Tomorrow is voting day. Be sure to get out and vote!!! My main hard and fast rule for all the propositions is not to vote for any of the bond issues. Almost every one of these ends up costing in my property taxes. A lot of renters don't see it, but if you are one, know that any property tax increase will be passed along to you. So many of the ads about the propositions are SO transparent that it is amazing that anyone pays attention. The big one here is
87, an oil extraction tax to pay for alternative energy research, with provisions to keep the costs from being passed along to consumers at the pump. We'll just see if that actually pans out that way. The other top three oil producing states have an extraction tax. The ads against it, though... "it's a bad idea, it'll never work, it will end up costing you more at the pump!!!" And you'll never guess who's paying for it. Citizens against higher taxes, AKA big oil!!! Wow, didn't see that coming!!! They have spent over $100,000,000.00 on it. Unfortunately, Slick Willie has been stumping in favor of it, and I've heard several people who were also in favor who are re-thinking because of that.
Next up is proposition
86. A cigarette tax of $2.60 per pack. The proceeds will go to various health programs, and a hit like that alone, I would think, would be a big nudge in the right direction to people who are thinking about or trying to quit. Naturally, it's opposed by (you'll never guess) big tobacco!!!
Another one out there that hasn't gotten quite as much coverage is
85, requiring parental notification before performing abortions for minors and a 48 hour waiting period. Ready for the amazing, unpredictable opposition??? Planned parenthood!!!
I've already made my view on bond measures, but I feel this one deserves a special condemnation. Proposition
84 is a "clean water" bill with a 5.4 billion dollar price tag. I'm as for clean water as anyone, but the trouble with this bill... It's been done before!!! Five times already, if I'm not mistaken. Every time, the funds get treated as government's piggy bank.
The one that I do like is proposition
1A. This is the one we need more like it. Instead of raising taxes or issuing bonds, it keeps politicians and government from raiding taxes that we've already allocated and sees to it that they go where they're supposed to go.
Perhaps I'll do an update on what makes it!!!
As a result, most of the stills weren't that good, but these two came out good. Pumpkin in mid-flight, and the lid of a pumpkin on it's edge. The videos came out quite nice, hopefully I'll post some soon.
FINALLY got out Jack-O-Lanterns carved. It was only yesterday that we bought the pumpkins. First up is the younger boy's submission. Of course, his brother and I did all the work, but under his direction. Triangle eyes and nose, and an ANGRY mouth with teeth. He didn't like the pupils I'd put in at first, but decided they were good after it was all done.
Next is obligatory 512 pumpkin, representing!!!
Here's mine, I did wild eyebrows and cat style eyes. Just eyes peering out. Simplicity.
The older boy's submission. He was going to do X's for the eyes, but as you can see, they went awry. I'm proud of him and his work, though, I think this is the first year he's pretty much done the whole job himself. Not to mention he did a lot of cleaning of his brother's.
And Naomi's. You can't really see in the picture, but it has a diagonal ridge over the eyes, so the eyes follow under it. Afterward, it was decided a unibrow over the eyes would add to it.
On Thursday Sammy called me up and told me that Freddy, another one of the long time guys from my former place of employment, was leaving and he wanted to get some of the guys together for some pool and just a little last time get together. 
That was what else I did on Friday night. Rafa was there, but he left just minutes before I got there. That was kind of a bummer, but we had a good time the rest of the evening.
Never did play any pool, I think they did before I got there. A few games of Foosball, then we went to the bowling alley and played a couple of games. I got my best score in a long time, 107!!!
Freddy is moving to Arizona. He applied at a company there, and they made him an immediate offer. Sounds like he ended up with a deal a lot like mine, where he ended up making a good deal more money, better benefits, and a company with a future. Good luck, Freddy. I know you'll be much better off.
That evening, a group of young teens came up in full costume. I thought it was a little early for trick or treating. Turns out they were on a scavenger hunt. They needed a green apple, a candy corn, and a hoop ear ring. I told them I wanted some candy corn if they found any.
Anyway, I got the replacement part as well as coolant and cooling system flush, all on Friday night. First thing in the morning I headed down and got to working on it. Mostly it was pretty straightforward, but the water pump drives off the timing belt, rather than a drive belt. First time I've ever seen that, and of course the manual had no precautions about how to keep the valve train timing right. I scribed a mark all the way across and never moved the crankshaft to try and keep from having a problem. 
At second break, I took a 32-ounce cup of water out to top off the radiator, see if that did the trick. It took almost all of it, then at the very end it started pouring out of around the water pump. OK, that's probably the trouble spot.
I decided to go to my parent's house after work (if the car makes it that far with no ill effects) and swap the Geo for the Falcon, which is still down there for paint finishing. I made it without incident, and got to visit with my parents and have a little dinner.
