Wine by mail, beer still by the case.

No, the title is not misleading.  It will make sense at the end.

Here is an excerpt from the recent Gene Yaw newsletter outlining how one can get a free photo ID which will be necessary for this fall's general election.

If you do not possess any of these forms of identification, you may obtain a free photo ID from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. It is a simple process. First, you must sign an affirmation that you do not possess any forms of identification listed above (Voter Affirmation), then you must complete an Application For Initial Photo Identification Card (DL-54A). Finally, take these documents to your nearest Photo Licensing Center along with your Social Security Card, accompanying proof of citizenship such as a birth certificate or passport, and two proofs of residency such as a utility bill, car registration or lease agreement.


I have three questions about this.

1)  If you have a passport, I'm pretty sure it satisfies the requirements stated in the first option of acceptable photo ID:  


Identification issued by the United States Government that includes your name, a photograph, and an expiration date that is not expired. 


Even if a passport doesn't meet those criteria, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, that passports are far from free and as a possible supporting document kind of negate the whole FREE photo ID thing.

2)  As a second option for proof of citizenship, birth certificates aren't exactly free either.

3)  Is there any conceivable situation in which someone has no proof of residency, but is a resident (perhaps an elderly parent living with a child who is not responsible for paying any bills and doesn't drive)?

I checked the website, you can bring someone to vouch for you.  However, that seems to undermine the whole point of this new legislation

OK, only one of those was actually a question, but you know what I meant.

Then there's Senate Bill 10:


Senate Bill 10 - is a proposal that seeks to amend Pennsylvania's Constitution by allowing individuals the freedom to purchase their own health care. The legislation would prohibit the enactment of any law requiring a person to obtain or maintain health insurance coverage, except as required by a court; prohibit a person from or penalizing a person for making direct payment to a health care provider; or instituting any penalty, tax, assessment, fee or fine for a person's failure to obtain or maintain health insurance coverage.
On March 28th, this bill passed the Senate by a vote of 29-19 and will now go before the House State Government Committee for their approval. Since this bill is seeking to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution, it must be voted in two consecutive legislative sessions and pass a statewide referendum before it can be approved.

Yeah!  They are guaranteeing freedom.  That means it has to be good.  I can only guess this is in reaction to healthcare reform.  Is a constitutional amendment a bit strong?  I admit; I'm a bit confused by this.

Finally, we have Senate Bill 790:

Senate Bill 790 - is a proposal which amends the Liquor Code to allow for the direct shipment of wine from out-of-state to Pennsylvania residents. The bill would permit a producer, with a direct shipper's license, to ship up to 18 liters per month to any Pennsylvania resident who is at least 21 years of age.

The state is going to allow mail order wine from out of state, but we still have to buy beer by the case?

This state is confusing and disappointing me.

Pensions cost us paper!

It's that time of year again.  The school year is over 3/4 finished and supplies are starting to run low.  Today we get the message that we are going to run out of paper; please conserve.  Within an hour later we get the message that the two cases of paper in the copy room have gone and will not be replaced.  Now I know that everyone wants paper to make copies with, but raiding the only paper left so you can make copies in a couple of weeks is just lame!  Now all copies have to go through administration first to get approval.  Many thanks to the vultures and jackals that have made this possible.

But as you can read in our illustrious paper, the real culprit is the exorbitant pensions teachers are getting these days.  Why are education funds being slashed?  I think it's summed up best here (Click here).  Yeah, the rhetoric is getting hot again and it's our greed that has led to this problem.

Spring Training

Following the winter high of have a great time doing cyclocross, finishing 3rd in my age group for the overall points series in the River Towns Race Series, and having a blast (as always) during the Humdinger, I felt it prudent to sign up for the River Towns Half Marathon (I did resist the full marathon, for now).  While fully under the influence of that continued rush, I was also contemplating doing the 45 Miles of Mon-Tour, which is just 2 weeks after the marathon.

I used the rest of my winnings from last year's series to register for the half and started thinking about how soon it actually is and how long my current long run has been (past tense, I ran about 5 times in March) and realized that I couldn't go much farther than 5 or 6 miles after school and be able to pick up the boy from daycare.  "That's ok," I thought.  "I can do long runs on the weekend."  Then I started thinking how much time it took to train with 20 mile bike rides and how much longer it would take to get me, and my rear, in shape for riding 45 miles.  Combined with the hectic nature of spring and school and my time constraints, I decided not to do the 45 Miles of Mon-Tour.  However, now that I'm writing about it and seeing that I would have 2 whole weeks after the half...

The training for the half is going great, though.  I was thinking that I would like to finish in under 2 hours, which equates to about 9-minute miles.  While I've gotten my 5k pace down to 8-minute miles, I'm just about redlining to finish and that's only 3 miles.  So, last week I head out to do 5 miles and I average 9:27.  I felt like I was pushing, but not too hard.  A few days later I do 8 miles and average 9:50.  This week I go for a hard 4 and average 8:48 miles and today, I did 10 with a pace of 9:24 min/mile.  The best part about today's run was that I wasn't killing myself to keep the pace.  I think my goal is within reach and I have 5 weeks to get my mileage and speed up.

Maybe I should do the 45...