Craig Crawford's Trail Mix

from the last thread:

"we will buy a generator that runs on gasoline..... as we always have some around we rotate in use for chain saws and log splitters.."

Renee, That's what we have, but it really takes a lot of gas over a long period of time. Normally that's ok, but at the time of Ike we couldn't get gas for a few days, and when we could, I think that was when it was almost $4 a gallon. No matter what the price, we were lucky to get any at the time.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/01/hypocricsy-on-parade.html#comment-187777

Tony, What a nice meal. And by candle light! (Ha, I wish I could have been there). And what a great host you are. Hope you enjoy the beach. It's beautiful and sunny here today too. I'm enjoying it before our next cold front comes through.

I have this wonderful feeling of CONFIDENCE now that was lacking for 8 LONG years.

Feels like we're collectively moving forward in a good way.

I loved the LONG applause when Cheney swore in the NEW administration!

: - )

tt

Craig...
something tells me that Obama is up for this fight.... and he'll win...

Chloe... yeah.... the generator that was lent to us used a bit of gas and it was 8 yrs old..... and we couldn't get gas in town for 4-5 days..... but we could get plenty about 10 miles east of here....

Rick gets this forestry magazine and the feature article for Dec. was about climate change and what the ice storm of 1998 did to the forests around here.... they were predicting (prophetically) that we would see more and worse ice storms in the future.... we will be prepared and make sure to always have at least 10 gallons of gas around....

Wonderful, The Democrats in Congress discover a back bone now that they can fight with a Democratic President.

They've been getting popularity rankings below 20% for a few years with the excuse that the other party had the power. Now they have the power and proceed to prove they really did deserve the numbers.

"but you should know that we will buy the best generator that's out there and we will be willing to wait for it..... fortunately... we can afford quality....." RR@1:11

If I was going to do mine over again, and if I wasn't on a retiree's budget, I would opt for a diesel generator in something like the 10-KW range. A unit having all the auto start and auto stop and auto this and that stuff. I would get one that runs at 1800 RPM rather than the 3600 that a gasoline generator runs at. That would cut down on vibration and noise.

To me, the big advantage of the diesel would be that it would be large enough to carry the whole house, even with the electric stove and central air, without going through all the load management gyrations that the smaller gasoline units usually require (ours is a 5-kw). And the diesel would allow me to get away from rotating the fuel as I'm doing now. (Diesel has a virtually unlimited shelf-life.)

The disadvantages would be larger size, need to have a sizable diesel tank installed to meet code, and the requirement, almost certainly, of creating a generator shack just to take care of the item. Without checking, I suppose I would want to have about $10k before I started a diesel project.

On the other hand, I bought our generator (it is a Homelite with a B&S engine) for something like $400, the transfer switch for $75 and cabling for another $50. I did the installation myself and paid a licensed electrician $100 to sign it off. I made our purchase shortly after hurricane season had passed so we got stuff at clearance prices.

Tax credits are meaningless for most retirees.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/01/hypocricsy-on-parade.html#comment-187807

CBob

I'm a good old phrase myself. :-)

Bring back the Obey war tax
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/04/AR2007100401920.html

Flatus.....
thanks for that post.... I'll show it to Rick when he gets off work.....

Jamie..... LOL! stupidity..... thy synonym is politics....

patd; 8:01 am ......... This is from the last thread. I voted for Mr. Crawford again today, I try every day, it just keeps telling me it's already counted my vote.

BTW; for those who think pot should be legalized, I agree, I haven't smoked in years, not since I forgot to put my car in park and it rolled out of the driveway and up under the back end of a van. Visualize if you can, a tow truck lifting the van off of the trunk of my car. Boy those were the days. Back on subject, I don't believe it is a "gateway" drug, it never led me to anything, except trying to race corvettes with my eldorado. Spending the insane amount of money we do trying to fight it, is crazy, legalize it and collect taxes, like tobacco tax.......

Rita

I forgot............ Happy Birthday Elvis..................

Rita

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/01/democrats-testing-obamas-tax-m.html#comment-187839

KGC

Great column about a great idea except for one thing. Any family with a member serving in the military would be exempt from the tax. They shouldn't be expected to pay twice.

Renee, is that forestry magazine made out of paper? LOL!

Jamie

Excellent point. I don't think anyone would mind exempting those fighting the war.

They will be closing all the Virginia bridges into DC on innauguration day. The Blue Line is going to be a madhouse. I hope it will be better for Craig on the red line or he has a nice studio to sit in all day.

Corey - all the foresters hope so.

It looks like my plant is scheduled to do another Obama book, hope it sells better than the last one.

Flatus, you live down in that part of the world that has natural gas infrastructure, don't you? I assume they make NG powered gensets if they make LP ones. Don't they? And if so, any particular advantages or disadvantages? Renee - I assume there is no piped in NG in your neck-o-th'-woods.

Corey..... yup...

Pogo..... there isn't any piped in anything in this neck of the woods.... not NG, water or sewage..... we rely on individual wells and septic systems....

with the exception of anything that runs on electrical wires..... we all stand alone....

Renee - just like my Notw in NH when I was there. We've moved uptown now - have water, electricity and NG coming in - but about that sewage thing - well, the septic tank seems to work fine.

Jamie,

How true what you wrote on the last blog is:

"That drug plan was a massive give away to the pharmaceutical industry. For starters, the idea that the government representing millions of retirees and disabled cannot bargain for prices is absolutely rediculous."

I couldn't believe something like that passed. Pharmaceutical companies gives big bucks to campaigns. Also it seems I heard that many Repub, maybe Dem also, politicians quit shortly after that bill passed and got high dollar jobs to lobby for the pharmaceutical cos.

To make matters worse, Drs. are notorious for prescribing the new drugs that are high dollar because they don't look into the patients ability to pay or the cost of the drug. NPs, not all of us, are a little more holistic in our approach.

Just before that drug plan started I was working for a little clinic that saw mostly poor people. It was common for someone to come in, on Medicare, taking medications prescribed by specialist that cost well over $1000/mo with maybe a $600/mo income. They would take one med one month and another the next month and so on. They didn't realize that wouldn't work.

It would take me hours, time not allotted for in my schedule, to find suitable substitute medications that would serve the same purpose and be within the patients budget.

Actually very new medications, that are very expensive, are more likely to cause problems even death because they haven't been tested on as many people.

I tell people that if the Dr. or NP gets something from the sample closest beware unless he/she is giving all the medication you will need for the treatment. The pharmaceutical cos. only sample the high dollar meds.

Ironically tonight is my monthly NP meeting and I go to the nicest and most expensive place in town to eat for the meeting. The meal is compliments of a pharmaceutical co. Fortunately I have a limited formulary where I work so I can enjoy the meal quilt free but someone out there is paying for it.

Carol

From CQ:

"Tom Daschle, President-elect Barack Obama ’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, promised Republicans Thursday that the new administration will not try to ram a health care overhaul through Congress under expedited budget procedures."

ROFL. ROFL. and ROFL again. Daschle to sick people: good luck, suckers.

Daschle...once a lobbyist mentality, always a lobbyist mentality. I wish Obama had given him a different payoff. I wanted to see that department led by someone with an iron fist, not a vasolined nose.

Here we go again. Remember Agent Orange and the denials. KBR is doing it again for Afganistan and Iraq

http://www.iava.org/blog/veterans-demand-answers-kbr

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/01/democrats-testing-obamas-tax-m.html#comment-187855

Carol, My doctor and I have a running joke about if it was invented after aspirin, I won't take it. :-)

When you watch commercials where the contraindications are a list longer than the first half of the commercial, then someone better do some heavy convincing about why it should be used.

No -- it was the BS reaction of a bunch of pathetic senators, representatives and media types who thought the White House should genuflect before making a move.

There are times when I don't like being right. When I was fighting with my favorite hard right wing friend about ten years ago, I told him a major crash was coming and had to listen to a lot of Republican rah rah.

Unfortunately, we now are facing what I saw coming. What worries me is that the Congress is a large group of very wealthy insiders. The majority of the economic package has to go to the average man on the street. It has to build from the bottom. If it doesn't, all that money will be wasted and it will get uglier than it is right now.

"promised Republicans "

I believe that says it all.

When it comes to health care Daschle and the repub are sleeping in the same bed.

Then again it should be easy because remember, Obama didn't promise a real healthcare plan, just a couple of bells and whistles tacked on to what we've got.

If you want real healthcare reform you had better be ready to start raising some hell.

Jack

And I fervently hope they don't start the same BS with this new administration. Democrats have a history of screwing with their own.

Patsi

With a weak majority leader like Reid it will be a process of cat herding in the senate. I hope Obama has a good wrangler in mind because he will need him

Jack

LOL

Ignorance can't explain it shakes its cheerleader poppoms then when that doesn't work it calls people names.

Jack

The plan that Obama ran on was the current situation with subsidies for poor people,
Oh and a suggestion everyoneelse should get healthcare, not a requirement, lol, just suggestion.

That is not even close to the health reform that is need to solve the many problems with the system it just throughs more money at a broken system.
Jack

people say " 8 years of Clinton, were by far better than the last 8 years of GWB." If this is so, why then weren't people willing to put another Clinton in office? And, another question. how, in the Hell is Obama, going to pay for all of this without raising everyone's taxes?

" it would be wise not to try and rationalize the Clintons' handling of the health care issue. "

ROFL. You mean the one destroyed because asses weren't kissed. How dare the Clintons not understand Washington! Punish them and bury their health care plan. Remember "Where The Buffalo Roam" -- F&&k the doomed!

"“So you’ve got this famous, telegenic doctor who will be a big part of the public push.”

Welcome to TV Land.

Patsi, so what's new.
TV Land has been running the whole show for a long time.

Costa Rica 6.1 quake.

http://www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=9642260&nav=menu132_3_1

Mexico and then California should be next if it follows previous patterns.

Solar, Hope you got your computer back up and running.

"so what's new.
TV Land has been running the whole show for a long time."

You're right about that, Chloe!

"Just how many lives would have been saved if the Clintons had been willing to kiss some Hill butt"

I can't even believe you're laying the blame for this in their lap. They're the ones who've pushed this idea since the beginning. It it does go through, it's because of the framework they've laid. All Obama did was copy her plan with a few changes his group made. Please. Give credit where credit is due. It gets old.

"Well duh. You been in a deep sleep for the past 30 years?"

Nope. That's why I said "welcome."

I think you should just stick with the "Well duh" from now on. All the rest is designed to deflate everyone else.

Chloe

Right here -----pc running fine----cought up on the threads a while back-----did not have anything to say---been saying for a long time what you and others have been saying today----I hope that no further proof is needed for a lot of people to become indies.

Patsi---Hi ----

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/01/democrats-testing-obamas-tax-m.html#comment-187891

At the risk of having and "Old Fogey" sign hung around my neck, I do hope that she isn't wasting even a minute's time on the site.

I've been somewhat dismayed at all the bells and whistles being adopted by news channels, politicians, and media in all its various forms. Would someone please take ten steps back and reserve 30 minutes for thinking.

Did watch that program that I told u about---great---and wrote the dates that it will be shown again-the 22nd and the 23 rd at various times-----but starting this Sunday at 8 p. m there will be a whole new set of 2009 programs on the sci--channel---they look great,,,,and the Physicist Dr, Kaku is one of my favorite....

" Would someone please take ten steps back and reserve 30 minutes for thinking."

Way too smart for anyone to even consider, Jamie.

"led by people who didn't think they had explain anything to the American people I find this new embrace of technology and openness rather refreshing. "

Oh yeah, hello soundbite world, goodbye thought process. YouTube is the new education channel. ROFL.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/01/hypocricsy-on-parade.html#comment-187780

Hey Pogo
Yes its the Gators vs. Oklahoma there going to see.I hope there team wins!

Rez
My cousins are huge Sooner fans,they drove all the way from Oklahoma for this game.When they left they both were wearing there Sooner jersey shirts and flying there flag on the car! Go Sooners....

If anything goes wrong in The Obama Administration,how many will blame in on HRC?

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/01/democrats-testing-obamas-tax-m.html#comment-187830

Hi Chloe
You sure are invited anytime.I did enjoy the beach,the Atlantic was sure kicking up today but the sun felt good with the ocean breeze.I think there's a cold front moving in here by the weekend highs in the 60's lows in the 40's,Burr....I hope your day went well, oh once again thanks for the assist with the computer last week ,I'm sure enjoying this new one.....No more freeze issues, the freezing just stopped like they started..

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/01/democrats-testing-obamas-tax-m.html#comment-187895

Which is why I've subscribed to the Hillary channel and not the Nancy channel. :-)

This may change, but I don't LIKE Nancy. I hope she does a good job, but I don't LIKE her.

Unless of course she mails me that blood orange cashmere wrap. I could get friendly real fast.

New Dateline:

Johns Hopkins University is cutting salaries across the board except for hourly employees.

Is this a new trend?

tt

I am familiar with the majority of the video's on Hillary's site, many were made for hillaryspeaksforme. I was the video of the day there once, got bumped by Jack Nickelson. Was a huge surprise and kind of fun.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/01/democrats-testing-obamas-tax-m.html#comment-187905

Hey, If I can't give it away, I'm not interested!

"...never really overcame the bitterness that ensured between his White House and..."

ensured = ensued?

Sorry (English major).

' with the exception of anything that runs on electrical wires..... we all stand alone....'
-----------------
Perfect RR, absolutely perfect. Clarity, you made what we called all those years ago, a "Clear Light Moment".

So today we found, two phrases from the past :
" Contact High"
"Clear Light Moment"

Good old phrases boys and girls.

Ivy Green -
Where are you ?
I always loved the screen name. Is it "Batman" or gardening ?

Good Night All. Have a good evening.

C-Bob:

It's my muse, Helen Keller...the name of her home in Tuscumbia, AL... I do grow lots of ivy in my yard (Vestavia, AL) because the deer don't eat it.

Just back from the Loveland, CO trip. What a great little town! Didn't get all the way to Estes Park this time, (hubs put kebosh on my Stanley Hotel NY Eve plans) but do plan on returning in the summer. Got up "34" only as far as The Dam Store, but that was lots of fun. Stocked up on three pairs of those great moccasins. We had one snow storm, south of Denver... and windy, windy, windy - gusts up to 110 mph...other than that, smooth trip if you don't count visiting with the relatives (actually they were all on good behavior).

http://www.bestdamstore.com/store/

Our tour of the bronze casting foundry was most enlightening. Thanks to Wendy, our guide, taking time out from her regular job to walk us through each step of the casting process. Every worker there is an artist in his own right. I'm still can't figure how they move the giant completed pieces to their display sites.

http://www.artcastings.com/

Well just returned from my expense dinner meeting paid for by your medication bills. The rep did say they were cutting overhead so no more pens and paper pads.

No big deal there because the pens only had enough ink for a couple of days of writing and probably just enough time to get lead poisoning from there bright shiny logos. I bet that will take millions out of China's economy since most of the stuff they give away was made there.

Jamies gone but I wanted to tell her that there have been a few good drugs that have come along since aspirin. LOL

tt-

You posted the last part of the puzzle.
The real downward spiral won't begin until we see workers taking pay cuts.

Then we see the real machine begin.

None of us as a clue about deflation, and what it means for all of us.

Let's all wish Obama gets it right. Because he has to slay dragons yet unseen.

Ivy-
Vestavia, AL
Perfect place. I never heard of it. I love places I never heard of as much as the ones I went and saw.

The Dam Store -
What a link, what a place, glad you saw it Green, glad the winds were howling down the mountain when you went. Glad you saw the Rockies mean. One can spent years in the Rockies, and one day it freezes your pecker off, and you're gone.

Big Thompson Flood of 1976.

On July 31, 1976, a violent rainstorm sent a rampaging wall of water through Big Thompson Canyon, returning it to its primordial state.
The massive millennial flood killed 144 residents and visitors at one of Colorado's most popular destinations.

http://www.coloradoan.com/news/thompson/
------------------
My whole world went down the canyon that night. Everything I owned was O.K. , but what happened next was like nothing like I'd ever seen.
I lost everything that night, and none of it ever got wet. Thousands of Coloradans did the same thing.

The Dam Store that Green Ivy posted tonight went on, I never recovered from that flood.

C-Bob... you were THERE?!? Incredible. You must be one of those amazing people called survivors.

While there, we visited the Loveland Museum which has a permanent display documenting the Big Thompson Flood.

http://www.ci.loveland.co.us/Cultural_Services/cultural_services_museum.htm

Interestingly, their current feature is a display of the Gee's Bend (Alabama) Quilts...

http://www.quiltsofgeesbend.com/

Everything is connected...

At Drake, halfway down the canyon, the water flow was about 137 cubic feet per second at 6 p.m., before the storm. By 9 p.m. it was nearer 31,200 cubic feet per second.

http://www.larimerco.com/5visitors/51004big_thompson.htm

--------------------

We had rain every afternoon before the flood. Lots if rain. It was wet in every square inch of the Estes Valley that afternoon. Then that storm formed. I knew climbers, on top of Rocky Mountain National Park that night.
They told tales of of St. Elmo's Fire, dancing between the boulders above tree line. They spoke of a world saturated with static electricity.
Of a humming boulders, with glowing green light.

Rock climbers don't like to talk about "humming boulders, with glowing green light", they live in a world of control. Their control on the mountain. But they all yielded to nature that day ........ along with us mere mortals.

C-Bob,

Thank you for that testimonial and the links. I am speechless. You tell a better story than the Loveland Museum.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/01/democrats-testing-obamas-tax-m.html#comment-187924

How have I missed it before this?? On my list for the next trip. Hubs comment: "Looks expensive." He just loves it when I spot a new place by the highway for him to screech to a halt and spend money.

Ivy -
I knew another dope dealer at Allens Park. He owned the General Store there. Kent hunted firewood with a Volvo.
He crashed 3 of them coming home from Estes.

He left the road at nearly the same spot, on 3 different nights. Each time, going sideways at 50 miles a hour. Shearing off lodge pole pine trees at the stump, with the side door of his Volvo.

They sat in his front yard, and we would play backgammon amongst them.

God how the world has changed.

Cbob - I remember the news story when that flood hit. I didn't listen to anymore stories because I was so horrified by the suddeness and destruction of it. I'm sorry you were there.

I have never smoked pot and really hate the smell of it.
My feelings about legalizing it are so mixed, I have no opinion. As for its being a gateway drug, in the 11 years I handled paperwork and files for the da's in our office, I read practically no sentencing reports where the defendant did not start using pot at an early age - whether they went on to more drugs or not, and most did.

Having said that, I realize that that is probably more a matter of the defendant than of the drug.

I will accept the will of the people on this, but think it is different from booze in a lot of ways in the effect it has on people, but that's not worth discussing - it;s just my personal observations.

I'm beginning to wonder if a lot of this stuff O's saying is his way of floating ideas to get reactions and knowledge of whatever fights will be ahead. He's not potus yet, so this is foreplay.

I'm also wondering if he doesn't want to be potus for two terms - would give him lots of wiggle room and so, free to listen to himself.

I have to disagree with Craig in a way. It would be nice if all officials were clean and pure, but being arrested isn't the mark of the devil, and that's probably why it's best to not try to try to answer some future questions that might or might come up.

A law that said that a sitting official who is arrested is automatically dismissed might have helped this situation, but what an unholy mess it would more likely create.

Bethy-
The flood didn't touch a drop of what we had at the Dark Horse, it was called the Dark Horse Leather then. But at the peak of the season, on the 100th year that Colorado was a state, from that night forward, I didn't have another customer for 2 months. I had a $10,000 note for that season, and it went down the river with everything else.

I sat out trying drink myself to death after that, the next summer I was living in the woods with a duffel bag.

Will do...will probably go back for the next wool market festival...not much my Mom wants to do nowadays, but as an old craftswoman, she sure had a good time that day... booth-to-booth, you never saw a walker move that fast...

http://www.estesnet.com/events/woolmarket.htm

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/01/democrats-testing-obamas-tax-m.html#comment-187929

C-Bob:

You came back and you''re still here...that's all that counts.

"Hillary Clinton's youtube channel:"

My dislike of YouTube politics remains the same, B.

Cbob - you are indeed a survivor. what a trauma.

Heat may spark world food crisis

However, the claims were dismissed as "hype and misinformation," by Bill Freese, a science analyst at the Centre for Food Safety in Washington DC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7817684.stm

Ivy -
What hoot , I love me some Vicunas. What a great fuzzy friendly face they have.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/01/democrats-testing-obamas-tax-m.html#comment-187937

C-Bob -- Some of the animals they bring to the market are worth more than luxury cars...or houses!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicu%C3%B1a

Ivy -
When I learned 2.0, I was hanging out at Google help for a while .
And this lady came in for a hand holding session about her site.
( She had that stinking dot template )
Anyway she's an Alpaca rancher / farmer :
Pasture Musings

http://pasturemusings.blogspot.com/

The site looks as good as Jamie's now, and is just about as old.

Rachelle had a post I'll never forget, Check out the Alpaca in this entry right after she came on line :

http://pasturemusings.blogspot.com/2006/09/lost-posts-and-mondays.html

--------------
Tell me that Alpaca doesn't look like Audry Hepburn.

Ivy Green:
Vestavia Hills........had a few uncles lived there......Remember the Shades Mountain drive in?.......just seeing the word vestavia brings back many memyuries........

cbob.....I like this......

"These are the days in my life as an alpaca rancher. The ups and downs, the thoughts and musings done best when surrounded by furry companions and in the company of inquisitive crias."

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Lou Dobbs Must Go
The week of December 18th was a news rich one for the climate story. The largest yearly gathering of earth scientists was taking place the entire week. It's also usually around the 17th of the month when NOAA releases it's monthly numbers for the preceding month. Let's see what did NOAA headline for November 2008 -

NOAA: Global Temperature for November Fourth Warmest on Record

http://the-shin-bone-star.blogspot.com/
--------------------------------
Watch that clip then read my comments.

Sturg -
It's a great patch of the world, when you have furry companions.

One more thing -
Palin's grand baby > "Joe the Baby"
---------
I wish I wrote that .

At TPMMuckraker over the last few days we've been digging into the story behind the grand jury investigation of Bill Richardson. Whether Richardson himself is in any trouble -- and there's no clear evidence he is -- there's a very big story in the background. That is widespread fraud, pay-to-play corruption and bid-rigging in the municipal bond business. Here's a piece from the Times today on the same topic. This is one of those stories that's weedy and a bit hard to understand. But it looks like a big deal -- a sort of broad ranging fraud in which the financial services industry was leeching cash away from city and state governments for years.

--Josh Marshall

what i know is......it's january in old caroline and i have yet to need a heater in my shop..........weather report: sunny and continued warmishness......that and there is an orb spider (AKA garden spider, banana spider) still surviving on my deck.......ordinarily they disappear after the first frost but this old girl is still going strong.....what she finds to eat i cannot imagine.......
it might get cold in february, and maybe later this month, but this weather has been great for working and puzzling in relation to the world state.........

linking the shinbone star to mine blahg......good site......

joe the baby........indeed...............lol

Last night tiptoe posted "Johns Hopkins University is cutting salaries across the board except for hourly employees. Is this a new trend?"

I hope CBob doesn't mind that I keep quoting him this mornig, but they had such an interesting conversation last night, and what he answered to that made all this sound a little more scary: "You posted the last part of the puzzle. The real downward spiral won't begin until we see workers taking pay cuts."

I guess things really are going to get worse before they get better. (?)

According to several reports, the newly elect President Barack Obama has chosen the respectable, 36 year-old doctor to become the next Surgeon General. There has not been a final decision made, however. Dr. Gupta has served as the chief medical correspondent for CNN for almost a decade. During the Clinton administration, he served as a special adviser to then-first lady Hillary Clinton. He has accomplished many things in his lifetime – from a mountain of education degrees to winning an impressive number of honors and awards for his research accomplishments. This man clearly does not need a payday loan, more so if he takes up the offer to become the nation’s next Surgeon General. http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/01/07/a-certain-tv-doctor-wont-need-payday-loans-for-awhile/