Asa @ 22 Off

Skiing

I got the ski course 15' off @ 30MPH behind my '73 Ski Nautique this past Sunday. The wake isn't bad with two people in the boat. I can see myself completing the ski course with more speed and shorter line lengths despite the larger wake.

Unfortunately, the river was up and flowing quickly last night with lots of debris. It appears to have crested early this morning and hopefully will be better for skiing tonight.

Personal Best

Last night, Jason and I tore the ski course up! I had four clean passes with the rope length at 15' off travelling 30 MPH behind the x7. Then, I started working on 15' off at 32 MPH. My personal best was 4 balls at 32MPH (with rope length 15' off). Jason completed the ski course at 32MPH and 34MPH at 15' off no problem. Then he started working on 36MPH and achieved a personal best of 3 balls at 36MPH (with rope length 15' off).

Ski you later!

John Kerry doesn't want to hear from you

It appears that mailing John Kerry at info@JohnKerry.com is useless. After e-mailing his campaign about the FairTax I received the following brain dead e-mail. Why should I have to resubmit my message? Doesn't John Kerry have campaign volunteers to sort through the e-mail received and summarize it for him and his team? This appears to be a serious communications disconnect and encourages people to not even try to participate in the democratic process.

Dear Friend,

Thank you for attempting to send a message to the Kerry-Edwards Campaign.
To better handle and manage our email volume, please use our new web form
reached by clicking the link below:
http://www.johnkerry.com/contact/contact.php

The message you sent was not received and should be resubmitted via the
new web form.

Thank you for contacting Kerry-Edwards 2004.

The Kerry-Edwards Team

Working on making April 15th just another day

I am a big fan of efficiency and consequently am for the elimination of the U.S.'s egregious and cryptic income tax code. I really like the FairTax (HR 25 and Senate bill 1493) which calls for taxing spending rather than income. Basically, all income taxes would be eliminated and you would pay a fair tax on the goods and services you purchase. This is a great system for rewarding saving and investing, instead of consumption, while maintaining the same amount of revenue to fund our government.

Check out the FAQ for the FairTax. The FAQ does a great job of answering questions that come to mind when comtemplating the FairTax and its ramifications, especially in regard to its fairness, implementation, and level of compliance that can be achieved.

"The FairTax is a non-partisan proposal (HR 25/S 1493) that abolishes all
federal income taxes, including personal, estate, gift, capital gains,
alternative minimum, corporate, Social Security, other payroll, and
self-employment taxes, and replaces them all with one simple, visible,
federal retail sales tax. The FairTax dramatically changes the basis for
taxation by eliminating the root of the problem: Taxing income. The FairTax
taxes us only on what we choose to spend, not on what we earn. It does not
raise any more or less revenue; it is designed to be revenue neutral. The
FairTax is a fair, efficient, and intelligent solution to the frustration
and inequity of our current tax system."

I e-mailed all the major presidential candidates requesting their support of the FairTax. You should too! We can save ~$250,000,000,000/year on compliance alone, i.e. tax return preparation and such. Let's make April 15th just another day!

Ski Course

I went out skiing this morning with Jason. I completed the course 3 times today at 15' off at 30.4MPH (behind the x7). Once again, every run I completed was headed upstream. I need to figure out how to do it going downstream. ;-)

Later in the day, I tried out Rob's new wakeboard which is an O'Brien Science. I was very impressed with it and was able to easily switch edges on the surface.

Ski Course

Last night I started off skiing well, but was not connecting the buoys in the ski course. I concentrated on doing one handed turns and bringing the other hand into my side. My final run of the evening I completed the ski course twice (both times heading upstream) @15' off at 30.4MPH behind Jason's X7. It had been a few times out since I completed the ski course and it felt really good! :-)

Mandy took the following picture as I rounded buoy #6 earlier this year:

Does efficiency alone justify the purchase of a more efficient car?

One of my friends forwarded an article from the Houston Chronicle entitled "An investment vehicle rolling on four wheels." I agree with the author that a car is a wasting resource and therefore is not an investment. But I disagree that efficiency alone justifies the exchange to a more efficient car.

The author states, "By my calculations, trading in my 18-mile-per-gallon turbo New Beetle for the 45 mpg Prius saves about 500 gallons a year. At $2 a gallon, that's $1,000 a year." Let me work out the calculations for the cost of exchanging an existing gas guzzler for a new lean mean green fighting machine:
1) We must include the cost of trading the car in. Quick talking car salesmen rip off people on trade-in value. We'll assume a conservative $1500 since he is giving us a "sweat" deal.
2) We must include the cost of depreciation. The first year of a new car's life is the costliest as far as depreciation goes. You better enjoy driving your new car off the dealer lot. We'll assume a conservative $3500 in depreciation for the 1st year of ownership.
3) We must include the cost of sales tax. We'll assume we live in lovely Findlay Ohio (situated in Hancock County) which charges 6.5% sales tax. A nicely configured Toyota Prius costs ~$20,000 which yields $1300 in sales tax.
4) Assume your insurance company charges you the same amount for a newer, more expensive car. Not likely, but possible if you go from a 4wd to a 2wd car, or to a much safer model.
5) The total cost of exchanging cars would be ~$6300, to save $1000 in gas per year. Therefore, if gas prices stayed at their current inflated levels you would break even in ~6.3 years. Given that the average American desires to get a flashy new model about every 5 years, it is better to stick with your current gas guzzler and upgrade during your normal upgrade cycle. The author's calculator may come in handy calculating reduced fuel cost for a new vehicle, but I didn't try it since the website required a user profile (be setup).

Example:
My Jeep Cherokee gets ~15MPH highway (not towing)... so $6300 at $1.80 (regular unleaded) yields 3500 gallons of gas or 52,500 miles of driving.

Therefore, I chose to drive my existing vehicle additional miles at the current price point. Like Jeremy I use my SUV when I need it (towing my boat, travelling to ski resorts, snow kneeboarding*, pulling my friends out of the ditch, etc) rather than as my daily driver.

*Snow kneeboarding... is kneeboarding behind a vehicle over a snow covered area... very fun, but scouting must be performed pre-snow cover to avoid surprises which many times lead to injury

Ski Course

Tuesday, I got the ski course at 15' off at 30MPH behind Terry's Toyota. It was sloppy, but I completed it. I was getting a little rope slack, which is easily remedied by making a quicker pre-turn. The science behind this is by shortening the time I have a velocity vector directed at the boat the less likelihood I have of creating rope slack.

Tonight, when I ski I need to concentrate at not skiing to the next buoy but rather towards the opposite shoreline and I will be early into the pre-turn around the next buoy.