12/09/2007

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a very busy day for this member of the WP team, leaving no time for any blogging. It happens every so often.

Today's post will not be nearly as lengthy due to making up for the things I didn't get done yesterday and getting ready for the New England Patriots game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. We've also been keeping an eye on the weather as it looks like we'll be in for a little more winter weather overnight and into tomorrow morning.

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Our fellow New Hampshire blog, GraniteGrok, has added a new member to the team – Major Kirk Luedeke, milblogger. He is presently stationed in Iraq and will be posting as he is able to, given he needs to pay attention to his duty while he is deployed. His posts will be titled “Dragon Soup”. Fitting title, isn't it?

His first post to the 'Grok can be found here.

Welcome aboard, Major Luedeke!

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One of the side effects of the lack of affordable housing is the use of more energy because workers are forced to commute a longer distances to their jobs. So, in the end, affordable housing some distance away from the job may not be as affordable as it appears. One must include the costs of commuting, which are only going up.

In the long run it's cheaper to build workforce housing.

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The Patriots beat the Steelers 34-13. They are now 13-0!

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The proposed sale of Verizon's wireline assets to FairPoint Communications is generating a lot of advertising and op-ed pieces in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Both Maine and New Hampshire's state consumer advocates have voiced their doubts about the viability of the sale, citing the financial details of the deal and questioning FairPoint's capability to carry out their promised upgrades throughout the more rural areas of each state.

If any of the three states involved in the deal vote it down, the deal is dead. However, FairPoint has said that even if Vermont should vote against the deal, it might be possible for the sale in New Hampshire and Maine to go forward.

The decision in each state will be made soon, and I'm hoping they'll decide that the deal is not a good one for the consumers.

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Deb and I have been contemplating switching from Verizon to our local cable company for telephone service. Regardless whether the Verizon/FairPoint deal goes though I have no doubt the telephone rates will go up. At the moment our cable company is offering rates for local and long distance service about 60 percent of what Verizon is presently charging. The only downside to the cable company as our phone provider: if the power goes out, so does our phone service, even if we have an emergency generator.

While our cell phone is a reasonable back up there's no guarantee it will work if the outage is caused by inclement weather.

Decisions, decisions!

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where more winter weather is on its way, the Patriots have proven triumphant again, and where we're one day closer to Christmas.

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