Boom whackers

Yesterday as I was attending a staff development meeting at Clear Spring School, a local composer and pianist Ellen Foncannon began working with our younger students during the school's Friday afternoon club time.

Let's not forget that instrumental music is one of those hands-on activities that directly impact learning, as well as the development of character and intellect. As we sat in our meeting, we watched our children's marching band performance.

Boomwhackers are tuned plastic tubes. They are an inexpensive percussive instruments that can be used in performance. What could be more fun than beating on a fence post with musical glee?

In my woodshop yesterday, I wrestled with a simple electrical problem made worse by the fact that access to the wiring was through ports cut in the top of my four router router table, a newly finished addition to my box making process. I finally discovered that one of the switches was faulty, and now that all routers in the system can be plugged in and operated by outside switches, I can finish it today.

On the SWEPCO front, we learned that we did more than simply stop one massive power line. In light of SWEPCO's retreat from building the power line through us, the Arkansas Public Service Commission rejected AEP/SWEPCO's application to launch a new corporation in the state, Southwest Transco, that would be used as a vehicle to build a large network of extra high voltage power lines throughout Arkansas. The APSC ruling was on January 2, just three days after SWEPCO posted a letter of withdrawal from their application to trash the Ozarks with an unnecessary power line. I have asked that SWEPCO award my organization Save the Ozarks, 12 million dollars in damages. That would be only 10 percent of their proposed project costs, and less than 2 percent of what my organization saved Arkansas ratepayers.

Make, fix and create...