Things Always Take Longer Than You'd Think

Worked my ass off this weekend on the chicken barn.

And all I've got to show for it are the walls. Still need to trim and roof. And since my walls are actually 8'6" apart, and the roofing panels are only 8' long, I'm going to have to get another panel and tin snips. Ack.

Aggravation.

Bottom line is, looks like it'll be another week before the chicks can be sprung from their brooder in the bathroom. I'm not too charmed by it, either.

Busy week ahead. Have to wrap up one project on Monday and start doing the heavy lifting on another. Major pending issues with job opportunity. Have to finish a book chapter this week. Must put together a PowerPoint presentation, also known as one of my least favorite things to do. Ummmm .. a few other things.

Run, bike, swim.

On a slightly different front, couldn't help noticing oil hitting $80/bbl. So here's a trivia question: What do my father, a former Rolling Stone writer, the former chief geologist for Shell, and a bestselling investment banker/writer have in common?

Try peak oil.

Jim Kunstler, who used to write for Rolling Stone, can be pretty damn mean-spirited -- it's like he's looking forward to some sort of apocalyptic scenario involving Cheetos-deprived NASCAR fans in the southern suburbs -- but makes some pretty salient points in his blog.

Colin Campbell's Association for the Study of Peak Oil has a no-frills web page. He's the former chief geologist for Shell. Strikes me as strange that someone who climbed the corporate ladder that far would be willing to do anything besides paint lipstick on this particular pig.

Matt Simmons, a Houston investment banker, has been banging the drum about peak oil for more than a few years. If you want hard facts and figures on where we're going with oil, you've got to check out his page.

And, of course, there's my dad, a petroleum geologist who's been agitating for oil to hit about $200/barrel since 1973. Dad's got three reasons for wanting oil prices to go insane. In reverse order of importance, (a) he would make a lot of money because domestic exploration would be encouraged, (b) he wouldn't have to fight so much Houston traffic, and (c) there might be enough left for his grandchildren to get two miles down the road by the time they're driving.

On a slightly weirder note:

Saying 'I'm hungry,' man rips head off St. Paul hotel's duck
Denver man, 26, arrested after domesticated bird is cornered and killed early Saturday
BY DAVE ORRICK Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 09/22/2007 11:45:40 PM CDT

He ripped the head off a live duck inside a hotel lobby.

That's the accusation St. Paul police made early Saturday against a 26-year-old Denver man staying at the Embassy Suites Hotel in downtown St. Paul.

The hotel's spacious lobby atrium features an ornamental pond that at one point contained eight domesticated ducks.

Shortly before 2:35 a.m., Scott D. Clark, who had told hotel employees he was in town on business, chased a duck across the area and cornered it, according to St. Paul police Sgt. John Wuorinen.

I'll admit to having similar fantasies about ripping the heads off a few of my ducks -- they do tend to be a bit obstreperous -- but I doubt I'd do it out of hunger. Duck meat, eh. And at an Embassy Suites? Maybe a slightly lower-end chain ...