating the truck and camper into some fuel stops can be challenging, especially for someone who doesn’t have a lot of experience towing something quite that large. I had been thinking about a possible solution that would alleviate this, but wasn’t sure how to go about it. Fortunately, the subject came up at one of the retiree breakfasts at Old South where I learned that Walt P____ had already implemented it on his rig as well as where he had it done.

My solution is a 45 gallon auxiliary fuel tank in the bed of the truck. I had it installed at a truck accessories shop in Adkins.

It’s a very simple setup. A line off the bottom of the tank runs to the truck’s normal fill nozzle. There is a ball valve and a check valve in the line. When the ball valve is open, diesel fuel will gravity drain to the normal fuel tank until it is full, when the check valve will stop the flow. (This gravity fill arrangement is prohibited for gasoline fueled vehicles because of flammability issues in an accident.) The tank has an overflow line to accommodate expansion if the fuel in the tank heats up.

A GM fuel system idiosyncrasy can cause problems when using an auxiliary fuel tank.

Apparently, based on fuel usage, the vehicle’s computer predicts when the tank should be empty and, at some point after that, shifts to run the engine in an economy mode, operating on only four cylinders. When running with the auxiliary fuel ball valve open, the level indication for the factory installed fuel tank will not change until the auxiliary fuel tank is empty, long after the engine would shift to four cylinders in operation. The resolution for this fuel system idiosyncrasy is simply to close the ball valve and let the main tank be drawn down and then, at the next travel stop, open the ball valve. The computer will see the rise in level as indication that the truck has been refueled and will reset its fuel tank usage calculation, as I understand it.

My plans are to operate. the valve periodically during the travel day.

Our fuel capacity will now give us at least a 650 mile range without refueling. This is quite a bit farther than we plan on traveling in a day. After we are at our day’s destination and have the camper unhooked and set up, we will refuel without having to navigate the camper through pumps and vehicles at the filling station.

—————-

Update 3/5/2011 – The fuel idiosyncrasy never materialized.  It seems that computer simply resets the fuel expectations each time the engine is turned off.  The only thing I’ve seen strange is that if the economy seems to be improving, at times the fuel gauge will suddenly drop from full to empty and the  low fuel light will come on – always when still running with fuel in the auxiliary tank.

We still have the truck, though we traded the fifth wheel in for a motor home in 2008.  The auxiliary tank comes in especially handy when diesel fuel climbs in price like it is currently doing.  I filled the tanks all the way up a couple of weeks ago when the price was $3.49 a gallon.  It’s now over $3.75 and, since I am not working during the Unit 2 outage, the low price fuel should last several more weeks before I have to refuel.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

There are a lot of “get rich quick” schemes on the internet. I usually ignore them.

However, one attracted my attention the other day, so I clicked on the ad. It turned out, after reading through all of the upfront spiel and getting to the ordering part of the site that it only cost $10 to download the ebook. So I decided — what the heck — to order it, with a good healthy dose of skepticism.

Two pages at the end of the book provide the legal mumbo jumbo and disclaimers. One I found particularly interesting was more than a little ironic, given the claims if potential income that was touted:

Earnings – All earnings described in this product and shown on our website are accurate to the best of our knowledge, and should not be considered “typical.” As with any business, your results may vary, and will be based on your background, dedication, desire, and motivation. We make no guarantees regarding the level of success you may experience. Any testimonials and examples used are exceptional results, which do not apply to the average purchaser, and are not intended to represent that anyone will achieve the same or similar results. You may experience unknown or unforeseeable risks which can reduce results. We are not responsible for your actions.

In other words, if you send me your money, it’ll help make me rich, but there are no guarantees for you.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

I know… I’m retired.

I shouldn’t be writing about enhanced work processes.

However, if I had figured this out, when I was still working, it might have made a few things easier.

It’s very simple — just a second monitor.

However, the way that it works is to expand the desktop. Now I can have two different aps open full screen and use the mouse to drag and drop from one ap to the other — a lot less cutting and pasting.

I just finished redirecting all of my wife’s web pages from her old location to the new location — including checking each redirect worked — in a little over an hour. It would have taken twice as long before and would have been much more confusing and error prone. (Can you spell T-R-A-P… just kidding, guys).

Anyhow, if I would have had this before … oh, never mind. I would have had to have bought my own second monitor.

But I might have — I just might have.

Day 3 in Darren Rowse’s “Top 5″ group writing project brought in  222 more  submissions , bringing the total to 596!

Some bloggers are reposting the entire list on their blog.  How unoriginal is that?!  I’ll just provide a link to the final list.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

Its a fantasy novel called The Fall of Daoradh.

You can buy it at Hastings or at John’s IMC Studios website.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

Darren Rowse, a blogger in Australia, has a group writing project going called “Top 5.” His blog, Problogger, is one that I look at on a regular basis. As of day 2, there had been 374 submissions, with two more days to go.

My article went in on day 1 and was around #46 submitted. It’s at my Daily Chronicles of the American Civil War blog and is titled My Top Five Firsts of the First Two Years of the American Civil War.

The prize is $1,001 US, but I doubt that I will be the winner. The prize for me is more exposure for my blog and civil war material.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

We finally got around to getting the Bighorn fixed. This is what it looked like after I failed to swing wide and use my mirrors. (click link for what happened to cause this)

Its a good thing we weren’t planning on traveling as the whole thing took longer that I really thought it would – though I did get it in in plenty of time, just in case. It was over 2 1/2 weeks from the time the parts were ordered until we got the trailer back.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

Last week, we went to Pulaski County to take a hike over the new world’s largest bridge specifically built for pedestrian and bicycling use. There are larger bridges that are used just for that, but they were all originally used for other purposes.

My new Big Dam Bridge web page has all the information that I could find about the bridge. The associated Big Dam Bridge photo gallery has 39 images of the bridge, people on the bridge, the lock and dam, a tug and its tow locking through, and more.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011