Will Shaver’s Blog

As submitted to the R-G on January 2nd.

Governor Kulongoski has recently been pushing a GPS-based mileage tax to replace Oregon’s existing gasoline tax for road funds. This proposal is directly against Kulongoski’s “cleaner, greener lives” goals, adds taxes that do not increase road funds, ignores out of state drivers, and has serious privacy concerns.

In Kulongoski’s own words, “climate change is the most important environmental and economic issue of our time.” Any reduction in fossil fuel use should be rewarded, not punished. Why propose a $5,000 credit for buying electric and plug-in hybrid cars, only to tax it away?

Taxing based on GPS would require installation of specialized equipment for every car in Oregon. It would also require infrastructure and additional staffing, all costing tax payers and car buyers. These added taxes won’t improve roads, but are a tax paid solely to support paying taxes.

Kulongoski assures us that the day to day positioning data will not be collected. We were also assured that social security numbers would only be used by the Social Security Administration, and warrants would always be required for phone tapping.

I appreciate having quality roads to drive on, and understand that taxes are required to build them. To that end, I offer a counter proposal – a massive increase on the existing gas tax. Current Oregon gas prices of approximately $1.70 are way off the summer high of $4.28. An added .40c per gallon tax would still be less than half what drivers paid this summer.

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My family has long had a yearly tradition of writing notes to each other for Christmas morning. Sometimes funny, sometimes mushy, these letters summarize the previous year’s accomplishments and provide hopes for the coming one.

Partially because of the down economy and partially because we are all grown up now, we’re doing something new this year. My grandmother is writing all of us kids and grandkids memories from her life, and we’re writing her one from ours.

Here’s my memory, written to her…

There was a very brief period of time in which a couple of small miracles occurred that allowed me to walk to your house.

First, you were living within walking distance of the place that I lived at. Or at least spent the nights at. I’m of course referring to the time you spent living on lake Tahkenitch. What was surely tiresome isolation for you was wonderful for Gina and me. As a child I didn’t care that the nearest grocery was a boat ride and long drive away, or that clean water was tough to come by. Grandma was in the house down the lake, and that was simply the way it should be.

The second small miracle was the lake being extraordinarily dry that year. I don’t recall it being that dry on any summer since. Tahkenitch’s steep hillsides and thick foliage generally prevented a couple of kids from walking around the lake. On this particular year the lake had dried out enough that it was barely possible for a couple of school kids to walk along the shore.

What an adventure it was going to grandmother’s house. Every step of the way had to be taken with great care. The mud was thick enough to lose a shoe in, which probably happened at least once that summer. Scattered around the side of the lake like children’s Lincoln Logs were myriad floating or half-sunk trees, houses, boards, and boats.

Gina and I would jump from log to board to boat to the muddy shore. Each trip presenting a unique challenge as the lake re-arranged itself in our absence. Some paths would abruptly end, forcing us to retrace our steps and attempt a different direction. Others were comprised of floating logs that were so thin that they would sink within seconds of our standing on them. We’d skip from one large log across several smaller and far less stable logs only to barely make it to the relative safety of a second large log. I’m sure if I were to attempt it weighing what I do now, I would finish wetter than I began.

This is a journey that would always end with mud up to the ankles, card games with grandma, and a piece or two of hard candy. Eventually the sun would begin drooping and our parents would rescue us by boat.

Fond memories of a summer gone by. A childhood that seemed it would never end but most certainly has. Thanks for being a big part of a wonderful summer.

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The snow finally came to Eugene. A couple of desktop wallpapers up at Frozen Tear.

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I started wearing contacts about two weeks ago. Given my inability to filter out my surroundings I have a difficult time not noticing I have them in at all times. I switched from one brand to another on Neil’s suggestion which has reduced the amount of time I spend noticing them.

Earlier today my eyes were bugging me so I decided I’d put in some eye drops. Drops go in the right eye, drops in the left eye. My right eye was still bugging me so I figured I’d take out the contacts. That’s odd, can’t seem to get the contact out of the right eye. The left eye produces a contact lens without fuss, but ten minutes of rolling my eye around and attempting to find a lens produces nothing. Perhaps I dropped it in the sink? On the floor? Down the drain? I’ll stop by Rainbow Optics tomorrow and get a replacement lens.

Ten minutes later, my right eye is still bugging me. Another twenty minutes and I can’t seem to stop blinking. Then it happens: I blink a few times and the contact lens falls to my desk in a crumpled mess. Now where have have you been for the past half hour?

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I had been without a personal blog for long enough to miss the therapeutic aspects of writing out my thoughts for the world to see. I hope to fill this one with content relating to local politics, my travels, and thoughts on life. Perhaps you’d like to follow along.

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