I just heard on the news that New York city has a proposed ban on smoking on beaches (among other places).

I hope it goes into effect.  I think it’s only a matter of time until smoking in all public places is banned.  It’s the only logical and just solution to this barbaric problem.

The anti-ban people are trying to frame this as a personal rights issue.  And it is a personal rights issue.  But not the way they’re suggesting.  This is clearly an issue where your freedom to swing your fist ends at my nose.

You have the right to intentionally give yourself cancer, but I have the right to breathe air that isn’t infected with your cancer, and no rational person would suggest that the former is more important than the latter.  Therefore if you are infringing upon my right to breathe cancer-free air, then you are no longer within the bounds of your personal rights.

"...though the U.S. may in fact need help in Iraq, President Bush is wrong to try to deal with the U.N., an organizations whose primary goal is to prop up and legitimize dictatorships at the expense of America."

Amen to that.

And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.  Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.  And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever.  And presently the fig tree withered away.

I love long drives.  Especially long drives with no real destination and no time limits at all.  And since I’m temporarily (?) relocated 170 miles from my home-home, I have an added bonus that makes it much, much more interesting: I can drive in just about any direction and see landscape that I’ve never seen before.

Here in central Pennsylvania, there are some decent mountains.  Now I’ve been out west once, and the mountains here aren’t THAT decent, but they’re much better than the mountains in the Philly suburbs where I really live.  It’s an amazing thing to watch the daylight recede behind a range of mountains, where there’s a soft and fading blueish glow above the ridge, and it’s pure darkness below.  And there’s one stretch of road out here that I’ve driven that’s in the valley between two parallel mountain ranges.  It’s so sparsely populated, and driving that at night, it’s almost pitch black on either side, with a bright sky full of stars overhead.

Last night I went for a drive in the general direction of Montoursville, which is about 60 miles away.  There’s a bike shop there, one of the few shops in PA that sells Kona bikes, and of those the closest one to me.  I knew it wasn’t open, but I felt like going for a long drive, and figured I’d drive by and get a feel for where it’s at before going there one day this week during business hours.

The road from here to there is route 220, and I love that road.  It’s got an alternate route that’s only two lanes, with so much interesting mountainous landscape.  I set out, hit "random" on the stereo, and it picked "Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo" by MxPx.  I got that album almost six years ago, and was crazy about it for a long time, but for the past couple years I listened to it less frequently.  But it was perfect for last night.  I was feeling really melancholy and thinking of a musical selection to match, but this album is pretty upbeat (it’s pop-punk after all).  But the lyrics are also really introspective and some of them are pretty sad.  It fit.  "My words don’t come out easily, so I will tell you honestly... no one wants to spend eternity alone."

It was almost dusk when I left at quarter after seven, still completely light but fading, and it got dark 15 or 20 miles into the trip.  Route 220 eventually turns into a four-lane that’s 65MPH, and it was dark by then.  Driving 70 MPH (much slower than most of the traffic -- this was a drive for the sake of the drive, remember), I saw for a split second what appeared to be a raccoon walking across the road in front of me.  Another split second later I hit it, and it went right under my car.  I was fairly mortified since the biggest thing I’d hit before was a squirrel or rabbit, and this thing was about the size of an smallish-average dog.

Well about two minutes later, my radiator fluid light came on, indicating that the level was too low.  I took the next exit and pulled into a gas station, which was maybe 5 miles from where I hit the ’coon.  In that time, the engine temperature didn’t rise at all; the guage stayed right in the center, at 190 degrees, where it always is.  I looked under the car, and it was dripping from everywhere.  The radiator fluid reserve tank -- the one that never needs refilling under normal circumstances -- was empty.  I read through my owner’s manual a little, called my parents, and looked around under the hood, but couldn’t see where the source of the leak was.  The red radiator fluid was sprayed or pooling all over in the bottom of the front driver’s-side of the engine compartment.

I needed water.  Gallons.  This little Citgo gas station didn’t have gallons, just 1-liter bottles of spring water for $1.85 each.  I bought 11 of them.  I poured three and a half of them into the reserve tank, at which point it filled up.  After about 45 minutes of talking with my parents and assessing the situation, and realizing that there was a truck stop about 5 miles back toward home, I decided to drive back.  The engine temperature hadn’t risen at all, so I figured the radiator had to be holding some amount of water.  Right after I got back on the road, the fluid-level light came on again, but still the temperature didn’t rise at all.

At the truck stop, there’s a 24-hour service station but only for trucks.  But the guy was nice enough to come out to the parking lot and look under my hood, and got on the ground and was looking under there too.  He couldn’t tell where the leak was.  He sold me a $3 bottle of "radiator stop" but it didn’t.  Went right through with all the water we poured in after it.  So either there’s a big crack/hole, or a hose came off, or something, but dude couldn’t figure it out, and I sure couldn’t.

Here, they actually had gallons of spring water, so I bought two, which brought my total to about four.  I knew there were a couple stores in the 30 miles between there and home, so I decided to give it a try.

I didn’t push the engine much above 2200 rpm, which limited me to 45 mph (in a 65).  I coasted all the downhills.  I stopped every five miles to pour a gallon of water through and let the engine sit for ten minutes.  The whole time, the engine temperature didn’t rise at all, and the radiator didn’t steam until I stopped and poured some water in, and even then it didn’t steam much.  I’d pour about half a gallon in, and it would hold it.  But just above that amount, the radiator made a sound as if it was throwing up, and forcefully expelled all the water out the bottom of it onto the ground.  Then the radiator fans would turn on, and the other half-gallon seemed to pour almost straight through.

I got home that way in about an hour and a half, with no (other) problems.  Konstantin is one of those fix-the-car-himself kind of guys, so he’s going to look at it tomorrow, and unless he can figure it out, I’m taking Golfy to the radiator shop.  Fortunately for him there’s one in town that "specializes in Volvo - VW - Audi" repairs.  He so hates being treated like he’s on the same level as the other kinds of cars on the road.

Galileo is set to collide with Jupiter on Sunday.  At 30 miles per second.  Holy cow.

It’s sad, reading the article, though.  I mean thinking of that spacecraft floating through space all alone for all those years, so cold and far away, and only to be incinerated in the end.  Reminds me of Brave Saint Saturn, too.

Sometimes the bible really cracks me up:

Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.  And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.  Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?

But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?  Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.

And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?

They say unto him, Caesar’s.

Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.

When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.

The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.  Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:  Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.  And last of all the woman died also.  Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.  For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.  But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,  I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.

But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.  Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,  Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,  Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?

They say unto him, The son of David.

He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying,  The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?  If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? 

And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

You can almost hear Jesus saying, "Next?!  Yeah, that’s what I thought.  BAM."

...well maybe not, but that’s the image I get.

From weather.com’s forecast:

Tomorrow night: Cloudy and windy with periods of rain late. Low 61F. Winds ENE at 20 to 30 mph. Rainfall near a half an inch. Local amounts approaching 6 inches.

Yeeeaaaaah.  Um.  Run.